Briton is recognised as world's first officially genderless person

[meegbear]

Norrie May-Welby, 48, was born a man but had a sex change operation in 1990, at the age of 28.

After becoming unhappy as a woman, May-Welby decided to become a “neuter”. The 48-year-old is now officially recognised as a person of no specific gender.

May-Welby emigrated to Australia at the age of seven after being born in Paisley, Renfrewshire.

Officials there altered the Briton’s birth certificate to include the new no-gender classification after doctors were apparently unable to determine the sex of the expat’s body.

May-Welby said: “The concepts of man or woman don’t fit me. The simplest solution is not to have any sex identification.”

The UK’s Gender Trust welcomed the case. A spokesman said: “Many people like the idea of being genderless.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7446850/Briton-is-recognised-as-worlds-first-officially-genderless-person.html

[Doremus]

1. We are going to need a new pronoun.

"It" doesn't seem right.

[HeresyLives]

4. S/he? Hir?

[Warpy]

6. Shim

It's nurse speak for the occasional pre op transsexual who gets a private room because putting shim in with people of either gender isn't appropriate yet.

[Doremus]

7. I like it. n/t

[damntexdem]

8. And 'transgendered' doesn't do it, either.

LGBTN? (With N for 'non'?)

[unblock]

9. or just do away with gendered pronouns entirely

the vast majority of the time, you're not talking about a persons actual gender, you're just talking about them as a person.

they came home.
they took off their coat.
they sat down.
they read a book.
they had some dinner.

why on earth do we have to spell out the gender of the person in every single sentence? yes, i know "they" is plural and i'm using it as singular, but that's part of the point. we have NO PROBLEM with a plural that's gender-neutral, why can't we have a singular that's gender neutral? the only one we have is "it" and that's considered inanimate. if we start using "it" for people as well or "they" for singular as well, then a lot of these problems go away.

[LiberalLoner]

2. Wow, I never saw that one coming. It's an interesting idea...rop

I still think Pat on the old Saturday Night Live was the first gender-free person, though.

[hlthe2b]

3. without a doubt, the first was Pat

;)

Whatever rocks this person's boat...

[JaneQPublic]

5. Task #1: Sign a multi-million-dollar book deal. (nt)