One of the questions members upon joining this forum can answer if they so wish is to state their gender. I have and it is male. So has everybody else who's answered that question (to the best of my knowledge, I've only checked regular posters).

 

As far as I am concerned I am male - and definitely not female.

 

We hear about transgendered people and transexuals. Are they the same?

 

And what about sex? Again, if asked to state my sex I simply say 'male'.

 

But what about deeper issues, what if I was asked to describe or define my sexuality? That's when it starts to get neither black nor white for some people - myself included!

 

I think before I get myself even more confused I will hand over to a much more articulate authority!

 

Here is a quote taken from a fascinating article on the BBC website:

 

Richard O'Brien: ‘I'm 70% man'

 

 

 

Rocky Horror Show writer Richard O'Brien thinks of himself as 70% male and 30% female. What exactly does that mean?

 

Richard O'Brien, writer of hit musical The Rocky Horror Show, delighted in shaking up the conservative sexual attitudes of the 1970s.

 

His most famous creation, Dr Frank N Furter, brought the house down with his song Sweet Transvestite.

But the show's creator was ashamed about his own long-held desire to be more feminine.

 

"I was six-and-a-half and I said to my big brother that I wanted to be the fairy princess when I grew up. The look of disdain on his face made me pull down the shutters. I knew that I should never ever say that out loud again."

 

For 50 years, O'Brien repressed the feeling. But "you can't just put the lid on things and pretend that they don't exist", he says.

 

So a decade ago, he started taking the female hormone oestrogen - and is happy with the results.

 

"It takes the edge off the masculine, testosterone-driven side of me and I like that very much. I think I've become a nicer person in some ways, slightly softer. For the first time in my life, I've started to put on a little bit of weight, which I like."

 

He has also developed small breasts. But O'Brien is not intending to go further and have sex reassignment surgery.

 

"I don't want to pretend to be something that I'm not. Anton Rodgers, the actor, said 'you're the third sex'. And I thought that's quite nice. I quite like that position.

 

"It's my belief that we are on a continuum between male and female. There are people who are hardwired male and there are people who are hardwired female, but most of us are on that continuum and I believe myself probably to be about 70% male, 30% female."

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21788238

 

Huh?

I think there is a part of sexuality that is self-expression, and creative people have always had some form and portion of femininity. That is what I see with O'Brien (the writer, not the Cardinal, although there may be some doubt with the latter). People in the music and arts business seem to have less structured views of themselves.

 

Percentages may not play a very big role. And yes, there is a third sex and anatomy seems to have less and less to do with anything. We are an evolving society, and individual creativity has many ways of revealing itself.