Dear Foxy,

Yes, gender is a personal choice and I fully accept those people who say that their gender is different to their biological sex. No problem there.
Same for homosexuals and the whole spectrum, no problem at all.

We should indeed accept everyone, but should we accept their words too when they say nonsense?
- No, we are quite capable of accepting others without accepting all they say.

So suppose someone SAYS, "I am a cucumber" or "I am a broom", would you accept their words as correct just because they said so?

If someone says, "I am horse" and you observe, "No, you are not", and they reply, "Can't you see, I am a BROWN horse".
- Oh well, you have no problem with brown horses, but still they cannot be a brown horse because they are not a horse!

Same if someone says, "I am a gender" and you observe, "No, you are not", and they reply, "Can't you see, I am a TRANSGENDER gender".
- Sorry, you may fully accept their gender being transgender, but they are not a gender because nobody is a gender, neither those whose gender is male nor those whose gender is female, nor those who have no gender at all; and yes, nor those whose gender is transgender.

To identify with X means to say or think: "I am equal to X".
Well sorry, no one is equal to their gender (if they have one), whatever that gender may be.

Yuyutsu,

Personally, I don't feel qualified to question another
person's sense of self. Afterall their identity encompasses
their own personal experiences, relationships, values,
memories, and so forth - all of which when amalgamated creates
for them a sense of who they are over time even as new
facets may be developed and incorporated into their identity.

All I can do is accept them for who they say they are.

You of course are welcome to disagree.

For me this discussion has now run its course.

Yuyutsu,

Just a bit of light humour:

I really don't know anyone who claims to be a horse, flower, or
a cucumber. But if anyone of us believes in reincarnation,
I guess anything is possible. I can imagine walking
across some field and seeing piles of animal dung on the
grass and thinking to myself "Hello (insert a name). I see you
haven't changed a bit!"

(Smile).

Dear Foxy,

Exchanging humour with Jewish humour:

As you probably know, during the Middle-Ages, many Jews faced the grim choice between death and converting to Christianity.

One such Jewish convert was still covertly observing the Jewish Sabbath as much as he could, by making the Friday-night meal the best meal of his week, which included meat.

That was at a time when Christians were still not allowed to have meat on Fridays.

So as he was enjoying his meal, he was startled by a knock on his door.
- The very worst: that was the bishop, catching him red-handed!

"What is this?" asked the bishop pointing at the meat on the man's plate.

Then the convert quickly dipped his finger in a bowl of water and sprinkled the water 3 times over the meat, mumbling something.

"What is it you were mumbling?" asked the bishop.

- "Well", said the man, "I was repeating: `You were meat, now you are a fish; You were meat, now you are a fish; You were meat, now you are a fish`, same as you did when you sprinkled water on me the other day, remember, saying: `You were a Jew, now you are a Christian; You were a Jew, now you are a Christian; You were a Jew, now you are a Christian`".

---

To the editor:
Please do not delete my post on the grounds of being off-topic.
If you read carefully and contemplate between the lines, you can find that it pretty much belongs in this thread.

Yuyutsu,

Thanks for your joke.

Talking about Jewish jokes?

Here's another one.

A Jewish man was very upset. His son left home one day and came
back a Christian. The man went to his rabbi for advice. The rabbi
was also upset because his son had done the same thing. He'd
left home a Jew and came back a Christian.

"What should we do?" the man asked his rabbi. The rabbi said
we'll have to go to a higher authority for the answer.

So the rabbi decided to ask God.

To which God replied:

" You're not going to believe this..."

Dear Foxy,

It goes (for all three, the man, the Rabbi and God): "I sent my son to Israel so he can become a better Jew and then instead he came back a Christian".