In 2016, a controversial bill was signed in Georgia, banning transgender individuals from using restrooms designated for the sex with which they identify. In the wake of this legislation, Between the (Gender) Lines: The Science of Transgender Identity explored what was known at the time about transgender identity, discussing scientific evidence for its biological bases, as well as the social and psychological ramifications of binary gender classifications. Regrettably, both the text and the figures in this article were being abused by those seeking to support their own beliefs. As such, we decided to remove this article in 2021 to prevent its further misappropriation by individuals and groups seeking to oversimplify this complex subject and promote views that lack a scientific basis.
We still believe in the value of rigorous scientific research about transgender identity and encourage you to read the published, peer-reviewed studies that we cited in the original article if you are interested in learning more about this topic (linked below):
- Transsexuality among twins: Identity concordance, transition, rearing, and orientation
- A sex difference in the human brain and its relation to transsexuality
- Male-to-female transsexuals have female neuron numbers in a limbic nucleus
- A sex difference in the hypothalamic uncinate nucleus: relationship to gender identity
- Changing your sex changes your brain: influence of testosterone and estrogen on adult human brain structure
- Regional gray matter variation in male-to-female transsexualism
- White matter microstructure in female to male transsexuals before cross-sex hormone treatment: A diffusion tensor imaging study
- The (CA)n polymorphism of ERβ gene is associated with FtM Transsexualism
- Should transvestic fetishism be classified in DSM 5? Recommendations from the WPATH consensus process for revision of the diagnosis of transvestic fetishism
We also encourage you to explore additional resources on this topic:
- For a SITN blog article discussing sex determination, check out “I’m XY and I Know It”: Sex determination systems 101
- For a quantitative view of transgenderism in the US, take a look at this analysis from Times Union
- For a review of discrimination against transgender persons, see this report from the National Center for Transgender Equality
- For a more complete discussion on queer acronyms, see this description from BBC news
- For an in-depth look at how disagreements over restroom usage has shaped policy, check out this Politico article
Sincerely,
The SITN editorial team
Science or not the article helped me.
I am 66 years old and MTF.
At the age of 7, I started hurting myself. I always attacked my genital area because I didn’t like what was there. This was in Northern Michigan in 1961 before there was an internet. My self-abuse escalated when I went through puberty and I never told anyone about this activity. I used to pray at night to either die or wake up a girl. I grew up in a world where my dad and his friends were using horrible language regarding what they called “queers” and I didn’t even know that there was a trans world out there. I just knew that I had to never, ever disclose how I hurt myself or why I did so. I finally talked to 2 therapists in 2007 and they said I had something called “Gender Identity Disorder.” In 2007, I would have been required to dress and live as a woman for a year to qualify to go on hormone therapy. I couldn’t do it and suffered for another 10 years before the rules changed and I became aware of the changes. After one week of hormone therapy my life changed and I started feeling right about who I am and I stopped wanting to hurt myself. I have had a successful life, married for over 30 years, I was an athlete, I have children and grandchildren, I was always a manager where I worked, I was elected to a local office and yet, I wasn’t happy and becoming suicidal. So while I used to hide my self abuse, I now hide my trans identity because the United States doesn’t want to see or accept me for who I am, they’d rather kill me. So I live as both male and female (on my terms) and stay hidden for my own safety.
AJ
Article went into detail explaining the science behind being a transgender person, but did not back up its claims concerning the idea of there being more than two genders except for some bias claims scattered here and there. If anything, it proved the fact that there are only two genders by showing human brains. There’s male brains. There’s female brains. Transgender individuals are still one gender or the other, because their brain closely matches the brain with what they identify as.
Sex determines the number of genders we see. Gender is closely related to sex, but not the exact same.
I think a lot of people who stand behind the idea of there being more than two genders, mistake the very concept of gender for gender roles. These are social roles that society have tacked onto the two genders to what they deem as appropriate. It’s constantly shifting.
This has nothing to do with your actual gender. Gender roles are a social construct. Gender is not a social construct.
Sex is referring to your reproductive organs. Gender is referring towards everything influenced by your sex. We can tell women are women simply by looking at them. Women have typically broader hips, significantly less facial and other body hair, breasts, and are typically shorter than men. That is what genders a woman.
Transgender individuals have a disconnect. Their brains do not match up with their gender, and with the use of hormones and sex reassignment surgery, they can combat this disconnect.
There are only two genders. It is only possible to transition from one gender to the other.
It is not possible to identify as neither gender. You have a female brain, or a male brain. You have a female body, or a male body.
It is not possible to identify with gender fluidity. The human brain cannot constantly warp from one gender to another, and the human body definitely cannot either.
If the gender you identify with is not based on your brain and physicality, it’s all in your head. You can have female reproductive organs and a female body, cut your hair short and wear flannel button-ups, and still be 100% a woman. Your choice of style may be perceived as masculine, but that’s just because short hair and button-ups are popular style choices for the male gender. It has nothing to do with your actual gender.
You either have a male body or a female body. There’s no third option, and clothing and interests do not dictate gender. Transgender people have a valid disconnect backed by science, but are not proof of a third gender as they can only feel disconnect from their assigned gender and transition into the other.
Intersex individuals are far different, and have actually voiced that they don’t want to be pinned with the LGBT community. (Yes, LGBT, there’s no use for any other letters.)
Intersex individuals still are determined as male or female, as in most cases, they still have XX or XY chromosomes. True hermaphrodites, being incredibly rare, still can fall into male or female. Even without these points, I’m sure a lot of the backers of more than two genders are not intersex.
Every single person can be easily placed into a binary. Gender should not be the most important thing about you, maybe grow a personality.
Excellent distillation of the facts. Your reply should be tacked to any paper published on the subject.
While not specifically mentioned in the source material I think it bears mentioning that the science of logistics is another that does not enjoy the ambiguity of philosophical ponderings and must address issues in more defined terms. Resources like lavatory space and societal issues such as law cannot function in a ‘fluid’ fashion and has been built and allocated on the ability to categorize. Up until just recently all life on earth has managed reasonably well using binary gender classifications where warranted with no objection from the assexual. Given the limited aspect of resources classified differences must be either finite or non existent. While differences in skin pigmentation have little impact beyond those affixed by society, those between genetically male and female are much more persistent.
This article strikes me as lacking proper scientific reasoning when evaluating evidence by assuming too much cause and effect without proper scientific rigor in considering the valid array of possibilities. Nonetheless, I would argue that it makes no difference if transgender identity is a healthy condition or a serious maladaptive response, or some combination somewhere in between. These people are human beings and find themselves, regardless of the correct explanation, in the identity. They deserve empathy and acceptance as people who find themselves where they do. Validation has everything to do with value and nothing to do with agreeing over details. The only condition warranting human rights is being human. Just what sort of human you are or how you understand the sorts is irrelevant.
That’s because the entire trans movement has been fully debunked by science.
What this really is are people who are grasping at straws to ignore how badly science has shown their insanity to be false. Take the brain scans, in what the REAL studies have shown is that SOME “cismales” have brains that look like SOME “cisfemales”
the fact is, brain studies were debunked because they do not have a 100% causal relationship, that’s why an MRI is not used to diagnose trangenderism, only psychology. Because brain scans simply cannot detect a mental illness, they can only be used to expost facto claim “these people seem to have this correlation, that isn’t 100%”
Mind you, brain scans FURTHER don’t look anything like the crap this article claims. It’s a really really tiny increase size for females, but not all women who identify as women have a larger bnst… you have to hammer that point home, because that’s like saying “We discovered proof of god, some people pray and they survive illnesses. Ergo god exists.”
In the study based on known differences between male and female brains, they found that some FtM brains were similar to males. Since the subjects were adults, we can’t know if this was from birth, or developed later due to environment. So that doesn’t prove a genetic basis.
In the study of 12 MtF trans, they found a particular part of their brain was more similar to female brains. Again, since the subjects were adults, we can’t know if this was from birth, or developed later due to environment.
They hypothesize, without evidence, that prenatal estrogen reception may be the cause.
These two, and twin study, are the only legitimate studies which show possible biological basis for transgendering. Three studies, NONE of which indicate underlying cause, deserve the author’s description, “the list of causes for transgender identity continues to grow.”
In a study of identical twins, where one twin was trans: 20% of the time, the other twin was also trans. The remaining 80% were not. Is 20% strong support for a genetic basis for transgender? I don’t think so.
Please stop using the word “assigned” to refer to biological sex. Biological anatomy isn’t “assigned”. A woman can’t get pregnant because she was “assigned” that way.
My son says that although he was born as a male he feels like he has the feeling physically that he gets touched by his partner between his legs he feels like he should have a vagina there in his crotch. He also gets sensations when he is touched on his chest he feels like his nipples get excited like a girls. He likes wearing girls panties. However he does not want to be surgically changed to a girl. He says it’s more like that he feels like a boy and a girl in one and likes it that way and wants to be with a girl. and is attracted to females. He likes his male parts and likes to feel like a female. What does this mean for him. He is really struggling with this. I am also wanted to help him understand. He wonders what he should classify himself as? Can anyone help?
I am trying to understand what I just read.
If I understand the article correctly then it supports the very real nature of the trans experience, and it also identifies its causes as being malfunctioning biomechanisms during gestation. So it is a birth defect?
A defect is a an imperfection or abnormality that impairs quality, function, or utility. Are blue eyes, red hair, short people, tall people and skin colour an imperfection or abnormality that impairs quality, function, or utility. Hardly! So if these attributes are not considered birth defects, though part of the normal variance known as the human condition, why is being transgender a birth defect?
Sexual orientation and gender identity are not recorded in suicide deaths. Further more, making a claim that suicide is more prevalent in transgender persons can cause more suicides, giving a false sense of the percentage of similar people who have tried. The twin studies conducted by Dean Hamer were later challenged by other studies and the methodology of Hamers study was no longer being practiced. Futher studies by Dean Gamer of gay brothers were conducted using the same outdated methodoloy. A subsequent gene study conducted by Dean Hamer with DNA from almost a million different people did not find a “gay” gene. There were some gene variants(only 2 were cited) that could have a 1% influence on sexual orientation. Of all of the studies Dean Hamer did this one has proved conclusive for geneticist but is not what Dean Hamer was looking to prove. That being gay is more nurture than nature. None of his studies were for trangenders.
Your comments sadden me. To see this amount a hatrid in the world, just because some of us aren’t scared of who we really are. We aren’t afraid of change, while you, who are commenting here, are afraid, so you hide in your shell, in dying world, doing nothing for it but adding to it’s destruction. You can continue to write your cute little rants about my gender all you want, and waste your lives trying to ruin other peoples lives, while I live to make change, and help the world. And frankly, I DONT GIVE A CRAP ABOUT SCIENCE. My gender isn’t decided by science, and it’s not decided by you. If you cared so much about science, you wouldn’t wear makeup, you wouldn’t smoke, you wouldn’t eat the food that you choose to eat. You wouldn’t sit at your computer complaining about my existence. So, for the first time in your sad life, you care about science, because apparently I don’t exist because the “science” says so. Which is funny, because tons of science proves that I do exist, yet you only listen to the science of far rights and trump supporters. Anyways, I just saw notifs on my email, so thought I’d make a lil rant of my own. Have a good life. I know I’m having one myself. Byeeee. <3
“I DON’T GIVE A CRAP ABOUT SCIENCE”
Okay cool, that makes a lot of sense lol.
“If you cared so much about science, you wouldn’t wear makeup, you wouldn’t smoke, you wouldn’t eat the food that you choose to eat. You wouldn’t sit at your computer complaining about my existence. ”
Please explain how this corresponds to caring about science.
I’m assuming you’re nonbinary or genderfluid or something. There’s no science proving you exist, and if there was, why would you care because apparently you don’t give a crap about science.
You exist as a human. You do have a gender, but it is most likely not the one you say you are. It may seem like good fun to act like something that isn’t possible to be, but you can’t expect everybody to follow suite. Imagine a person claiming to be an ostrich. Everybody can see he or she is a human. Everybody acknowledges his or her existence as a human, but he or she is claiming to be an ostrich. Is it hate speech to not refer to him or her as an ostrich? (Yeah I’m comparing being genderfluid to pretending to be an ostrich)
…Also I like how you assume that people who are skeptical of more than two genders are far right or trump supporters… I definitely don’t support trump and I’d say I lean towards the left. Also, just putting this out there so that you don’t jump to conclusions: I love and support transgender people, because their experiences are backed by science and are still one binary gender or the other.