Obscure Box

The Australian Government's Department of Ageing and Health is asking some probing questions of people who complete the consent for the H1N1 influenza vaccine.

After the usual name and date of birth questions, it then asks for your sex.

How many genders?

But there are three tick boxes to that question (see picture).

How very forward of the department to recognise that there are women and men in this world, and some people who consider themselves in between.

The transgender community must be delighted.

However, since the federal government's stalling on any recognition of same sex marriages I rather suspect this is some bureaucratic blunder and there's probably been some harsh words said to those who should have proof read the document before it was sent to the printers.

Staff at the health centre I visited say some cheeky people are simply putting "yes" in the first box, before declaring they're either "Female" or "Male" status.

Amused!