Middle Sex (C4): AT first glance, Antony Thomas's documentary Middle Sex looked like an addition to the current fad for "freak show TV", in which those with physical or mental attributes differing from the accepted norm are paraded before the cameras.

As the title suggested, this film was about those who are neither male nor female but trans-gender. By the end of this investigation, which mixed scientific evidence and stories of sexual confusion, it was apparent that the idea of male and female, straight and gay, bi or inter-gender isn't as clear cut as we'd liked to believe.

There are various turning points in the development of an embryo, and even a child, when a person's sex can go in different directions. Sometimes the brain doesn't follow the same route as physical changes.

Professor Milton Diamond's view is that variation is the norm. "Biology loves difference, loves variation. Society hates it," he said. In nature, the male/female division is blurred, what with fish that change sex and male seahorses that give birth. Humans, given the chance, would do much the same thing. In India, they worshipped a god with dual sexuality and society reflected that. The British changed the rules when they colonised the country. We met a married man who has a wife and a second secret partner, another married man. One's a Muslim, the other's a Hindu and they've been together for 11 years.

Remarkable too was the story of American Max Beck. Doctors couldn't determine whether he was a boy or a girl when he was born because of what were termed his "ambiguous genitalia". His condition was surgically corrected. Max grew up as Judy. She fell in love with Tamara and they lived in an open lesbian relationship. Judy discovered the truth from an old medical record calling him a male pseudohermaphrodite. It made no difference to his other half and they've been together for more than ten years. As Tamara put it: "This is the same person I fell in love with".

Noah, an eight-year-old living in the American Midwest - not an area noted for its tolerance of people who are "different"- is clearly a girl in a boy's body. Mother Michelle knows about the Bible's disapproval of boys behaving like girls, but said: "I can't believe in a God that doesn't love Noah for what he is".

In Thailand you'll find a "rainbow of sexuality diversity" that's mostly accepted by society. Professor Sam Winter thought the Thais could teach the rest of the world much about accepting trans-gender people.

I suspect most would have less sympathy for Mark, a British man in his forties who left his wife and children to live with a 19-year-old Thai boy who's now a woman (although still with his wedding tackle). Mark said his new partner was "sexy like a girl is sexy and horny like a boy is horny". This contrasted with one of Bangkok's famous ladyboys who felt that, "what matters if you love someone is the beauty on the inside".

Published: 27/05/2005