Sex, Gender, Sexuality

Believe what you will about the morality of this or that, at least bother to learn the difference between each of these three topics:

Sex: A biological feature driven through genetics and subsequent development of primary sexual features (penis, testis, vs vagina, uterus, ovaries).  Because of the use of cosmetic reconstructive surgeries, we must now divide into apparent sex and genetic sex.  The proper terms are: Male, Female, Uniq, and Hermaphrodite.  There are thus, currently, four possible sexes.

Gender: The SOCIAL construct consisting of stereotypical appearance, behavior and activities often associated with a member of a given sex.  Proper terms are Masculine, Feminine, Nutre.  In the current social climate, more have been added to better define a place on a spectrum and outside of the linear spectrum.  Since this is entirely a social construct, the number of types is inconsequential from a natural / biological perspective.

Sexuality: that which causes a sexual response in an individual.  That is, if someone is (primarily) aroused by members of their same species' opposite sex, than they are heterosexual.  If that person is primarily aroused by members of their species' same sex, they are homosexual.  If they are aroused more-or-less evenly by both, than the term bi may be used, though I would argue that it is misrepresentative.

Here's the problem: the media, mostly composed of those who have no knowledge on the subject and thus should not be given a voice, continuously confuses these things:

Transgendered: someone who's behavior, appearance, or actions fit into a gender not aligned with those associated with their sex.  E.G. a male that dresses, behaves, and otherwise comports to a feminine stereotype.

Cisgendered: Standard alignment, e.g. Male and Masculine.

Neither of these have anything to do with biological sex or sexuality.  On the other hand:

Transexual: Someone who has undergone a combination of hormone substitution and surgery to change their primary sexual features from one sex to another.

So, here's where it gets interesting.  Secondary sexual characteristics are not definitive of sex, but also not necessarily of gender.  That is, a male that receives estrogen will grow breasts, but may not elect to remove their penis and testis.  This is not truly transsexual, but also, not in-and-of-itself transgendered (though most likely the individual would identify as feminine).  I don't believe, within the confines of these criteria, we have a designation that truly fits.

Regardless, there's a lot of debate over these things.  If a state wants to require that the person's sex be listed on a driver's license, though that's pointless and often misleading so long as clothing is required, then it should match a birth certificate unless a licensed surgeon presents a certificate that the sex was changed.  I would argue, however, that there can only be one sex change result: Uniq, as sexual reproduction becomes impossible regardless of direction of the change.  Perhaps "Undefined" may fit this better.  In fact, I like that.  Undefined works well in these cases.  Whatever they thing they are trying to fix with this requirement is undone with one word.

The problem isn't one's sex, and isn't one's gender.  The problem is a society that refuses to see beyond stereotypes and requires classification into boxes that may not be appropriate for everyone.  We've spent centuries now dealing with racial and cultural stereotyping and judgmentalism.  We've spent who knows how long dealing with sexual stereotyping that leads to a need for genders.  We can't seem to get to the point where we evaluate everyone as individuals.  Until we do, we're going to keep having issues like this.