[WhiskeyX]

VATICAN-TRANSSEXUALS

Jan-14-2003 (710 words) xxxi

Vatican says ‘sex-change’ operation

does not change person’s gender

By John Norton Catholic News Service

http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/CatholicTSDecision.html

[Mrs. Don-o]

That certainly shows the incoherence of using the word "gender" instead of "sex."

As commonly used, "gender" means affective, learned-social and cultural categorization.

"Sex" means genetic, anatomical, physiological categorization.

If we take these as the definitions, then "gender" is highly malleable, with change resulting in a wide range of repercussions, from undetectable to mild to personally or socially problematic; while "sex" can only be abled or disabled.

Our species, like all mammalian species, exhibits sexual reproductive differentiation. This is necessary for reproductive fitness; individuals who do not exhibit this differentiation are partially or totally reproductively disabled.<> The main criterion for sexual health should be objective fitness for reproduction.