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I saw a meme once that said "We know the earth isn't flat because, if it was, cats would have knocked everything over the edge long ago."

A long time ago, I got to be pretty good friends with this guy at work who knew a lot more about the job than I did because he had learned it from his father. He was always ready to offer help and teach me new skills. I was appreciative. We weren't really friends outside of work, but one day I offered to buy him a beer and a burger after work as a way of thanking him. As we sat there talking, the conversation turned to high school and working on old cars. "Well", he said, "I didn't work on cars because I was too busy learning about makeup and clothes." He saw my startled response and laughed out loud. "Yeah", he said, "When I was born, I was a girl." He showed me a picture of his kid and an old Mother's Day card and we talked about it a little more. He said his family had disowned him. He really opened my eyes to things I'd never thought about before. Then the conversation shifted back to work and we had a couple more beers. We both moved on to other jobs not long after that, but I tried to look him up a few times, maybe have a couple beers for old times' sake. Do you know how hard it is to find someone with the most common last name in America? Life is short, everybody. Just accept people for who they are instead of who you want them to be. We're all gonna leave this planet some day. Let's make the best of the time we have and be good to each other... That is all. Carry on.

My understanding is that SEX refers to whether one is male or female. GENDER is a grammatical term, used in some languages (like French and Spanish) when nouns take certain word (Work-endings). Why? Lost in the mists of time - probably based (in Europe) on ancient Latin, but why did those who spoke ancient Latin choose to do this? But in recent years, gender has been co-opted by the woke brigade to try to distinguish between - between what? What one is, and what one wants to be? With all the problems being a woman brings, it beats me why men, with so many advantages, should want to "be" women. The use of "they" to define a single person is just plain weird. He/she/it. They?? What, do such people have split or multiple personalities as well as "gender dysfunction"? To use "they" to mean a singular person is confusing - I'm always looking for the other person or people involved. "They" is plain lazy, and ignorant, or both. I do wonder if there would be less of this "gender dysfunction" if the pressure to be a thuggy macho male were less prevalent. If men were able to enjoy their more caring or sensitive side instead of being beer-swigging football fans with noisy cars.

The ongoing discussion at large on the linguistics and biology related to gender and sex became abruptly and immediately relevant to me last night when I learned my first cousin is trans. We are the same age and were close as children. I only ever knew him as he/him. That's how will refer to him until he himself tells me otherwise. He was born male but now identifies as female. I found out about this at the same time I found out he has been missing for one year. It was also revealed to me that he was involved in the seditious riot in D.C. on January 6, 2021. No doubt the disparity between his extreme political identification and his gender identification had a role to play in his erratic and mysterious behavior, his divorce, his business loss, and his abandonment of his beloved daughter. I can't imagine the conflict and suffering he experiences within. Surely, one with such radical political ideology wouldn't choose to be trans! I haven't had an opinion on this issue of gender identity. I still don't really know what to think. Still sorting it out. Generally, I just don't care about a person's sexual orientation or identity. It is simply not what matters to me. While looking for some excellent Flat Earth debunking videos from Professor Dave (for the other thread), I found this very, very helpful video explaining sex and gender.