Sweet. Like they say in the article, this won't matter for a lot of people, but for those who use it, it matters a great deal.
I have one friend who changed gender and it really opened my eyes to how poorly a societally mandated absolute gender binary serves some people. And the extent to which that gender binary is actively enforced by society. I just never noticed before, because I fit reasonably well into one of the available boxes.
Most people never really notice how much of life in designed for the people in the meaty part of the bell curve unless they are or are close to an outlier. It can range from something like the inability to distinguish certain colors, being exceptionally tall, not having a binary gender identity, or those people who implanted electromagnetic sensors into their body to sense electric fields. But having at least one outlier trait that makes you not normal can give you a new appreciation for all the challenges that people run into on a daily basis for just being a little different. We as developers have an obligation to think about these things. And if the opportunity presents itself to remove one challenge by turning a select input into a text input (or a binary radio button to a select), we have an responsibility to do it.
I never thought I'd be grateful for being a fat, nerdy, awkward kid. It sure sucked a lot of the time then. But now those experiences really help me appreciate why it's important to try to be especially respectful toward people who are different not just in my specific ways, but in their own fashion. They are already getting enough crap.
I am one of those that didn't know there was a difference.
I was hoping you had a short explanation as I am pretty sure searching with some of those keywords will cause an issue at work but if not this will serve as a reminder for me to look it up when I get home.
And for you and other people whose URLs might get audited, here's the content:
What is the difference between sex and gender?
Sex = male and female
Gender = masculine and feminine
So in essence:
Sex refers to biological differences; chromosomes, hormonal profiles, internal and external sex organs.
Gender describes the characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine.
So while your sex as male or female is a biological fact that is the same in any culture, what that sex means in terms of your gender role as a 'man' or a 'woman' in society can be quite different cross culturally. These 'gender roles' have an impact on the health of the individual.
In sociological terms 'gender role' refers to the characteristics and behaviours that different cultures attribute to the sexes. What it means to be a 'real man' in any culture requires male sex plus what our various cultures define as masculine characteristics and behaviours, likewise a 'real woman' needs female sex and feminine characteristics. To summarise:
I have one friend who changed gender and it really opened my eyes to how poorly a societally mandated absolute gender binary serves some people. And the extent to which that gender binary is actively enforced by society. I just never noticed before, because I fit reasonably well into one of the available boxes.