Sage

I took a Philosophy of Sex and Gender class a few semesters back and we spent a long time talking about Hermaphrodism (which I know isn't the right term anymore) and Transgendered/Transsexual issues. I was absloutely floored that the medical community has absloutely NO idea what to do if a baby is born hermaphrodidic- apparently they measure the penis/clitoris on the newborn baby, and if it's under a certian legnth they deem the baby a girl and do all necessairy surgery to make the baby a girl, and if it's over they do all they need to to make the baby a boy (including removing ovaries, uteruses, and vaginas if they're presenet in the baby). The medical community treats it as an "abomination" and in most cases will NOT be satisfied until the baby is a specific gender, with organs that match.

That said, this is about transexuals... I do know that it is polite to refer to people who are transsexual as the gender they feel they are, and not the gender of their bodies. Learning about these things was one of the greatest tools I picked up in college, because I feel like I got a HUGE understanding of a portion of the population that is generally considered taboo.

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