Please indicate your preference. (ritual, Creator, Earth, tradition, Buddhism)

[VelvetDragon]

Hello! I've been pointed this way by several different people who frequent another forum I'm a member of. I decided to register and explore.

I'm an animal lover and horseback riding instructor in Oregon, USA. I spend most of my time either doing outdoorsy (camping, hiking, gardening, walking, horseback riding, bird watching) or creative (art, drawing, sculpting, reading, writing) things.

I was raised by eclectically spiritual parents (one of scientific bent who identified as agnostic, and another who embraced Eastern philosophies and spiritualities and Earth religions). My sister identifies as religious pagan (she's not much for magic), or did last time I asked.

I briefly identified as a fairly conservative Christian (attending a Foursquare church) for a couple of years as a teenager, to which I devoted pretty much all my time. I became disillusioned with that when I couldn't reconcile certain of my beliefs. I'm amazed my hippie, liberal parents put up with me, but they really did support me in everything, and would have still if I'd remained on that path.

After that I went back to my childhood roots, a bit, exploring pagan religions and some of my mother's spiritual paths (such as Buddhism). However, none fit for me. For a long time I identified as pantheist, and, later, scientific pantheist.

Now, I'm pretty much non-religious and almost non-spiritual, except that nature and the natural world move me -- and frankly, so do some acts of man. In a way, I'm still a pantheist, in that I believe nature by existing is miraculous and divine, but I am not a theist in the sense of there being a creator or god other than nature itself.

Upon joining this forum, I was struck by the gender field in the "edit profile" part of the control panel. It says, "This is your gender, your either male or female 99% of the time." This is offensive in a diverse forum. Gender and biological sex are two different things. Many religions, in fact, embrace more than two genders, or variations on the two genders, including such spirtual and cultural paths as the Tahitian Mahu, Madagascar Sekrata, Hindu Tantric and Hijra sects, Islamic Xanith, Khawal, and Sufi traditions, European Castrati, and Native American Two-Spirit traditions. Even biological sex is far more varied than most people know, including intersexed and other variations on sex in humans. Such things are more common than previously realized, as evidenced by recent studies of natural chimerism in cats. Though this may be detected in some cases by physical (sex-linked traits such as color, or ambiguous genitals) or behavioral (gender confusion) traits, more often it seems to go undetected.

I have quite a few friends who are neither male nor female (some in terms of gender and some in terms of biological sex), and I myself identify as genderqueer.

At the very least it should say "you're" and not "your". Heh.

[jamaesi]

Great intro post, it's wonderful you're (finally!) here!

Upon joining this forum, I was struck by the gender field in the "edit profile" part of the control panel. It says, "This is your gender, your either male or female 99% of the time." This is offensive in a diverse forum. Gender and biological sex are two different things. Many religions, in fact, embrace more than two genders, or variations on the two genders, including such spirtual and cultural paths as the Tahitian Mahu, Madagascar Sekrata, Hindu Tantric and Hijra sects, Islamic Xanith, Khawal, and Sufi traditions, European Castrati, and Native American Two-Spirit traditions. Even biological sex is far more varied than most people know, including intersexed and other variations on sex in humans. Such things are more common than previously realized, as evidenced by recent studies of natural chimerism in cats. Though this may be detected in some cases by physical (sex-linked traits such as color, or ambiguous genitals) or behavioral (gender confusion) traits, more often it seems to go undetected.

I completely agree. It would be much better for it to say sex.

That has always bugged me when I'm poking around the CP but I've never said anything about it. Should have opened my mouth before.

[standing_alone]

Originally Posted by VelvetDragon

Upon joining this forum, I was struck by the gender field in the "edit profile" part of the control panel. It says, "This is your gender, your either male or female 99% of the time." This is offensive in a diverse forum. Gender and biological sex are two different things. Many religions, in fact, embrace more than two genders, or variations on the two genders, including such spirtual and cultural paths as the Tahitian Mahu, Madagascar Sekrata, Hindu Tantric and Hijra sects, Islamic Xanith, Khawal, and Sufi traditions, European Castrati, and Native American Two-Spirit traditions. Even biological sex is far more varied than most people know, including intersexed and other variations on sex in humans. Such things are more common than previously realized, as evidenced by recent studies of natural chimerism in cats. Though this may be detected in some cases by physical (sex-linked traits such as color, or ambiguous genitals) or behavioral (gender confusion) traits, more often it seems to go undetected.

I have quite a few friends who are neither male nor female (some in terms of gender and some in terms of biological sex), and I myself identify as genderqueer.

I totally agree with you on terms of gender and sex being completely different. You might be interested in my thread Gender ≠ Sex (I'm such a shameless self-promoter ).

Anyways, welcome to the forums! I hope you enjoy your time here!

[Buttons*]

welcome! good times!

[Revasser]

Welcome, VelvetDragon!

I also agree with you on the sex/gender issue. The whole thing is really not very clear cut at all, despite ignorant popular ideas about gender, and the way that question was worded in the registration process made me raise an eyebrow as well.

Glad you decided to join us! I look forward to your posts.

[Sunstone]

Welcome to the Forum!

[mrscardero]

Please to meet you and glad you joined us.

[Victor]

Haven't had an intro like this in a while.
Welcome.

[Bishka]

Welcome.