[IsaacL]

I agree, but it's interesting to think about how you would handle such information programmatically. Even for a case where you let users input their own gender, it's tricky.

Do you simply add some extra genders? Male-to-female transexual, female-to-male transexual, intersex? No matter how many categories you add, you'll always annoy someone for missing them out. Does 'genderqueer' and 'genderfluid' count as the same category, or different ones?

Maybe just add a free text form for people to input their gender? But then it's impossible to normalise if you want to do any analysis.

Maybe we should just be enlightened and ignore gender altogether? But sometimes knowing your user's gender is really important, and it seems weird to discard this data because some people don't fit. Maybe the best compromise is simply to have 3 categories - male/female/other - though even then you'll get complaints. "Who are you calling 'other'?"

Anyone have any other thoughts?

PS: I seem to see way more people in tech complaining about brogrammers than actual brogrammers.

[tommorris]

Easy. Store in your database (or whatever) as free text.

In UI, provide a form with "Male, Female, Other". If they click other, reveal an optional text field where they can enter what they wish. Store.

Normalize the synonyms of male and female to lower case "male" and "female" when doing analysis. You don't have to get 100% normalisation. But you'll probably get 80-90%.

Contemplate what you are actually using the data for, listen to users.

To be honest, if you manage to not put transgender as a sexual orientation, you'll be doing better than most people.

[IsaacL]

Good answer, that sounds like a reasonable compromise.

[batemanesque]

re: the brogrammer thing, that's little more than a sign of the breadth of their insidious reach...