In what Trump's administration has branded a "common sense" order, the government will recognise only two sexes, ending all federal funding or recognition of gender identities.
And even then, it goes beyond gender. Even the idea that you can’t change your sex is laughable. “Sex,” despite what some TERFs insist, is not traditionally or in practice today determined by DNA. We’ve learned that chromosomes play a primary factor in determining sex, but your sex isn’t your DNA. A blueprint isn’t a house; a house is a house. The blueprint just tells you how to build a house.
Physical sex is really about primary and secondary sex characteristics. If a trans woman undergoes SRS for example, her sex is literally female. She has the same anatomy as an infertile woman, or woman whose had a hysterectomy.
And this is the traditional way of defining sex. We referred to people’s “sex” for generations prior to discovering DNA. And even today, we sex infants entirely based on their genitalia. Actual genetic screening is incredibly rare.
Bigots just latch onto “sex==genetics” because it allows them an easy cudgel. But in reality, if your primary and secondary sex characteristics are of a certain sex, you are that sex. Does the initial cellular blueprint indicate a different sex? Assuming you’re not intersex, sure. But again, DNA is just a blueprint.
The example I always like is the house/boat example. Imagine you owned a wooden boat. That boat was made by a particularly prideful boat builder, and every plank of the boat is stamped, “Smith’s shipbuilding co.” One day you get tired of sailing the waves, so you take your boat, disassemble it, and use the planks to build a house. You now live in a house where every board is stamped “Smith’s shipbuilding co.”
Imagine the absurdity of someone coming to your home and telling you, “you live in a boat! Every board clearly labels this building as a boat. Therefore, you must live in a boat.”
That is the fallacy of relying on genetics to define sex. Chromosomes are just the initial blueprints or the equivalent of the “Smith shipbuilding co.” stamp.
And even then, it goes beyond gender. Even the idea that you can’t change your sex is laughable. “Sex,” despite what some TERFs insist, is not traditionally or in practice today determined by DNA. We’ve learned that chromosomes play a primary factor in determining sex, but your sex isn’t your DNA. A blueprint isn’t a house; a house is a house. The blueprint just tells you how to build a house.
Physical sex is really about primary and secondary sex characteristics. If a trans woman undergoes SRS for example, her sex is literally female. She has the same anatomy as an infertile woman, or woman whose had a hysterectomy.
And this is the traditional way of defining sex. We referred to people’s “sex” for generations prior to discovering DNA. And even today, we sex infants entirely based on their genitalia. Actual genetic screening is incredibly rare.
Bigots just latch onto “sex==genetics” because it allows them an easy cudgel. But in reality, if your primary and secondary sex characteristics are of a certain sex, you are that sex. Does the initial cellular blueprint indicate a different sex? Assuming you’re not intersex, sure. But again, DNA is just a blueprint.
The example I always like is the house/boat example. Imagine you owned a wooden boat. That boat was made by a particularly prideful boat builder, and every plank of the boat is stamped, “Smith’s shipbuilding co.” One day you get tired of sailing the waves, so you take your boat, disassemble it, and use the planks to build a house. You now live in a house where every board is stamped “Smith’s shipbuilding co.”
Imagine the absurdity of someone coming to your home and telling you, “you live in a boat! Every board clearly labels this building as a boat. Therefore, you must live in a boat.”
That is the fallacy of relying on genetics to define sex. Chromosomes are just the initial blueprints or the equivalent of the “Smith shipbuilding co.” stamp.