Some people find they do not feel comfortable thinking of themselves as
simply either male or female, and instead feel that their gender identity
is more complicated to describe.
Some may identify their gender as right in the middle between male and female, others may feel mainly male but not 100% male (or vice-versa not feel 100% female), and yet others reject having to define their gender in terms of male and female in any way.
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The idea has grown from the rejection of the strict binary split of gender
which makes some people feel they are pressurised to conform to certain
types of male or female behaviour to be accepted.
No fixed definition
There is no firm definition of exactly what is meant by third-gender or
gender-queer and most people who use either of the terms to identify
themselves have no particular wish for the constraints which a clear
definition might bring.
People who call themselves third-gender or genderqueer
also span a very wide range of desire to transition. Some have no
interest at all in physically changing their body, some wish to partially
physically transition (for example taking hormones but not having any
surgery) and yet others follow the same transition route as transsexual
people do but reject identifying simply as the gender they transition to.
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