Canada (and the world) experienced a monumental moment in history, in what could be the first case of issuing a genderless ID card to a baby, in the world. Little baby Searyl Alti, was given their first health card by Canadian officials, and under the "gender" category, sits a tiny "U" for unassigned, or undetermined.
Searyl's parent, Kori Doty, believes that doctors shouldn't have the right to assign a baby's gender at birth.
Via Facebook
Kori Doty is a nonbinary transgender person who identifies as neither male nor female. After giving birth to baby Searyl in November, Doty undertook a lengthy battle to keep their child's government documents gender-free.
In an interview with CKNW News, Doty explained, "Were not actually asking to have anyones ID changed against their will. Were just asking to change the structure of how identification, particularly the birth certificate, starts out."
Human rights lawyer, barbara findlay (name intentionally stylized without capital letters), spoke about this huge step forward. In an interview with Buzzfeed News, findlay said that taking gender and sex off of identification documents recognizes "that the state has no business certifying a child's sex at birth. It is something that is private and that might change."
At least two other Canadian provinces, Ontario and Alberta, are now also considering offering a third, nonbinary option on government documents.
Kori Doty / Via facebook.com
"We would prefer they take 'sex' off these documents entirely," findlay said. "A baby's gender identity develops over time, not when a doctor examines its genitals right after birth."
Doty told the CBC that they felt inspired to make sure their child's documents were genderless, because the doctors who delivered them, assigned them an incorrect gender that, "followed me and followed my identification throughout my life."
Doty wants to make sure that their child doesn't go through this, and has the freewill to choose how they identify.
Doty told the CBC, "I'm raising Searyl in such a way that until they have the sense of self and command of vocabulary to tell me who they are, I'm recognizing them as a baby and trying to give them all the love and support to be the most whole person that they can be outside of the restrictions that come with the boy box and the girl box."
Way to go, Doty!
Redditor PadWanKenobi was curious to hear what people felt were the tell tale signs they were in the company of a possible genius, leading them to ask:
"What’s a sign of extremely high intelligence?"
Instant adapability
"Ability to intuitively and quickly understand complex systems and how lots of parts relate in a coherent whole."
"Like I work with some people who just keep tons of concepts in their head and easily integrate new information into their understanding of those concepts."
"They immediately know what questions they should be asking to better understand."
"And these are things they're currently working on, not like things they spent time studying in school over years."
"They just have a very strong ability to synthesize new information into their understanding."
"I sit in meetings distracted and confused having forgotten what we talked about in the previous meetings, and these folks just consistently have a solid handle on everything."- Ok-Control-787
Innate Problem Solvers
"They know when not to solve a problem."
"This took me a while to understand but the smartest people I know do this."
"It could be a really simple thing like ignoring emails from people asking for help."
"The supervisor or boss might have a quick and easy solution for the situation but instead of just handing it to the person that asked they let them figure it out on their own."
"They know who they can do this with and when to do it."
"If they did that with all of their underlings it would just create a mess."
"Another example that I can think of is planned chaos."
"Some people can predict exactly where things will go wrong and they could fix it before it creates a problem."
"They don't because nobody ever notices what's going on in the background when things are working perfectly."
"Once things fails then everybody notices and if you are the one person that fixed it you become the hero."
"They can also use then chaos to reach a goal they couldn't get before if things were working correctly."
"There's many examples of this in every day life that I didn't see before until I realized what was happening."- atapes
GiphyYou know what they say about people with small hands
"If your hand is smaller than your face."- FallofTheKnight
The all knowing glow.
"When someone asks you a question and you push your glasses up while light comes out of it and covers your eyes for some reason."- JonEregor
Those giveaway behavioral quirks
"Wearing glasses and saying things like 'ah yes', and 'I see' while you pensively rub your chin."- iuytrefdgh436yujhe2
Thinking Reaction GIF by ABC TV + IVIEWGiphyEncouraging others
"When they explain something they make the people around them feel smarter, not dumber."- redkat85
Being one step ahead.
"The capacity to understand complex things, see patterns where regular people don't."- Ostepop234
"They have this tendency to make you go 'Ohhh, why didn't I think of that?' when listening to them talk."- did_it_forthelulz
Why Didnt I Think Of That Cillian Murphy GIFGiphyAn endless love of learning
"A passion for knowledge and expanding understanding of complex concepts."
"The plumber can be just as insightful as the scholar."- KatatoniK94
Of course, one shouldn't always be fooled by what they see.
As many people are masters at appearing much smarter than they are.
In fact, one important sign of super intelligence is being able to separate those who appear smart, from those who actually are.
