Now you can be gender fluid !

I wonder as a customer of public services, in these binary times, will I still have the right to say I prefer a woman to search me if necessary at airports or by a police officer?

Is this what was once referred to as split personality? Would the money not be better spent on medical help?

I thought they had diversity policies and training, didn't know they had actual units?

My daughter is in the Met, she's a Dectective Sargeant, I did suggest she 'presented' as a Superintendent one day, and to just say she was 'rank fluid' !!!

I'm glad to hear that a police force is not discriminating against someone just because they are a member of a minority group.
Well, so am I MaryXYX, but there is a difference between not discriminating and spending public money on a special unit within the Met for the purpose of diversity.

Yes, the police officer could have chosen a name like Max, Alex, Jordan or Steve for instance and avoided confusion.

It may also have been the poster immediately before you LondonMzFitz, but these were your words at 10.52.11 this morning.

If it ain't bothering you, go get yourself a bl----y life and leave 'em in peace

Apparently, the cost comes from staffing a complete diversity unit focussed on this and other issues. It isn't cheap to be different apparently.

Surely the police should reflect the society they are policing and if this is the way society is heading then it makes sense to me. I don't see that it will cost that much, and hopefully the police will be more approachable to people who do feel "different".

Pity Cressida Dick doesn't put upholding the law at the heart of her time in office instead of getting on the latest gender band wagon .

My quote "go get yourself a bl---y life" was from the poster before mine, not a personal accusation against (or a suggestion to) anyone here.

The issue is - I believe - a nod to the dolls for girls and cars for boys mindset. Why can't children just be what they want, play with what they want, without the gender issue. My sister in law referred to herself as a tomboy as a child, you see kids on TV referred to as a little princess, "sugar and spice" etc. In future I think the issue will be regarded as we now regard women with jobs, women who wear trousers, men who are nurses, etc. Sign of the times.

The article links to "recently retired" DCI Neville's comments. Times change, go with the flow, if it ain't hurting anyone, etc. The issue of money being spent on it - yeah, that would bother me too, frankly. But the original post doesn't refer to the cost.

I think it must be very distressing to change so radically from day to day. I can only imagine people in this situation must be very unhappy, although I truly hope I'm wrong, because everyone deserves to live as they wish without prejudice or the ignorance of others making them unhappy. Will it affect the way they do their job? It shouldn't. I was always struck by how de Berniere wrote about Carlo the Italian soldier in his novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

Carlo’s story deals with the invisibility of GLBTQ people, and with the crushing weight of a silence that, for a soldier at the time, could only be broken at the cost of his life. The author captures the overwhelming loneliness of knowing there’s a crucial part of you that is somehow unacceptable to many who don't understand.

Thank goodness people can now be open about how they are and how they feel.

Ah I understand now ican . I agree one name would be marginally better but as I understand it ( if understand is the word) the reason he has 2 names is because there is a clear division between 'female' days and 'male' days .

And that's where I lose the plot totally{smile] I understand if you're a man and feel you are in the wrong body and want to be a woman , or the other way round . What I am at a loss to understand is why anyone thinks they can be both depending on the time of day, day of the week or month of the year.

It bothers me in as much as good money is spent catering to this and the police force already struggle with the financial burden.

NanaandGrampy, I obviously didn't make my post clear. I know he/she has two names but would have thought the whole gender fluid thing would be much better if there was only one gender fluid name. I'm thinking purely administration exercise as it would be quite confusing for some people to deal with Callum one day and Abi the next, particularly in a court situation. As to anything else, it bothers me not.

Gender is the state of being male or female.Most commonly used for addressing social and cultural differences rather than biological

You have made me think widgeon3

There are quite a lot of different possibilities?

Woman who feels like a woman and is attracted to men.
Woman who feels like a woman and is attracted to other women.
Woman who feels like a man and is attracted to other women.
Man who feels like a man and is attracted to women.
Man who feels like a woman and is attracted to men.
man who feels like a man and is attracted to men
Man who wants to be a woman and is attracted to men
Women who wants to be a man and is attracted to women.

Then you have man/woman feeling like a man/woman not attracted to either sex at all.

There are probably a lot more different scenarios/genders?

I would say gender is to do with your `plumming` Widgeon3 . It really doesn`t matter what you call yourself , your biology decides what gender you are .

How on earth do you determine what gender you are, anyway.

When I first(knowingly) got to know a woman who was gay I had a couple of other friends ask if I was worried she would come on to me

That exact same thing used to happen to my DD Penstemmon her two best friends are a (now married) lesbian couple whom my DD introduced to each other having worked with them both (in different places). My DD often got asked if her friend "tried it on" with her.

There are people who are gender fluid, or intersex, or a number of other possibilities. There are unfortunately a large number of people who stick their noses into other people's affairs and pontificate on subjects they know nothing about.

I'm the main carer for a friend who is having identity problems so I need to know something about it, and about their complex situation.

I'm glad to hear that a police force is not discriminating against someone just because they are a member of a minority group.

Who said "I don't care what they do as long as they don't do it in the street and frighten the horses"? Seems exactly right to me. It really doesn't matter. Except I wish there was a different name for it.
I thought it was something like masking fluid or Jeyes Fluid.

paddyann I wonder if some people have a really prurient interest in others' sex lives when it is obviously different from their own? When I first(knowingly) got to know a woman who was gay I had a couple of other friends ask if I was worried she would come on to me. They never asked that about my male friends
What people choose to do in their very personal lives is their business and as long as it does not harm them or anyone else why does anyone give it any thought?

I do not care two hoots about a police officer being gender fluid, transgender, whatever race, colour, creed or sexual orientation they are. I do not care if they are from the Planet Zog as long as they fulfil their duties to the best of their ability without fear, favour or discrimination and *uphold law and order through the detection, prevention and investigation of crime*.

I do not wish to know about anything other than the fact they are doing their job.

the younger generation are more open about a lot of things ,many of my sons friends are happy to say they are bi sexual .that wouldn't have happened a few years ago ..this is not any different If someone is gender fluid it wont make any difference to how they do their job.I dont know why older folk get their knickers in a twist about this type of stuff.Just live and let live ,it doesn't affect you unless YOU want to be gender fluid.

I think I might be tempted to be a man, even although I would clearly be bereft of certain skills and vital knowledge, such as that loos need cleaning (some more than others) meals do not appear on the table by magic, the innate skill and perception women are expected to have regarding ironing, button sewing on, whether or not there are socks in the drawer, the eyes in the back of the head when little people are visiting. The ability to listen to 3 different conversations at once, where the f***ing remote is, the ability to buy stuff in a supermarket which is a) useful b) needed and c) does not cost eleventy billion pounds.
It would clearly be a sacrifice.

Oh I loved tales of the unexpected Penstemmon and was allowed to watch it at grandmas house. My mum would have had a pink fit if she knew!

My sister, cousin and I used to imitate the dancer at the beginning, who just watching it again.... I think might be Lady Diana before she married Charles.