Consensus among major health bodies (especially in medicine, psychology, and sociology) now recognises the difference between sex and gender, and medical research has to be cognisant of this difference. Although the people affected are a small minority, their concerns should be taken seriously.
Sex and Gender
Dr. C.M.Mazure asks What Do We Mean By Sex and Gender?:
…that neither the health of women nor men is simply a product of biology but is also influenced by sociocultural and psychological experience. To differentiate between these broad areas of investigation, the members [of the IOM committee] created working definitions of “sex” — when referring to biology — and “gender” — when referring to self-representation influenced by social, cultural, and personal experience.
Thus, recommended medical practice is to distinguish between sex and gender. Although, for the great majority of people, sex matches gender, there are less common but important cases where this is not so. Mazure presents the following three classifications relevant to cases where sex, gender identity, or gender expression diverge from conventional expectations:
Gender nonconforming: A person who views their gender identity as one of many possible genders beyond strictly female or male.
Transgender: A term that may be used to describe people whose gender expression does not conform to the cultural norms and/or whose gender identity is different from their sex assigned at birth. Transgender is also considered by some to be an “umbrella term” that encompasses a number of identities which transcend the conventional expectations of gender identity and expression, including transgender man, transgender woman, genderqueer, and gender expansive. People who identify as transgender may or may not decide to alter their bodies hormonally and/or surgically to match their gender identity. Sometimes shortened to the term “Trans.”
Intersex: Describing a person whose biological sex is ambiguous. There are genetic, hormonal or anatomical variations that can make a person’s sex ambiguous (e.g., Klinefelter Syndrome, Adrenal Hyperplasia).
Trans communities often overlap with, but are not identical to, gender-nonconforming and intersex populations. In popular parlance, these three communities are often lumped together despite having less shared experience than seen in some other movements, beyond the broad theme of a mismatch between sex assignment and gender. Since these cases are uncommon, the small Trans community faces internal tensions and disagreements along the different ways gender can diverge from biological sex (for example, identity, expression, or bodily changes).
Legal change and culture wars
As you will note above, Intersex variations are widely recognised as medical/biological conditions, whereas transgender and gender-nonconforming experiences are often framed as questions of identity and social recognition, which some people find more challenging. Intersex people also face identity and autonomy issues (for example, around non-consensual surgeries). The difference can be more about public perception rather than a clean medical/identity split.
Gay and Lesbian rights were secured through organised struggle over multiple decades allowing for a slow social acceptance. Also, the Gay and Lesbian communities were not invisible. They had been vilified in media and victimised by the police for over a century.
In contrast, Trans people were invisible outside of the LGBT communities. When the Trans people were granted legal protection, there was a social shock for many people of discovering that the community existed, and of having to navigating a confusing and continually changing set of rules over pronouns and transitions for children.
One of the prominent resistors to this changing legal landscape was Prof. Jordan Peterson who announced his intention to break the proposed changes within human‑rights and discrimination law reflecting misgendering. He cast this as a free speech issue in which he advocated he should not be forced say something he did not believe.
Thus, a vulnerable community was pushed to the frontlines of the culture wars.
Vulnerability of a small, diverse group
The small size and internal diversity of the Trans population make mobilisation and self-representation difficult compared with Gay and Lesbian communities, which have had decades to build experienced organisations and leaders. The same few Trans advocates are repeatedly exposed to hostile media and political attention, increasing burnout and making the group easier to weaponise in others’ agendas.
Conclusion
We have a small vulnerable community of Trans people who were previously invisible thrust into a culture war over rapid social change in which the old certainties over gender and sex are challenged. Unfortunately, some media outlets, political campaigns, and online influencers are exploiting this situation and are increasing the suffering and marginalisation of Trans people.
However, the disagreements over youth care, sport, and prisons spring from the suddenness of the exposure of Trans issues. People who have been encultured with the belief that biological sex must match gender will find the nuances required in these areas hard to understand. This is something they had not had to confront with the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual rights and concerns. However, institutions continue to refine their stances and policies as they listen to concerns raised by both mainstream and Trans communities.
As society, our humanity is most on display when we understand, listen to, and accommodate our most vulnerable communities. The Trans community needs to be considered part of society as they struggle to articulate their demands.
AI Disclosure
Perplexity AI was used to research and critique this blog post. Gemini AI was used to generate the image.
