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Ask DN: Transgender on a gender question for a form?

almost 7 years ago from Luis La Torre, Designer.

  • Kemie GuaidaKemie Guaida, almost 7 years ago (edited almost 7 years ago )

    Transgender is not a gender (just as "immigrant" is not a nationality). It means you identify with a different gender than you were born with or are anatomically, but if you identify as a female, you'd like to choose "female" regardless of whether the doctor said "it's a boy" when you were born. You wouldn't want to choose transgender unless you wanted to specifically call attention to the fact that you once were not considered female.

    I'd go with male/female/other (for people that don't identify with either gender), or better yet, skip the question altogether unless it is really relevant.

    23 points
    • Mitch Malone, almost 7 years ago

      Not sure "other" comes off as inclusive. I like what Facebook does: lets users choose a custom gender and then let's the user choose a pronoun (him, her, them).

      1 point
      • Nicole P.Nicole P., almost 7 years ago

        It's commendable what FB did but I had a nonbinary friend mention how if you're new to FB, you have to actually choose a binary gender first (http://imgur.com/a/FX3Ne) before you're able to have a custom gender.

        This seems to defeat the whole purpose since for NB folks like my friend, it felt like it wasn't a true choice. "You had to choose your 'real' gender (and that's what the system really sees you as)" versus actually respecting that you don't correspond with either genders.

        0 points