The fact that there so many instances where individuals are allowed to be either genderless or choose which gender they identify with, why isn't this an option for race.  If gender is not important, then why is race important.  We are born as a certain gender just as we are born as a certain race.  The gender technically cannot be changed as well as our race can't be changed.  So if we have the right to just choose what gender we want to be, make it a right to also choose which race we identify  as.  Let's stop making race a priority on applications and identity, because really does our race matters when it comes to human rights?  Does our race determine who we are, our capabilities? It should definitely not be used to hinder us as it has for so long in jobs, awards, loans, credit and countless other opportunities.  I am a woman of color and I know how it feels for my race to be a determining factor instead of who I am as a person.  Knowing how it feels to have to choose a race in some cases and other times choosing "other" so that I am not judged by my race.  It's understandable when it comes to health that race plays a factor, just as it does with  gender (a male does not have menstrual issues, doesn't have to give birth, etc.).  When gender is not required for identifying purposes or state laws that allow individuals to identify with whatever gender they choose,  then race should also be excluded in those same laws and identifications.  I am tired of my race (which is normally on paper) being the deciding factor in opportunities that I am more than qualified for, but am denied.  But there are male born athletes who are allowed to compete against women, and that is okay and fair?  If gender can be chosen and/or excluded by law, can't race also be chosen or even excluded as an identifying factor?  Why should the "color" of my skin matter when the physical organs that determine how my body actually functions every single day does not matter?