I was originally going to ask how many legal genders there should be, but I fail to see a compelling argument against 0.
We don’t. They’re entirely immaterial to a modern world.
The instant 2 atheists got married, it opened the door to people of any gender pairing to get married. Marriage is just a social contact between 2 consenting adults ahemwith tax incentives. Only religion dictated which genders are allowed to do what.
Conservative hand wringing over public restroom use is mitigated by making all bathrooms gender neutral. Easy fix.
What else? Pink is for whoever the fuck likes it, you salmon short wearing closeted frat bros. You do you. Blue is for people doing Frozen cosplay. I dunno, gendered colors are so stupid.
Government database defining what our names are is also backwards.
A name is what people call you. You can actually change your name or gender whenever you want. Most people just don’t want to.
Like if you go to a new country, you can tell them anything, and that becomes your actual name, because that’s what names are. Pisses me off when the word “preferred” gets put there. Like, no, that’s not preferred, it is. The government database is just wrong and refuses to update their records because it’s run by a bunch of racist, sexist, misogynist ignorant old fucks.
Gender is the same way. I exist for now, and while I do, I have free will. Perks of being alive. Only in your tiny little backwards kingdom do you think you have any control over your database. It doesn’t change who I ACTUALLY am. That’s just your preferred data for some reason and you’ve conned a lot of people into thinking you define them, rather than are just a single country on this huge planet’s records keeper.
That may be how it is where you live, but where I live the name is very much checked and double checked when you switch countries and it’s next to impossible to change it. Gender is another matter and that is probably one of the exceptions that allow for a name change.
I think you’re misunderstanding. It very much is like this, basically everywhere, including were I am. But I’m saying that, it’s that way because civilization has fucked up its priorities and government is grossly overstepping reality. Because in reality the government doesn’t control what your name actually is, it just controls what it legally is in that country. Which, yeah, unfortunately has a pretty strong hold on you. But, still isn’t how actual names work.
Think of it this way: if nuclear war happened and all government databases and registries were wiped away, your name would still be whatever you say it is. If you get abducted by aliens, and they decide to call you something in alien, that becomes your new name. If you get sucked through a time machine wormhole into the past or future, your literal name is whatever you set it to be. Because that’s how names work: names are just what people call you - not what a government database has written down for your id number.
If your name is written down in the government database, and that aligns with your actual name, then yeah, it is your name - but not because it’s from the government. The government cannot set your name. Only you, and maybe the people around you can.
A government doesn’t have natural authority to set your name, just like they have no natural authority to set your hair color, height, butt position, dick length, who you’re married to, who you love, who your family is, what genitals you have, or where you physically are.
So unless they MAKE YOU A PRISONER, you control your life.
And if they’ve made you a prisoner… that is indeed a different story, for a similar time. I’m sure you understand the implications of that, though.
I think you’re misunderstanding. When you migrate to another country, the majority of them record your name from your current passport. You can’t just tell most governments what name you want when moving in
We don’t.
Here in Germany one of the few good things that came out of our previous federal government was the SBGG, which - among other things - allows you to delete the entry. And before anyone points it out: I’m aware it isn’t perfect.
This can differ in Dutch cities, as well. Utrecht never noted my gender and government letters addressed me as “Geachte <name>”. When I lived in Amsterdam, they auto-assigned me as female so I was addressed as “Mevrouw <name>” while I lived there. Never bothered to have it changed, though. Seemed like it’d be a lot of effort
nothing has to be perfect. it just has to work sufficiently well.
the idea of just being able to leave the field blank, is a simple enough solution, but it won’t appease the extremists.
personally i like being able to put ‘unspecified’ in the gender/sex field of things. it’s a lot more elegant than the 50+ gender identities that are ‘available’ now.
Because there are many laws that grant some benefits to one gender but no the other. For example:
- In Poland women get to retire earlier
- In many countries there’s mandatory conscription only for men
- In many countries maternal and paternal leaves are different
- Physical requirements for some jobs (police, firemen) are lower for women
- There are legally mandated proportions of genders in companies or in political parties (in parliamentary clubs to be exact)
- In Spain there are laws that specifically protect women from violence committed by men and special courts that handle them
- Many other laws/rules that require some % of public grants to go to women
You can remove all those laws but that will make feminists unhappy. Most of those benefits are backed by women and passed by leftists governments. As long as those laws exists you need legal genders.
Reading the comments I’m surprised how many people don’t know about them.
You act like there’s no option to create GENDER EQUALITY, and instead the only option is to remove those laws.
Do I? I said that as long as those laws exist legal gender also has to exist. I didn’t say that those laws should or shouldn’t be removed.
Most of those laws are passed by leftists governments and many were passed very recently. Those laws are how the left is trying to create gender equality right now. If you have other ideas you’re free to propose them.
Reading the comments I’m surprised how many people don’t know about them.
It might be less about not knowing about gender disparity, and more about wanting to get rid of that too.
- global retirement age is bullshit anyway; tell me that someone that worked 50 years in a coal mine (and survived somehow) should retire at the same age that someone that worked in an office. Gender is not needed there
- mandatory conscription is already a dicy subject; if one assume it makes sense, making it men-only doesn’t. No need for gender disparity here either; plenty of military roles that can be done without being a beefcake
- many countries are actually looking into extending paternal leaves because they finally got that both parents are important to raise a child
- physical requirements should be physical requirements. If they exist, they should match the job requirements. Having different bar of entry because of gender makes no sense. If the job is lifting iron all day, and you can lift iron all day, that’s all that matters.
- parity requirements related to gender exists to curb all the disparity that’s ingrained in society because we decided to make men and women a different thing. remove the difference, remove the need to “make amend with a mandatory quota”
- same as previous point
- and same as previous previous point
The only need to keep distinguishing gender for legal stuff is because we keep the “women are lesser than men” mentality, coupled with “women needs protection”.
Guess what: there isn’t a gender that is “less” than the other, and everyone needs protection. Sounds like an equality thing to me, where genders only get in the way.
The two biggest reasons i can think of are:
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It’s medically relevant information. If you’re incapacitated, this could be vital information to whoever treats you.
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Legal protections. Gender is a protected class. To receive those protections and to know when they apply, this information is required.
To be pedantic you’d want to know sex not gender for medical reasons.
I made an entire comment about this but I’ll address 1 point here quickly: people like to forget that transition drastically changes your body in a way that only recording “birth sex” does not encapsulate. Both are absolutely medically relevant.
Shouldn’t that have to be noted on their ID? Actually, doesn’t that change from birth sex to re-assigned sex at some point?
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Medical issues.
Men and women have different anatomy and needs. Knowing your biological sex for medical reasons is kinda important.
Everywhere else, it’s a social construct and does not matter in the slightest.
Does it need to be tied to the legal system, though?
Only in-so-far as medical regulation would require. Like if the hospital failed to check this crucial information and made a mistake because of it they should be held liable. Having it on your ID might also be important if you list yourself as an organ donor; not sure if that would matter but it might.
I can think of a handful of ways of confirming someone’s biology without checking official documentation. After all, hospitals still check blood types and tissue types
I think the same for the donor marker in general. Can’t the hospital system keep that info? Why does it need to be on my ID?
Yup, that’s my point. I don’t think a government (should) need this.
On that note, I learned from another commenter that in Germany you can have your gender deleted from their database.
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That takes time. You don’t want to get the wrong dose of fentanyl, but you’ll definitely want fentanyl if you’ve been hit by a car and broke some ribs.
why are there legal genders?
historical reasons
Why do we need legal genders?
we don’t
My driver’s license couldn’t even include my proper eye colour: pers (or hazel). So it says my eyes are green… when they are not.
That’s about as correct as my gender designation.
You have to think of the poor cops who don’t know more than 4 colours. Can’t scare them too much with challenging nuance and facts.








