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noticing a lot of allies stumbling across the whole sex vs gender dichotomy and making some mistakes while arguing in favor of trans people. to my friends particularly in the osu mania community, this hopefully easily digestible thread is for you. 1/14
most people's current understanding of "sex vs gender" goes something like this. there is the biological binary - "biological male" and "biological female". then there is self-identification - 'identifying' as a man, a woman, or non-binary. 2/14
i'll be using trans women as the example here because i am one. one might say that someone who is a trans woman is a "biological male but identifies as a woman". some trans people may even use this framing to describe themselves. let's break down what that means. 3/14
there is an argument that referring to trans people by their "biological sex" is useful for medical reasons. if anyone, it should be your doctor who should know if you are "biologically male", if everything else about you points to "female", right? 4/14
what does biological male imply about a woman? first of all, not much. trans women are not a monolith. most get HRT, some get surgery, etc. which creates an extremely diverse group in regards to a purely biological standpoint. they're all still trans women. 5/14
even disregarding trans people for a second, are there any biological features that are exclusively male or female? what about chromosomes? the existence of XY gonadal dysgenesis proves otherwise; there are people who were assigned female at birth who have XY chromosomes. 6/14
in fact, it's impossible to define what "biological female" means concretely without excluding a few cis women. some women aren't born with a uterus, for example. the fact of the matter is, biological gender simply means the gender you're assigned at birth. 7/14
why should we continue to pretend that "biological sex" is a thing that has firm roots in science when there are so many issues with it in the first place? doctors can easily just refer to things like our prostate, our genitals, our breasts, on an individual level. 8/14
referring to trans people by their gender assigned at birth as opposed to their "biological sex" isn't necessary either. if someone interacts with society entirely as their gender, there is no need to know their gender assigned at birth except for intimate circumstances. 9/14
for example: girls who are AMAB? why don't you just say trans girls? there's no need to attribute any part of a trans girl's identity to maleness, be it "biological sex" or "gender assigned at birth". 10/14
you shouldn't have to know anyone's gender assigned at birth, because it simply should not matter, unless you are trying to understand trans and non-binary individual struggles in that context. 11/14
and the fact that biological sex isn't "real" doesn't remove from the fact that people still experience oppression based on their gender. trans people should still have access to HRT, surgery, and emotional support for transitioning. 12/14
trans people should be respected and treated as their gender, and biological sex is simply irrelevant and an archaic concept. these two ideas can coexist at once. 13/14
to summarize, please stop referring to trans people by their "biological sex". it's both meaningless and counter-intuitive. i am not "biologically" male, and a trans man is not "biologically" female. 14/14
