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“Getting a sex change” is also an old timey term for gender reassignment surgery, so I’m seeing more of a general move from sex towards gender when it comes to trans discourse. Definitions are generally fuzzy and shift over time anyway and nature doesn’t care for human’s need to categorise everything into neat little boxes.
Even sex doesn’t have an easy binary scientific definition (how do you categorise intersex individuals?) and so best to precisely detail what you’re saying. I personally think it’d be better to use terms like “chromosomal sex” and “phenotypic sex” - the former you can’t change, the latter you can to some degree. Then you have gender which relates to phenotypic sex but is mostly irrelevant to your chromosomes - we didn’t even know they existed until the late 19th century.
I don’t agree with some of the philosophy behind trans activism but our goals are largely aligned, and obviously I will be more sympathetic to an ideology that supports my existence than one that does not.
In what sense? I live in a European country and transgender HRT, along with many surgeries, are available through the public healthcare system. One of my trans friends got put on blockers and transitioned as a minor. Sure it’s not as easy as the US where you have informed consent, and the public healthcare system has hideous waiting lists (in general), but the medical consensus here is still to treat gender dysphoria with transition.
Thank you!! No worries, I didn’t find your questions nitpicky at all. Even if there’s… strong disagreements, I very much enjoy the fact that people here are at minimum willing to respond and have a discussion around trans issues, as opposed to other forums that would allow no dissenting views on either side of the subject. I’m quite happy to share my perspective, and also try to understand other people’s - I think it’s healthy to poke your head out of your culture war bubble and try to understand the other side beyond the caricatures your own presents, regardless if you lean left or right.
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+1 from me.
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I just wanted to add, that there is a clear binary "scientific" definition, but its not about the normal two possible outcomes its about the only two possible contributions to a single outcome (up to some very new IVF stuff).
The most binary definition of sex is with respect to sexual reproduction. The male participant in sexual reproduction (the male sex member) contributes the smaller and usually more mobile gamete. The female participant in sexual reproduction contributes the larger and less mobile gamete. Together the two gametes makes a zygote, and sexual reproduction has occurred. This definition of sex might be extend to members of the species who could in the future, currently are capable of, or have in the past been capable of contributing that gamete. Members of a species that reproduces sexually but are not capable of producing either viable gamete are not capable of sexual reproduction, and therefore do not have sex with respect to sexual reproduction.
Other definitions with respect to chromosomes, phenotype, etc. are down stream of the reproductive if you are looking for the most precise and binary definition of biological sex.
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Wait, now that I think about it, I heard something about Denmark, but what happened in Germany and the Netherlands?
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Overwhelmingly, they still function as either one or the other sex, and if you want to get philosophical, "both" is still a binary option.
The Cass Review, evidence reviews from Sweden, Finland, and Norway, accompanying policy changes stating that puberty blockers are only appropriate in the context of clinical trials, and statements from the French Academy of Sciences, and people working at it's Belgian equivalent (though no policy changes there yet).
I'm on mobile, so I can't provide links a the moment, but simply googling any of the countries I mentioned + "puberty blockers" should yield some articles about it.
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