2009/5/17 Steve VanSlyck s.vanslyck@spamcop.net:
MY gender is he/him/his. Plumbing fittings have genders. Electrical plugs (male) and sockets (female) have genders. Mechanical parts have genders.
If the system wants to know something biological, like whether I am male or female, the correct thing to ask would be my SEX. Can we please use correct terminology? "Sex" is not a dirty word.
You are, of course, correct, however in this case "gender" could be considered correct - we are talking about what gender pronouns to use to refer to the person. We should probably say "specify the gender they use" rather than "specify their gender" if we want to be pedantic (which we usually do!).