...
Furthermore, the language used to descirbe gender identities is both community specific and constantly changing. In the past the word "queer" has been used in a derogatory sense. However, some communities are reclaiming it. "Gender fluid", "gender non-conforming", "gender varient" are all terms that can have specific meanings in specific communities. Similarly, some individuals consider themselves to be trans-feminine, but would not identitfy identify as women or females. In order to accomodate accommodate the fact that specific gender identities will vary from community to community and over time, I propose that we take an approach to gender identities that is similar to that taken in the proper name ontology.
The proper name ontology is designed to be able to accommodate different cultural conventions of naming by remaining very general and allowing the user to extend the ontology with different subtypes of names. Similarly, I propose that we do not attempt to include a comprehensive list of gender identities, and encourage end users to extend the ontology to include the kind of gender identities that are appropriate for the community they are working with. In the same way that the proper name ontology facilitates interoperability by providing an ontology at the general level, the account of gender identity in OMRSE should facilitate interoperability by providing a general framework for gender identity acts. How to best achieve this still needs to be investigated, but I think that this is the best approach.