Not that it matters, but mostly out of curiosity - aren't the E's actually M's who have had to go thru a rather painful procedure. I don' think I know of any other country that recognizes 3 genders - in other words is there any scientific basis to there being more than 2 genders?

If I remember my "Biology of Sex" class from college correctly, there are 5 biological sexes -- XX, XY, XXY, XYY and X. I think the X one is Turner's Syndrome, where you get really girly-girls. Plus there's hermaphrodites and intersex people, who could have any combination of genes, it's just the physical bits got scrambled. And then there's transsexuals -- apparently when you run brain scans on them, they appear (to the trained technician reading them, who can tell male and female brains apart) as the gender they feel themselves to be inside. So yeah, there's all kinds of combinations that fall outside the traditional M/F - XY/XX - lingam/yoni dichotomy.

That was illuminating - looks like instead of the 2 (or now 3) choices given on passport forms we should be having 5, huh? But I am still curious as to whether there are countries (besides India) that recognize more than 2 genders.

It's not completely on topic, but tehelka.com has an interesting M/F/E spin on the "two crazy kids in love"-type human interest story here

what are the XXY and XYY?

ANNA and manish or ennis, natch. ;) or, if you've ever read manish's friendster testimonial for vinod, maybe HE'S the XYY. :D

Here's an article on sex chromosome abnormalities (covers Triple X, Turner and Klinefelter syndromes, as well as XYY).

Glad to know I wasn't the only person who took Biology of Sex! ;)

-D

aren't the E's actually M's who have had to go thru a rather painful procedure

I agree eunuchs should still be regarded as male. There are sex chromosome abnormalities however they generally do not alter their gender. XYY's are still male, etc. etc.

thanks, Deepa!

Deepa - to make things more confusing, I took "Biology of Sex" the same semester I took "Sociology of Gender." I don't think I could have had two professors more diametrically opposed to each other in terms of the whole nature/nurture debate. ;)

in other words is there any scientific basis to there being more than 2 genders

Queers generally argue that there's a distinction between gender and sex: sex is a biological trait; gender identity is a combination of factors, including social construction and biology, and others. For example, I believe NYC's most recent Executive Order on confidentiality extends to transgendered people.

And then there's the argument about whether we ought to rely on "science", indidivuals, or social theories to understand gender.

yeah, whatever you say you are, you are.