The article on the following link is very long but of interest to anyone interested in gender issues or sexual identity issues. Apparently, there is no such thing as binary male/female and even individual cells in a person's body can be either male or female no matter the gender of the person with the cells.

http://www.nature.com/news/sex-redefined-1.16943

According to this^ article, we must redefine the spectrum of sex (gender) development and their 'disorders' or differences.

Wonder how the 15 would respond to this article in respect of their belief that gender is eternal and was decided in the pre-existence: according to this article, gender is fluid and can be altered after birth due to genetic or environmental factors during development.

A very interesting, if somewhat long, article.

Thanks for that. I'll read all of it later.

Close to 50 years ago, Masters & Johnson -- even with their flawed methods -- clearly showed that the ideas of black and white, absolute "gender" and sexual attraction were wrong.
Now it appears there's more than psychological evidence for that. Cool. :)

Thanks for the article. I'm doing my paper on transgenders and their misrepresentation in the media and this will be helpful, I'm sure.

I think it was Germany that introduced a third gender recently. I don't know what they call it, but it is to be used for intersex individuals, was my understanding. Seems the compassionate way to go. Wait until they have formed a good identity themselves! Too bad the US won't find it an easy concept to adopt. :(

Hindus? Actually revere transgender and hermaphrodite people. They make a living by blessing homes and gatherings: bridal showers, baby showers...

Two Spirits in various Native American tribes, the "lady-boys" of Thailand, the Waria of Indonesia, and of course the hijras in India. I think parts of Indonesian culture accept that there are 5 gender variations. I'm sure I'm missing a few other cultures.

Fascinating stuff.

One of the Mormon Stories podcasts is a BYU professor who has done research with a Nobel Prize winner... He cites studies that destroy Mormon notions of gender development.

He is very much LDS, yet has compassion based on science that gender is biological. He essentially said the brethren need to get up to speed with science and become inclusive of everyone.

(Good luck with that... They are perpetually parked in the fifties.)

I find this article and the research fascinating, especially when we consider how some people tend to better understand the way the opposite sex think and feel. For example some men understand women and use it to their advantage (a confidant, charmer, sounding board, etc), some men feel more at ease with femininity (even their own) and prefer platonic female company. Some women know exactly how to use their understanding of men to their advantage and some other women seem to think more like men or act in more masculine ways than 'traditionally' expected and prefer the company of men to girlie women. Also makes me think of 'tom-boy girls' and 'nancy/mummy's boys'.

All these variations can be either heterosexual or homosexual, of course. Further, if gender identity is indeed fluid and can be altered (like the mice) is anyone really born in any particular way?

Fascinating stuff from lots of different angles.

Re hindus - isn't there an hermaphroditic hindu god and people with this variation are regarded as either specially blessed or an incarnation of the god/goddess?

I have heard that in poverty stricken thailand, families are proud of their ladyboys who leave home and send lots of money back to the village. There is no shame on the person or family as it is viewed as one of the incarnations that all people must experience during their cycles of existence and is considered a blessing on the family. Does anyone have information on attitudes to girl-to-boy trans in indonesia?

Men and women actually feel the same types of emotions in a similar manner. How they're allowed to express them is a cultural construct. As far as thought processes, there's a bit of debate about it. I personally think it boils down to the individual and not necessarily because of what gender a person identifies as; I know as many overly emotional, irrational men as I know logical, rational women.

So interesting, and really makes so much sense. Almost makes me want to go in and have all my cells tested...lol.

I identify as lesbian. There was many times growing up that I got very frustrated with having to be a girl, and desperately wished I was a boy. Makes me wonder, and play out all the different scenarios of what might have happened if...... What if my family was more sensitive, and let me become more of a boy?... would I have decided to become full transgender? I think I might have. However I definitely don't identify as such now. Is that because of my life of trying to fit into the female narrative? I'm very glad that I am a beautiful woman now, and not a man, because well, men are gross ;) But had I become trans as a young person, I think I would have embraced becoming male, and felt the need to prove it, and really I probably would have been fine.... I think it's interesting to think what my life would have turned out like if I had become a white privileged male...... I actually really identify as if I'm a bit of both... I still have my boyish side. So maybe that's because some of my cells are XY? who knows, but interesting. It's nice to finally be at a point in my life where I like this about myself.

I remember back in the distant past (my primary years) learning that God was neither male or female, and yet both male and female. The logic being; we were made in his image and we are either male or female so he must be both or neither - this was before the 'heavenly mother' revelation. This was hard for a young mind to process.

This would make more sense in light of this article, assuming there is a God, of course. I am also aware of some christians believing that angels (most of them anyway) are asexual, ie genderless. Again, this would make sense in light of this article, that we humans have the potential to be either male or female or both or a mix. If the 'pre-existence' is a fact, then these beings (our pre-mortal selves) were each both genders, and yet, neither gender with the potential to be either gender. If you follow, that is.

From an evolutionary point of view - perhaps there is some truth to the old wives' tales of dietary intake and exercise (amongst other things) determining the gender of the (gestating or planned) unborn child.

Fascinating on so many levels.

Spiritists and people that have experienced past lives realize gender is not eternal.

Many that have gained access to the past lives, in their subconscious, realize that they were male in some lives and female in others.

In the spirit world we will be neither male or female but can appear to people on earth as such ----- sort of blows the belief of eternal families with massive sex orgies to keep the population going.