[ExI] Personal Pronouns

[David C. Harris]

Excellent exploration of the problems on the genetic side, but it gets 
murkier on the hormonal influence side.  There are even people who 
produce testosterone but are insensitive to it.

I've been an "ally" member of an LGBT support group at the 
Unitarian-Universalist church (probably mostly agnostics).  I've spent 
enough time getting to know LGBT people that my anxieties about "queers" 
has subsided.  And in the process, I've learned a lot about the variety 
of sexualities/gemders.

Besides the genetics of X's and Y's, people seem to vary in their 
feeling of what they are (sexual identity) and what they fall in 
love/lust with (sexual attraction).  I'm a heterosexual male, but I've 
met people who seem equally intense about being or loving people at 
variance from the most common combinations.  Their intensity makes me 
suspect that some developmental process sometimes goes awry, or even 
that that there is a normal spectrum of sexual identity/attractions 
expressible on a 2-D graph.  And the genetic origins are at least one 
more dimension.  At first it made me feel anxious, but after getting to 
know some of "them", it has become friendship with people who explore 
the varieties of sexual expression.  As people who value transhumanism 
(in a different sense), we can think of them as people who "boldly go 
where no one...".

spike wrote:
>
> Stefano, that will get you most of the way there, but doesn't explain what
> to do with those with monosomy or trisomy that makes for ambiguous gender.
> Agreed XXX can be considered female and XYY can be considered male, but what
> of X0 (Turner's syndrome) and XXY, Klinefleter's syndrome?  Will these be
> considered neither, either or both simultaneously?  What of those who are
> born genetically unambiguous XX female but whose mother ingested medications
> that caused the appearance of male genetalia?  If such a person has already
> married an XX female, does that marriage become invalid?  What if the
> marriage predates the passage of prop 8?  
>
> Will all the possible variations of genetics be included in the state's
> constitution?  Arguing that these cases are rare doesn't help, because most
> cases that end up in law courts are rare, at least in some details.  What if
> someone has had gender reassignment?  What if they had gender reassignment
> at or immediately after birth?  Do we want all this stuff in the Taxifornia
> state constitution?
>
> If we wish to restrict marriage as an XX to an XY and tell all others to get
> lost, what if someone has an organ implanted from an opposite gender donor?
> What if a monosome or trisome person gets a tissue donation from an
> unambiguous XX or XY donor, or both?  Can the genetic sample be taken from
> the donated tissue?  Does the donated tissue need to be a major organ such
> as a kidney or heart, or can it be a skin graft?  Can it be hair plugs?  If
> so, must the hair plug be on the head?  Do we write all this into the state
> constitution?  Seriously?  If we allow donated tissue to count as the
> genetic marker, is blood considered a tissue when donated?  Is semen?  
>
> Do we want to spell that out in all its gory detail in the state
> constitution, or do we intentionally introduce ambiguous terms into the law
> of the land?  This should be entertaining.  Actually no it isn't, it is
> merely absurd, and government should have no involvement in the institution
> of marriage, none.  I say give that over to religion incorporated and get
> government out of that biz.  When I applied for a marriage license nearly 25
> years ago, no one asked me to prove myself, no one asked my blushing bride
> to prove her womanhood.  Had they done so, I might have applied for that job
> at city hall.
>
> spike
>