[shaftoe]

Sometimes, you just want to find out if someone is a girl or a guy.

Not every question needs to become a forum for minorities to express themselves. Not every worksheet or webform should worry about "reinforcing the incorrect idea that everyone fits into the gender binary."

Walking on eggshells...

[eridius]

This comment here is a perfect representation of the problem. Most people do fit into the worldview of "girl or guy". But plenty of people don't fit into the gender binary at all,, which means there's no way to find out if they're "a girl or a guy", because the answer is "neither". And there's plenty of people who do self-identify as one of those 2 genders, but it's a different gender than most of the world insists they should identify as (I'm talking about transgender people here, if that's not immediately obvious), and they may not necessarily be open about it yet, or open to everyone, and being forced to pick "guy or girl" may therefore be problematic because either they have to give an answer that they may not be comfortable with everyone knowing, or else they have to give an answer that doesn't match their personal identity (the ideal solution in this particular case is to allow them to give no answer).

> Not every question needs to become a forum for minorities to express themselves.

This is perhaps the most problematic part of your comment. If a question allows the majority to express themselves, but denies that same right to minorities, or in fact refuses to acknowledge that the minorities even exist, that's absolutely discrimination. And perhaps even worse, when you have questions like "what gender are you?" that are asked often and where most questioners only accept male / female, that reinforces the incorrect idea that gender is binary and that there are only 2 answers, and effectively tacitly condones other forms of discrimination centered around the same question of personal identity. Which comes right back to your question. The reason you think it's perfectly ok to say "Sometimes, you just want to find out if someone is a girl or a guy" is because you're part of a culture in which the majority of people either refuse to acknowledge that there are more possible answers to that question or think it's perfectly acceptable to pretend that the minorities don't even exist.

[shaftoe]

And the fact that a M/F radio button is being called discrimination shows just how far we've come since the days of firehoses, police dogs, and internment camps.

[eridius]

It sounds like you're being dismissive, like you're saying discrimination is only discrimination if someone is suffering bodily harm or being deprived of their constitutionally-granted rights. I hope that's not how you meant it.

[taejo]

Then you can have a radio button:

   Girl or guy
   ( ) Yes
   ( ) No