Apparently there's a third sex....?

[Jeeeez]

Searching through my council's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy document, I have discovered that there are 3 options to choose when asked your sex: male, female and other. Which was news to me!

Others of their diversity documents include a fourth sex: non-binary. They also ask for information on sexual orientation and if "your gender assigns with your gender assigned at birth".

I'm going to write to them to point out that they're misrepresenting the law and making the error of mixing sex and gender. Is this a common thing now? My council is very proud of its Stonewall credentials (obvs).

This is what is written in their policy document about the EA:
The relevant protected characteristics are:
age
disability
gender reassignment
pregnancy and maternity
race (includes ethnic or national origins, colour or nationality)
religion or belief (or no belief)
sex (men, women, other)
sexual orientation
marriage and civil partnership (only in relation to eliminating discrimination)

Sex is like asking ‘are you a virgin?’ - it’s an either/or - yes/no option.

At least it says sex and not gender!

Sometimes people might have both kinds of loins at birth as surprising as it might sound, or do things to switch gender so regarding such issues, whether it's switching gender or born by default with a loin of both genders or something that the opposite gender should have, the option is regarding them. Equality acts go a long way sometimes but try to include every kind of person.

I get the above, which is why they've asked about preferred gender identity. But I thought even the rare intersex babies had to be registered as M or F after a while? And legally, sex is only M or F.

That certainly does sound sound surprising Eqtonyeq! Who knew loins were so very diverse?!
So what's the third sex?

My council document reads 'sex: man or woman' in the list of protected characteristics, which is the wording of the law, I think. There's no mention of 'other'. Gender reassignment is what pops up for the other protected characteristics, which is also according to the wording of the act.

It doesn't look as if anyone has tinkered yet, but we are pretty remote and often lag a bit! I think we should all keep a sharp eye on our local councils, because they aren't likely to announce what they're up to if they change it!

I think 'loins' is being used here in the naice literary sense rather than its actual definition which is "the part of the body on both sides of the spine between the lowest (false) ribs and the hip bones."

I'm surprised too!

Honestly, you people are so out of touch. There are apparently many genders and non binary is an umbrella term for many of these

teentalk.ca/learn-about/gender-identity/

And then there's aporagender which seems to mean roughly "when you have a definite sense of gender but you aren't sure what it is"

lgbta.wikia.org/wiki/Aporagender

Honestly, I can't even grasp this. How about - just being an individual?

But the policy document is talking about sex, not gender.

Honestly, you are so out of touch...

@NearlyGranny

Yes, I agree we should all check our council's documents and whilst congratulating them on their noble aims, we need to call them out when they get things wrong. And try to open their eyes to what is happening with gender identity politics and their Stonewall-washing.

You’re right jeeeez ppl with DSD (differences in sex development) who used to be called intersex are not a mysterious third sex. They are still either Male or female

Non binary is a fourth sex?

@EQTONYEQ

Sometimes people might have both kinds of loins at birth as surprising as it might sound, or do things to switch gender so regarding such issues, whether it's switching gender or born by default with a loin of both genders or something that the opposite gender should have, the option is regarding them. Equality acts go a long way sometimes but try to include every kind of person.

Differences of sexual development (DSDs) are just that - differences. They don't magically mean there's a third sex. And people with DSDs have repeatedly asked not to have their medical history appropriated for political purposes (which is what making spurious analogies between intersex conditions and transgender issues amounts to).

Gender (whether in the old-fashioned social sciences sense of culturally sanctioned sex stereotypes, or the newer sense of internal sense of one's femininity/masculinity/other position in the alphabet soup) is not the same as sex.

I forgot to add a face earlier, as obviously 4 sexes is baloney. But I'm still recommending that people check their local situation.

I fully agree, Jeeez, and it's a timely reminder - thank you.

I did check everything in my area a little while ago and was pleased to see that they correctly refer to sex (two: male and female - again, correct) and not gender, but things change and it might be time to go back and check again.

Allan Henness on Twitter has a great series of tweets he sends to councils that have been Stonewalled
mobile.twitter.com/zeno001/status/1234581685343342592

I think everyone should start saying they're uncomfortable discussing or disclosing their gender identity as it's undefined and personal but are happy to give their sex.

Where's the "behold!" image when you need it, eh?

Thanks @BoreOfWhabylon.
That's very useful.

@DickKerrLadies

Where's the "behold!" image when you need it, eh?

Was that to me DickKerrLadies?

I can see it might have looked that way, but it's a very useful breakdown imo that I've used myself.

Sorry Bore - I was aiming it at Tony.

Apologies. Can I say that the eyerolling I was doing was making it difficult to type?

Jeeeze
You should send this to your council,theres a competition for proof of a third sex!
1 million Dollars in prize money!

mobile.twitter.com/OsborneInk/status/1284231241756270592

Well at least they correctly list sex as one of the protected characteristics, often it mysteriously becomes "gender".

But the Equality Act 2010is explicit that sex means either male or female:

Section 11:

In relation to the protected characteristic of sex—

(a)a reference to a person who has a particular protected characteristic is a reference to a man or to a woman;

(b)a reference to persons who share a protected characteristic is a reference to persons of the same sex.

No "other" sex in the Equality Act.

@DickKerrLadies

Sorry Bore - I was aiming it at Tony.

Apologies. Can I say that the eyerolling I was doing was making it difficult to type?

No worries @DickKerrLadies, my eyeballs were fair whizzing round my head at that one too