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
We now have two classes of grammar: proper grammar, which has been accepted for centuries, and confused grammar, a hallmark of LGBQTZ delusion. One class has withstood the tests of time. The other will disappear when the ignorant fools self destruct.
Now these fools have their own alphabet to go along with their gender delusions.
More from the bottomless well of ignorance and stupidity.
More total nonsense.
What matters are X and Y chromosomes. Other genetic commentary had NO scientific basis. The LGBQTZ people are trying to remake science, just like they are trying to remake grammar with their pronoun nonsense.
” just like they are trying to remake grammar with their pronoun nonsense.” Say that again, but slowly. “They” and “Their”. No one is trying to remake grammar, just call them what they want to be called. It’s not that hard. Also,
Also, it’s LGBTQIA+, please at least learn the very basics of what you are arguing against.
“What matters are X and Y chromosomes.”.
Do you have a source? Come on, stop overcompensating, we all know you want to be a girl 🙂
It is remaking the grammar. And it is hard. “They” and “their” designate a plural antecedent, that is, more than one of something. It can also designate an unknown antecedent, like when you don’t know or prefer to omit the identity of the person(s) you’re talking about. In the latter case, “they” depersonalizes the individual(s). “They” becomes “someone,” “anyone” or “everyone.” You’d have to lie to your brain to think of “they” as one – a specific one that is not a “he” or a “she.” This is how it goes. First you think “he” or “she” and then you go “uh-oh, no, he or she wants to be called ‘they’.” It is too much to ask of speakers to rewire their brains for you (unless they’re your best friends). Of course, sometimes, when our innate ability to tell women and men apart, asking becomes necessary.
What on earth is gender? Really! I’m old enough to remember when gender was a grammatical category in Romance languages that classified nouns according to their endings. Gender was also a widely used euphemism for sex. So if I had to check some gender box on a form, I was convinced they were asking purely about anatomy (do I have a penis or do I have a vagina?). How I think about myself, what I like, and how I fit in the midst of socially constructed gender stereotypes is not what they were asking, no.
Because, what is it to be a woman or a man? Do we have anything other than our god-given anatomy as a referent? Aren’t we all unique individuals with unique identities? When you say that your pronoun is “they” and not “he” or “she,” what exactly are you saying? I have no idea. When you’re a biological man but claim to be a woman, are you saying being a woman feels a particular way (and not another), which is precisely the way you feel, and that makes you a woman? Conversely, when you say you’re neither a man nor a woman (or you’re both) – a “they” -, are you saying you know what being a man and being a woman feels like and you feel like neither (or both)? How reductive! How can you possibly know what being a woman (or a man) feels like without the body parts (internal and external) and social upbringing that make you a woman (or a man)? What’s between your ears is identity – not gender. Identity is fluid and complex; gender (sex) is not. You’re either a man or a woman or some variation – no matter how you think of yourself, which is unique to you.
Respect and compassion for all people? Absolutely. But letting a group’s ideology rule the world and reframe your thoughts and knowledge without open and honest debate and unbiased investigation? Absolutely not.
X and Y chromosomes definitely play a park in determining sex, however the result is hardly ever binary. There are too many genetic factors that go into the development of gender which result in an incredibly wide variation of physical development. I believe that you believe in the basic science of X & Y chromosomes, but please take some time to actually research the biology further. The LGBTQIA+ community is not at all trying to remake science, nor grammar. They simply want to feel validated and respected by those they interact with, which the same can be said for most anyone – including you, I’m sure.
You are not anything near a scientist. You are a contrarianist, and someone who seeks to use “science” to prove yourself right rather than engage in actual science to discover truth.
This behavior is neither brave nor intelligent, and definitely not noble. Do better.
But this is part of science? brain structure and psychology is part of science too. Science cannot be bent or changed because science uses, you know, science, logic and testing, not people’s opinions. If other psychological anomalies cause brain structure to be abnormal, why would something like this be excluded? It is something literally going wrong with someone’s head.
And yeah, chromosomes matter, but psychology and biology is also science and matters too. And chromosomes can still be messed up just like the brain, men can sometimes be born as xx an women as xy, and sometimes there’s other things like xxx and xxy. Gender dysphoria is just another one of those gender-factor anomalies.
Hey! So everyone has pronouns. You have pronouns. “You”, “I”, “We”, “Us”, and many more are ALL pronouns! Hope this helps, and I hope you realised that you’re wrong. <3
Yes, everyone has personal pronouns. There is singular and plural and there is 1st, 2nd and 3rd person pronouns and there is male and female pronouns (in reference to people’s anatomies). The brain is wired to use them accordingly and has done so for hundreds of years. If we were to remove all linguistic references to (physical) sex differences that would be an adjustment but likely positive. But having to learn and remember everyone’s pronouns according to how they think of themselves? That’s just crazy.
Although now removed, the original paper was focussed on the results from years of rigorous scientific research by people who had the qualifications, experience, and knowledge to report on their discoveries at the time the original paper was published. How ironic it is indeed that post the removal of the original article commentary has now degenerate to being personal opinions by those who profess to have a scientific basis for their bigotry.
hey smartass, sex and gender arent the same thing. hope this helps!
Please submit your degrees in the biological and endocrinological sciences and your peer reviewed research papers.
Otherwise, your opinion is coming from a LACK of knowledge.
You constantly use pronouns without even relizing you are, next time you think about trans or non binary people “remaking gramar with their pronoun nonsense” try and have a conversation without using, i, you, me, she, her, they, them, he, him ect. I will promise you, that youll sound like an idiot
Idk man the transphobia seems kinda gay, not using that as an insult just saying you sound like your projecting your insecurities onto a group if people that are comfortable wbing themselves idk tho juat sayin
I now consider Pope Francis’s encyclical “Dignitas Infinita” to be the authority on gender identity.
And this has been been supported by the Cass Review from the UK National Health Service.
Then you don’t care about science or reality and will simply adopt any “authority” who happens to support your position.
If you want science, read the Cass Review from the UK National Health Service.
You are literally going against a Harvard blog page, how do you not realise your insane delusion. Also, L-G-B-T-Q, it‘s not that tricky to get right
Harvard is a garbage institution running on the fumes of its past prestige. Just look at the quality of the people they hire to be the president.
Your referenced Hawaiian article, “Transsexuality Among Twins”, manipulatively misuses terms, applying a different definition than the accepted definition.
They refer to “Transsexuality Identity”. There’s no such thing:
– Transsexuality means: Born ANATOMICALLY with both male and female sex characteristics. It’s not an “identity”, it’s pure biology.
– Transgenderism means: Born anatomically with the biological sex characteristics of JUST ONE biological sex, but FEELING as if they are the opposite sex.
Transsexuality is, by your definition, an extremely rare anomaly.
Transgenderism is, by your definition, nothing more than confusion-a mental health problem, not a physical problem requiring surgical intervention.
My comment is incorrect. According to what i’ve read, transsexuality is another term for transgenderism.
Who cares! It’s an issue that isn’t an issue. Just human stupidity.
“this doesn’t apply to me so it’s not a real issue!!!”
Grow up.
exactly that John Weiss is correct.
This assertion is incorrect. If you bothered to do any research, you would have learned that gender dysphoria (the mental health condition associated with being transgender) is reduced only through transition, which may be social, medical or legal. ‘Transgenderism’, as you put it, is not classified as a mental health problem by any reputable psychological organisation. Attempts to change a person’s gender identity into a cisgender one (aka conversion therapy) worsens gender dysphoria and psychological distress, not decreases.
There have been ample studies showing that transition leads to better mental health outcomes and conversion therapy to worse, however some people still choose to believe that a normative sexual and gender identity is the desired outcome rather than happiness and peace for the patient.
A person who accepts her anatomical reality (height, body shape, genitals, and other physical characteristics) is not conforming to any social dictates; she is simply balanced enough to go with the flow and do the best with what she has. There is nothing normative about not rejecting your body. You can be whoever you are/become (your identity) with whatever body you have. If you can’t do that, obviously there’s a problem. But creating a cisgender category in an attempt to normalize the transgender reality does not make the problem go away. Gender identity is something created for the benefit of transgender people. The rest of us only have identity, whatever our gender (sex) happens to be. The desired outcome would be for transgender people to find inner balance, more likely achievable though mindfulness practices than surgeries and life-long dependence on drugs.
John, you have confused the terms ‘transsexual’ and ‘intersex’. The definition of “transsexual” is as follows: a transgender person, especially one whose bodily characteristics have been altered through surgery or hormone treatment to bring them into alignment with their gender identity.
The definition of intersex is this: people who are born with genetic, hormonal or physical sex characteristics that are not typically ‘male’ or ‘female’
The term transsexual was the word used to refer to transgender people before the word transgender was invented.
I see you have corrected yourself, I will leave these definitions here for future reference.
Your referenced Hawaiian article, “Transsexuality Among Twins”, contradicts itself.
Their data shows “20% of all male and female monozygotic twin pairs were found concordant for transsexual identity.” That data unambiguously indicates a NON-genetic influence for transsexuality.
Yet they contradict their own data, by proclaiming transsexuality is “more influenced by their genetics than their rearing.”
You are incorrect. That sentence by itself doesn’t show anything. Just because someone has the genes for something does not mean that those genes will be active. The way to show that something is likely to be a result of genetics is to compare the rate of incidence between the monozygotic and dizygotic twins. If there is a significantly higher incidence in the monozygotic twins, then the trait is likely to be a genetic trait, as the monozygotic twins share the same genes.
On checking the article again, i think you’re correct. Their data suggests that the feeling of being the wrong gender is, in 20% of the cases, genetic, and in 80% of the cases, environment. It doesn’t prove that the persons actually ARE the wrong gender, only that their FEELING has, in 20% of cases, a genetic component, and in 80% of cases, a purely environmental one.
By analogy, schizophrenia has a strong genetic component. Schizophrenics exhibit hallucinations. The strong genetic influence doesn’t indicate that their hallucinations are real; it only indicates that their hallucinations have a biological component.
So this Hawaii study doesn’t indicate that people truly are the wrong gender — it only indicates that the FEELING of being the wrong gender has a genetic component in some cases, but not most.
May I recommend that you go speak to some biological researchers to further your understanding of how twin studies actually work, as you clearly either are not understanding the material or are intentionally misrepresenting it (and I’m choosing to give you the benefit of doubt on this one).
How does orientation factor in?
“As reported by Dr Julie Bakker, from the University of Liège, Belgium, the research team found evidence that transgender teenagers with gender dysphoria show functional brain characteristics that are typical of their desired gender.”
For example, is this also true of boys who doubt their masculinity and consider themselves more aligned with girls, yet eventually conclude that it is not they but society which must change to accept alternative ways of being “a man.” My story, my partner’s story, happily in our same-sex relationship for 30yrs.
Seeing the same potential in our (toddler) grandson but not concluding anything : time will tell, the child will evolve naturally to present as best fits given a generally supportive society.
However, his parents with recent psych degrees in child development steadfastly deny their sons evident biological sex for fear of being discriminatory, just in case. The child is confused as to whether his male bosy parts can be female, and this is exacerbated as his folks now do not cut his hair and dress him such that he appears more feminine than toddler boys already often do. Their “affirmation” is actually guidance.
Ultimately, as exploration through science brings more learning, the cases remain individual, real life stories. I fear the maxim: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. In our case, we have not seen our grandchild for years becuase neutrality is not acceptable to his parents. Ripple effects abound.
erm you can be trans and gay btw. sexual orientation has nothing do with gender identity. so nope being trans is not erasing gay people or what not some people think it’s doing. you seem to be implying this. “happily in a same-sex relationship for 30 years”. there is a pervasive idea that people transition to like the same gender. the fact that only 15-19% of transgender people are exclusively heterosexual disputes this claim. i’ve seem several ‘progressive’ people (those who have no issues with gay and lesbian rights) who rally against trans identities due to this reason. obviously, there are conservatives and religious people who disagree for other reasons. that being said, i do apologise if i’ve misconstrued your comment. also, gender identity and gender expression do not correlate necessarily. you seem to be conflating the two. gender identity is your internal sense of self. for example, your partner has a male gender identity but may express feminine traits (expression). a transwoman has a female gender identity. do you see it? a cis can be feminine but it does not make them trans. say a man wearing a skirt. it’s simply a gender expression not identity.
There are NO gender specific functional brain characteristics. This statement is nonsense!
so your children are screwing up their kid because they dont want to cause offence pathetic.
Hello! Could you please find the source? I am researching this topic and I find your comment to be very supporting to my hypothesis. Thank you, have a great day!
Nice Work. You are doing a great job.
Really informative blog article.Really looking forward to read more. Really Cool.