I read orchid forums to discuss orchids. I don't care what gender people are/were/will be, I want to hear what they like in orchids. I want to read/see their successes or I want to attempt to help with a problem. Even better, I want to post a picture and have someone go out and get that species because they love the picture.

If having only two choices to check for gender bothers someone, why not do away with the gender section? Does knowing I'm a female change any advice I give to someone?

Brooke

Gender identity is not relevant to orchids but it is important to some people. We don't need to be dismissive.

Dante didn't post this in the orchid forums. He asked, the admins will consider.

It's best to reach admin via p.m. or email ...

Admins are Marty and OscarMan

Exactly. And also: if you chose a nickname without sex? How can I know if I must use she/her or he/his? Wouldn't be rude said it & its?
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Now, a little digression: I think "EXTREME politically correct" is ridicolous. Just make an introduction-of-yourself thread as others did. Everybody will speak to YOU and not she/he -her/his.
This forum is a place for joining orchidlovers, share experiences, growning info, some jokes, pics of the plants, displays, shows and other orchid-related.

Sorry if my tone seems rude: probably in the process italian -> english it lost his real tone and meaning.

I agree we don't care which (if any) gender someone may be
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That doesn't mean we should dismiss the suggestion out of hand ...

I, for one, had never really thought about the issue - it may be time I did - never a bad thing to consider how someone else feels :)

Anyway - I think it's best to lock the thread, and for the OP to contact Marty (admin and owner) via email or p.m. as no one else can make that change.

I'm not against having this open for discussion, but I feel people should read other comments first, spend some time thinking about it a bit before commenting, and this being the internet, I don't think I can expect that.

It's easy to say "this is Orchid Board - doesn't matter what gender (if any) someone is" (I hope we don't care!) But, that doesn't take into account how it may feel to always look at two choices, feeling neither is appropriate.

I don't even know if the gender option deal CAN be changed - but, it is food for thought - I hope :)

Thanks all, for your understanding.

Peace, love, orchids! ;)

Thanks Sonya,

I know this thread is locked but just want to add that it might need to go all the way back to the software programmers to provide another option. If they haven't given Marty the choice to do so then he won't be able to do anything :(

In the mean-time, anyone who wants to choose a different gender to the one they were outwardly born with is free to do so, and also anyone who just wants to leave the question unanswered is free to do so. Not everyone has answered it anyway, some people have all sorts of completely different reasons to leave it unanswered.

The question of he/she when replying is easy in my view. Just use the person's name. "Sonya is right" as opposed to "She is right". It's clearer for posts with multiple people taking part anyway. Sometimes in the past I've changed my wording of something I've written because I've realised I'm not sure whether to use He/She, His/Her...but there is always a way to word things to avoid using gender specific words.