Thread by @perkoch

1/22 A THREAD about sex, gender, trans people and transphobia.

Summary: Gender cannot be reduced to biological sex.

#transgender #transphobia

2/22 My academic background is from the History of Ideas, a discipline that looks at how language and words shape the way we see the world.

Learning is often about developing new concepts that help people see what was once hidden or not understood.

3/22 English language speakers use the words sex and gender to cover many very different phenomena, and the two terms are often mixed up.

This causes a lot of confusion.

Let us look at the different phenomena that are covered by these terms.

#Gender #BiologicalSex

4/22 Biological Sex most often refers to genitalia, chromosomes or gametes.

Sex is not as binary as many think. Still, it is definitely relevant for procreation.

I know of very few, trans people included, who dismiss the importance of biology.

https://twitter.com/ScienceVet2/status/1035246030500061184

5/22 Cultural Gender refers to how a society classifies people on the basis of gender roles, socially and legally.

In many (but not all) cultures there are two categories: men and women.

Intersex variations are forced into one of these two boxes.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex

6/22 Gender Expression refers to the way people express femininity, masculinity, something else, or a mix of them all.

There are feminine men, masculine women and androgynous people.

Gender expression is not determined by biological sex.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_ex…

7/22 Gender Identity refers to a person's deep felt and persistent experience of being a man, a woman or nonbinary.

A mismatch between gender identity and gender assigned at birth is called Gender Incongruence. This is a real and observable phenomenon.

healthdirect.gov.au/gender-incongr…

8/22 Gender incongruence can lead to Gender Dysphoria.

Being trans is not a mental illness, but it may be associated with emotional discomfort, anxiety and depression.

#GenderDysphoria is real.

psychiatry.org/patients-famil…

9/22 There are a lot of theories about what causes gender incongruence.

The most popular one right now is that it is caused by an interaction between genetic, hormonal, cultural and personal factors.

intechopen.com/chapters/80813

10/22 Gender Identity is separate from Sexual Orientation.

There are gay, lesbian, bisexual (etc...) non-transgender people. The same applies to trans people.

11/22 When we assign gender to people in public spaces, we do not do this by pulling down their pants. Nor do we ask them for a DNA test.

(There are XY intersex women and XX men out there, so you cannot be 100% sure before you have taken that test.)

12/22 Instead we assume the gender of the people we meet on the basis of many subtle and not so subtle signs.

These have more to do with masculinity and femininity than eggs and sperm.

In other words: Gendering is a social phenomenon.

inews.co.uk/news/uk/butch-…

13/22 The argument that gender=sex is often based on mid-20th century text books.

School text books leave out complexity. So do many popular media presentations of science. This opens the door to simplistic and misleading narratives that can be used against trans people.

14/22 Anti-trans activists who have actually read contemporary research on sex and gender are forced to dismiss it as "gender ideology" or "woke".

In this way they try to present their own prejudices as "science" and dismiss real science as fake.

ama-assn.org/press-center/p…

15/22 Gender Incongruence and Gender Dysphoria are modern scientific terms for real phenomena.

The American psychiatric manual (DSM-5) and the WHO health manual (ICD-11) recognize trans identities and needs. Trans people are NOT seen as mentally ill.

transhealthproject.org/resources/medi…

16/22 The fact that trans people remain trans in spite of all the harassment and hate is a clear sing of their identities being real. It would have been so much easier for them to play along with the cis majority.

Bullying severely reduces their quality of life, though.

17/22 It makes little sense to say that culture or a fundamental part of our psyche is less "real" than chromosomes.

Reducing gender identity to chromosomes is like reducing love to hormones. If you do you have probably never experienced real love.

#positivism #reductionism

18/22 By saying that only biology is real – and by ignoring mental and social realities – anti-trans activists are trying to enforce traditional gender roles, existing power-structures and/or quasi-feminist conspiracy theories.

There is always an agenda.

#TERFs #Putin #DeSantis

19/22 The events in Australia, where "gender critical" icon Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull held a rally supported by Nazis, show us that anti-trans activism is fueled by some very dark cultural undercurrents indeed.

This is not about science.

theguardian.com/australia-news…

20/22 Anti-trans activists often present the arguments that were once used against gay people: Groomers! Pedos! Men in bathrooms! Social contagion! The goal is to generate disgust and hatred.

This has nothing to do with science.

politico.com/news/magazine/…

21/22 Right and left wing transphobes now talk about eradicating "transgenderism", as in banning pro-trans arguments.

By removing concepts used to describe trans lives they hope to force trans people back into hiding. Reducing gender identity to sex is part of this strategy.

22/22 The protection of transgender people is therefore not only about LGBTQ people. It is about stopping the brutalization of our culture. It is about creating compassionate, democratic and just societies that include those who are different.

#TransRightsAreHumanRights