
Dutch man, 69, brings lawsuit to lower his age 20 years - onuralp
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-46133262
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sublupo
> "You can change your name. You can change your gender. Why not your age?"

Solid logic

~~~
reustle
I can't tell if you're serious. Name and gender are labels we put on
ourselves. Gender can be a bit of a gradient.

Age, on the other hand, is the number of times you've circled the sun since
you were born.

~~~
DougN7
Isn’t gender defined by X and Y chromosones? It seems as well defined (or
fluid) as age.

~~~
teraflop
How many people are there in the world for whom you could say, with reasonable
confidence, that you know what gender they are? (This is not a trick
question.)

How many of their chromosomes have you seen?

~~~
jessriedel
Can say the same thing about age, no?

~~~
taborj
I was gonna say, I have a far _far_ harder time determining my associates age
than I do their gender. But that's no surprise, seeing as how only 4.5% of
adults in America identify as LGBT; in other words, the vast majority of the
people you come into contact with are straight, and generally conform to the
stereotypes we've come to expect.

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Digory
Flagged? This is the legal/social equivalent of "falsehoods programmers
believe about time."[0]

Most people don't realize time is relative and actually hard to pin down with
logical precision in every case. Once you start to question the rules and
references, there are lots of quirks.

I do think his argument about Tinder is more interesting than you might think.
Why should he have to lie about his age on this public accommodation? He
doesn't have to lie about his sex or race, even though some people choose
intimate relationships on those factors. Why not put the onus on those who
wish to "discriminate" against his age to out themselves as people who care
about age?

[0] [https://infiniteundo.com/post/25326999628/falsehoods-
program...](https://infiniteundo.com/post/25326999628/falsehoods-programmers-
believe-about-time)

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throwrhebrick
I was originally against transgenderism having legal authority because of its
effects on other methods of identification (like age). I suppose with that
battle finished, this is the inevitable successor.

Well, I'm not going to be on the losing side this time. Here's to hoping for
an age-fluid world in 5 years!

~~~
taborj
"Sir, you're too old for military service."

"That's ageism, and it's illegal! Also, did you just assume my gender
identity?? Now watch my walker, and hand me that M14."

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flukus
I'd go the other way, I want to identify as a 70 year old and get my social
security cheques.

Maybe this is how we implement basic income.

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sebazzz
Ah... Emile Ratelband. Since "Tsjakkaa!" isn't so much on the television any
more he craving for attention. He has been doing other tricks to get some
attention in the past and this is also one of these tricks. I don't think
anyone in my country takes this guy serious anymore.

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rdtsc
> A local court in the city of Arnhem, south-east of Amsterdam, is expected to
> rule on the case within four weeks.

That seems inefficient and slow. Someone I knew growing up wanted to drive
sooner. They asked their father to get them a new birth certificate. A few
phone calls later, a "gift" to the right person at the records office and
voila, he turned a year older. It was both scary and amazing that legally his
age changed overnight.

~~~
geowwy
What country was this?

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xref
in the US seems like a lot of age-based laws, even the Constitution, would
have to change to allow this. I.E. you have to be 35 to run for president,
_voice cracking_ "no problem I identify as that!"

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Retra
Hah, I don't know if someone that senile could actually pass for 49. "Age is a
choice!" like if he wanted to be born in 1230, we'd all just have to go along
and agree that it is true and makes sense with our concept of time. No, it
doesn't work like that.

Maybe he should've taken the time to convince the people drafting his birth
certificate to put a different year on it back when they were writing it... if
he can't do that, then he shouldn't have the power to change his age.

Of course, he can certainly lie about his age on tinder. Don't know why he
needs a lawsuit to do that.

