Third Gender: Accepted, encouraged, celebrated.

[Daughter (imported)]

Z, you're right. I wish the rest of society was just as accepting and understanding.

[Blaise (imported)]

Excellent article. I appreciate being able to read it. Thank you for posting it.

[Mac (imported)]

Wasn't quite sure where to put this... Hopefully I found the correct shelf to display it on. I apologize for the length of the article, but I found it rather interesting and thought I'd share.

Found in the March 2007 issue of Marie Claire magazine...

In Juchitan, Mexico, daughters are more valuable than sons. So mothers are encouraging their boys to become girls.

At the festival of the Virgin of Juguila in Juchitan, ......

At the fringes of the semicircle, a group of younger women in their 20s and 30s linger. They are dressed in utterly modern clothes: clingy polyester cocktail dresses, three inch heels, and glittery eye shadow. One has tossed a scarf around her neck that trails down her back. Another is clad in an ice-blue camisole and tight capris.

They are strikingly different from their older counterparts with the long gray braids, who wear petticoats beneath their full, ankle-length skirts. The biggest difference, though, isn’t the clothes. It’s the fact that these glamorous, slightly tawdry women are actually men. Muxes, they’re called in the Zapotec language, ......

Good article! We need to abolish gender stereotypes in society. Here is the conclusion from a posting which I found on gender inequality.

CONCLUSIONS: We must establish true gender equality for everyone. Making all clothing acceptable for both sexes will abolish one stereotype. True unisex restrooms with adequate stalls for privacy will eliminate another bias and provide additional security for both female and male users. Bath and dressing facilities must be designed for unisex usage and individual privacy. Sports, health and recreation facilities must offer shared usage for both female and male users. Gender biases must also be eliminated from employment and all other social areas of our life.

[devi (imported)]

I know that in my case I could always get a sample of cells from my cheeks and gums, get a microsope to look at my cellular structure for barr bodies and see that in actuality I am really a girl or at least that I have more than one "X" chromasome and then while I am all alone sing in a higher voice than Tiny Tim (although not as well). But having to be a male I have to speak in my lowest quietest voice and remember never ever to yell (higher pitch) for any reason. Testosterone is what they prescribe for my predicament and estrogen or getting a sexual surgery is an absolute no-no having been even harder for me than a regular XY person to obtain. At least most XY persons have the "balls" (mine are tiny) and testosterone to get a sexual surgery as compared to me. But being male does have its privelages and men aren't always leering at you as they do when you are female and you don't have to end up listening about their new properties, cars and lucrative businesses that they may (or may not) have.