Reply to: Third gender

[SueEllen]

And is the way we label the toilets discriminatory?

Yep.

Might have read it in The Wail but definitely read it in a broadsheet to check it wasn't a wind up - some transsexual took their employer to court over the labelling of toilets as the person was told to use the disabled toilet while going through the stages of transformation.

I can't remember what the outcome was but I was amused as loads of people use disabled toilets anyway even if they haven't got a disability as they are larger so big enough to take medication in without other women staring at you, where you can change dressings and they have needle bins in them.

[mudskipper]

But someone's chromosomes don't indicate how they want to live or more importantly in the office - what toilet they are going to use.

And is the way we label the toilets discriminatory?

[suityou01]

But someone's chromosomes don't indicate how they want to live or more importantly in the office - what toilet they are going to use.

Bit flag?

[SueEllen]

Not so fast!

XX or XY are the conventional complement, but some people have XXX, XXY, XYY, XXXX, XXYY, etc

So you'll need to reserve an unsigned int8 for that too

But someone's chromosomes don't indicate how they want to live or more importantly in the office - what toilet they are going to use.

[suityou01]

You mean if you're MFs Mother-in-law?

FTFY

[mudskipper]

What if you've got all the right bits to be male or female but they are all in the wrong place?

You mean if you're a dickhead?

[xoggoth]

What if you've got all the right bits to be male or female but they are all in the wrong place?

[suityou01]

Not so fast!

XX or XY are the conventional complement, but some people have XXX, XXY, XYY, XXXX, XXYY, etc

So you'll need to reserve an unsigned int8 for that too

And presumably we're going to need a reference table, and foreign key constraint. This is getting over engineered now

Under sex, just put "Yes please" which is a CHAR(10).

[OwlHoot]

Epic win

Not so fast!

XX or XY are the conventional complement, but some people have XXX, XXY, XYY, XXXX, XXYY, etc

So you'll need to reserve an unsigned int8 for that too

[suityou01]

That's why you'd call the field YChromosome and not gender.

Epic win

[mudskipper]

I can totally see developers thinking "we want to ensure only two values are possible so use true for male and false for female".

That's why you'd call the field YChromosome and not gender.

[d000hg]

I'm hoping no databases use bool for this as that would be ridiculous. Char(1) is the way.

I can totally see developers thinking "we want to ensure only two values are possible so use true for male and false for female".

[mudskipper]

I'm hoping no databases use bool for this as that would be ridiculous. Char(1) is the way.

Boolean seems fine to me.

Sex? Y/N

[suityou01]

actually many organisations do already allow this. LGBT people look at the options in the Gender field when applying for university, jobs, etc, as one way to see how LGBT-friendly the place is. E.g. Is it male/female or male/female/other.

But any database storing gender as a bool is going to need some work. Maybe put "gender modernisation" on your CV?

I'm hoping no databases use bool for this as that would be ridiculous. Char(1) is the way.

[d000hg]

Good for contractors, just think of all that software that had to be changed to add a new field to all forms...:

actually many organisations do already allow this. LGBT people look at the options in the Gender field when applying for university, jobs, etc, as one way to see how LGBT-friendly the place is. E.g. Is it male/female or male/female/other.

But any database storing gender as a bool is going to need some work. Maybe put "gender modernisation" on your CV?