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Comment on Why do we need legal genders at all?

I’m not sure if OP meant sex or gender. I can’t think of a medically relevant reason to know an incapacitated person’s gender. Maybe someone with any experience or knowledge there can chime in.

My understanding of the legal discrimination argument is that whether someone holds a particular gender identity is irrelevant. If the perpetrator perceives someone to be of a particular gender, and acts with intent to discriminate against someone based on that belief, regardless of whether or not it’s true, that still constitutes gender discrimination. But IANAL.

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otter@lemmy.ca ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
Gender, and other factors that aren’t as “medically relevant”, might still be helpful if it helps the staff pick between two treatment options. The patient’s comfort and happiness can affect their overall wellbeing.

Say someone grows up in a culture where their gender (or some cultural group the person can belong to) usually has long hair. A particular treatment may have two options:

shave the head

something that doesn’t involve shaving the head

Knowing what gender (or other group) the person belongs to might inform their decision.

Note, this is about why medical staff might want to know about gender identity and not the original question of how many we should have.
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- Nibodhika@lemmy.world ⁨12⁩ ⁨minutes⁩ ago
  For your shaving the head example I would argue that if the person is incapacitated and needing urgent care the solution with the most chance of success should be preferred regardless of gender norms. If both are equally likely the one that doesn’t remove hair should be preferred. You might be a man with attachment to your long hair even in a society where that’s uncommon, gender does not dictate anything of the sort. So I still don’t see a reason why gender is relevant medically.
  
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- HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨hour⁩ ago
  We need to finish naming all 12,000 mushroom genders before we can make laws about them
  
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gastroglizzy@piefed.social ⁨5⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

regardless of whether or not it’s true, that still constitutes gender discrimination.

Pretty sure you’re right about that. A person’s state of mind (or “mens rea” if you’re in the profession) is an often crucial component of criminal acts. If someone assaults someone because they think they’re Muslim, the fact that they’re actually Mexican doesn’t make it ok.

BUT, the other side to that is, say for example someone’s gender is male and their sex is female, but they present masculine. If they reveal their sex to someone, and that person discriminates against them for being a woman, how is the victim supposed to claim their protected status? If it’s not apparent not documented, it will be difficult to claim those protections in court.

I am also not a lawyer 🤷‍♀️

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- cecilkorik@piefed.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago
  Just spitballing here, but:
  
  If they reveal their sex to someone, and that person discriminates against them for being a woman, how is the victim supposed to claim their protected status?
  
  Maybe we need to turn this around, maybe we should consider defaulting to the assumption that people should not be able to discriminate against other people for any reason instead of just being protected against “certain” kinds of discrimination. If we are going to allow discrimination for certain reasons, maybe we should make those allowed forms of discrimination the ones that need to be spelled out explicitly. If you don’t have a good reason to discriminate against someone about something, maybe don’t discriminate them? Maybe that’s a bit outlandish, maybe I’m not thinking it through, I don’t know, but it seems reasonable enough to me.
  
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