Thread by @hilzoy

1/ This is, in fact, very, very bad. And, as @ParkerMolloy says, it is Republican identity politics.

To see why, think not about trans people, but about intersex people.

https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1053994667950436352

@ParkerMolloy 2/ "The agency’s proposed definition would define sex as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals that a person is born with, according to a draft reviewed by The Times. Any dispute about one’s sex would have to be clarified using genetic testing."

@ParkerMolloy 3/ Guess what? Some genitalia are ambiguous. And some do not match a person's DNA. (Google Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome.) Some DNA are neither XX or XY.

@ParkerMolloy 4/ The entire idea that sex is both "either male or female" and determined either by genitalia or DNA (and that these two match) is just false.

Imagine that you're a kid with complete androgen insensitivity. You are, as far as anyone can tell by looking, a girl.

@ParkerMolloy 5/ At some point, someone has occasion to do some blood work on you, and they discover that you have XY chromosomes. At that point, do you become unable to use the girls' bathroom? Unable to sue for gender discrimination?

Really?

@ParkerMolloy 6/ Imagine that you have ambiguous genitalia. The doctors are trying to figure out whether you are "really" a boy or a girl at birth, but it is genuinely unclear. In what sense do the genitalia you were born with "determine" your gender identity?

(None.)

@ParkerMolloy 7/ Imagine that your chromosomes are neither XX nor XY. In what sense would checking your chromosomes and discovering that they are XXY, or X, or whatever, "determine" your gender identity?

(None.)

@ParkerMolloy 8/ Saying that gender is either male or female, and determined by one's genitalia at birth, backed up by DNA testing, is not scientific. It is the a politically motivated view with no basis in human biology.

@ParkerMolloy 9/ Imposing this fake binary because of the alleged perils of trans people using bathrooms is GOP identity politics.

(Side note: have any of the people who worry about bathrooms actually been in a women's bathroom? News flash: THERE ARE STALLS. We do not see one another naked.)