Consultation question: how many times can you change sex?

[thatdamnwoman]

I'm assisting a number of people with information on filling in the consultation form. One of the nerdier ones has come back to me to ask if self ID is going to include:
a) a cooling off period for those who are having a bad time, get drunk and wake up in the morning to find that instead of buying a pink plastic sofa on Ebay they've applied to change sex.
b) a provision to enable anyone who has changed sex to change back again, given that so many people detransition.
c) any kind of sanction against those who want to flip-flop. There have been features in the media about one lawyer who started male, went female, went back to male and is now female. And then of course there's Philip Bunce, who flip-flops on a weekly basis — or does he?

I don't know. Does anyone? Is it a good idea to ask such questions in the consultation or might it seem flippant?

The more I think about all this, the more surreal it gets.

B and c don't seem flippant at all to me.
The all-too serious version of A is youngsters in their experimental phase.

If gender is innate (even if fluid, like P Bunce) then you only need to change once - to your true gender.

If, on the other hand, gender is a social construct, then there should be no limit....

I referenced this guy.

Man, had sex change surgery to become female supposedly, moved to a female prison, got married to another inmate there, had another sex change back to male, and then moved back to a men's prison.

metro.co.uk/2018/10/03/transgender-inmate-had-op-to-become-a-man-again-after-10-years-in-female-jail-7818605/

So even men who have had their penises removed are changing their minds.

The base line for me is that transition in the first place should involve a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or, at the very least, confirmation from a suitably qualified medical professional who has performed an in-depth assessment that there should be a legally recognised "change of gender".

After that I'd say that there needs to be a higher level of confirmation for another transition unless it is a transition back to the gender that supposedly reflects one's actual sex.

So you think it would be relevant to include some questions along this kind of line in the consultation?

When I did mine I just followed Fairplay for Women's guidance adding points from my own personal experience. Seems to me that raising all these kinds of issues is a good thing.

How many times can you change sex?

None. It is biologically impossible for a human to change sex.

I don't think it's possible for more questions to be added. I think for more questions to be added would involve replacing this consultation with another one.

However, if you want to flag this as an issue that needs a rational way of being handled, Popchyk has provided a neat shorthand of what needs to be avoided.

I meant asking these sort of questions in the sections where comment is welcomed, not trying to re-write the whole consultation!

I've just submitted mine ... there was a section I didn't fill in about whether there should be a declaration that the change was permanent or something where perhaps this sort of question could go.