Let's talk about "biological truth"
About that stupid Executive Order
This is repost of a repost of something I wrote several years ago, but since nobody listens to a silly old fashion historian, I am going to try again, thanks to the asinine attempt by our newly-inaugurated felonious/seditionist President who believes that science can be overturned by executive order.
The official statement, from the White House.
The scientific understanding of human sex, sexual identity and behavior is far from complete, and the popular understanding lags behind the science even more. This is true across the political spectrum; I have “liberal” friends” who are similarly uninformed.
What gender experts (actual biological and social scientists) know with reasonable certainty:
What we call “sex” is not completely biological. Even the way we label a person “male” or “female” is connected to cultural definitions of what determines sex. The queasiness and avoidance around intersex variations is powerful evidence of this cultural inclination. Intersex individuals may be a small proportion of the human population, but they exist. Standard of care for intersex babies includes WAITING TO ASSIGN A SEX until the child is old enough to participate in the decision. Some intersex individuals choose not to tick a box from the M-F choice available.
Gender identity is not completely social or cultural; neuroscientists are pretty convinced that early childhood learning about gender patterns and expectations impact brain development and cognition. Children learn the prevailing rules of gender before their first birthday, as they acquire language (Mama, Dada, she and he) and learn gendered patterns of color and decoration from their surroundings.
Gender identity is fairly stable in most children by the age of four. They know how they feel inside and how to label and express it.
To summarize, based on points 1 and 2, neither sex nor gender identity is purely nature or nurture, and neither is binary, but a continuum of characteristics and behaviors.
I know this can be confusing. What makes it even harder to grasp is that gender science is an active, ongoing field.
Gender experts still don’t know:
How much of the variations in gender expression that we see in children are linked to biology (i.e., hormones, genetics).
How biological factors interact with social and cultural factors, especially in infancy and early childhood.
We will never know the answers to these questions, because we can’t do controlled experiments on children. In the meantime, let’s try this instead:
Listen to the experts, even if what they say is confusing. That should remind you that the “truth” is complicated and still being discovered.
Mind your own damn business when it comes to the private, personal decisions made by legal adults or by parents on behalf of their children, unless they do actual harm.*
Protect the Constitutional rights of all Americans, especially if you are someone who took and oath to “preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States of America”.
Declaring that our laws only recognize only certain, outdated categories of humankind and denies others’ rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” is unconstitutional. Period.
*Do not come at me with hearsay, what-ifs, and debunked “news” articles. A little fact-checking on your part is expected; I did mine, now you do yours. If you can’t do that, you will be blocked.
Brava, Jo! You show just how bloody foolish the orange menace’s exec order on gender really is! But you have grey matter that he and his acolytes sorely lack!!
I believe there is no such thing as a stupid human being. Yet, I wonder, how are we innately intelligent beings prone to doing stupid things? It feels like Trickster is at it again.