An identity complication


A statuette of Aphroditus in the anasyromenos pose. The ancient Greeks and Romans believed the pose had a magical power to ward off evil.

A statuette of Aphroditus in the anasyromenos pose. The ancient Greeks and Romans believed the pose had a magical power to ward off evil.



From Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.comAn Identification Issue

“But there are more than five sexes and only demotic Greek seems to distinguish among them.”

― Lawrence Durrell, in The Alexandria Quartet



Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo trendily wants her state to join others that will offer drivers’ licenses that don’t indicate the person’s sex. The change would let people put an “X’’ rather than a “M’’ or “F”

Of course, people are entitled to think of themselves as any sex they want and to have organs lopped off or created and to take hormones to change themselves into some sort of “gender’’ they weren’t at birth. But the fact is that, outside the very few cases of physical androgyny, people are physiologically either male or female. And for police and others in the justice system knowing the sex of individuals can be very useful, indeed sometimes essential. If these drivers undergo a sex-change operation, then fine, switch to one of the two sexes. But the “X’’ category will cause trouble.