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Jan. 2nd, 2019 02:31 pmFor future reference, here's the argument that biological sex is "just a social construct": https://www.autostraddle.com/its-time-for-people-to-stop-using-the-social-construct-of-biological-sex-to-defend-their-transmisogyny-240284/
Not that I 100% agree with Mey. Mey is correct that as with anything in biology, "sex" is a complicated and messy concept, and strictly assigning everyone to either M or F is ignorant falsehood. On the other hand, most people either have exactly two X chromosomes or exactly one X and one Y chromosomes, and that the means of these two groups differ in lots of statistics related to reproductive function, athleticism, and medical concerns, so chromosomes do have some predictive power.
But it's a useful reference to show that at least some in the trans community do not buy into the concept of "biological sex".
So... I don't know what we should do. I do still think that the current state of the medical record number registration database is inadequate. On the other hand, there's a tension between, on the one hand, the medical authorities will be like "but we have to know your SEX because BABIES!!!" but on the other hand, if we continue to ask for sex in addition to gender, those in the trans community are going to be like... you're still talking about this "sex" thing, you haven't made it better. Like the Gender Gingerbread Person: nice that you're trying to be an ally, but you still have it wrong. (Meanwhile I'm like "what's wrong with the Gender Gingerbread Person? I don't get it.")
My agenda at Arisia shall be to pick people's brains about this. I think we need to integrate the perspective of people at other places in the multidimensional gender space, before I talk to my boss about the letter he should write to the hospital administration.
Not that I 100% agree with Mey. Mey is correct that as with anything in biology, "sex" is a complicated and messy concept, and strictly assigning everyone to either M or F is ignorant falsehood. On the other hand, most people either have exactly two X chromosomes or exactly one X and one Y chromosomes, and that the means of these two groups differ in lots of statistics related to reproductive function, athleticism, and medical concerns, so chromosomes do have some predictive power.
But it's a useful reference to show that at least some in the trans community do not buy into the concept of "biological sex".
So... I don't know what we should do. I do still think that the current state of the medical record number registration database is inadequate. On the other hand, there's a tension between, on the one hand, the medical authorities will be like "but we have to know your SEX because BABIES!!!" but on the other hand, if we continue to ask for sex in addition to gender, those in the trans community are going to be like... you're still talking about this "sex" thing, you haven't made it better. Like the Gender Gingerbread Person: nice that you're trying to be an ally, but you still have it wrong. (Meanwhile I'm like "what's wrong with the Gender Gingerbread Person? I don't get it.")
My agenda at Arisia shall be to pick people's brains about this. I think we need to integrate the perspective of people at other places in the multidimensional gender space, before I talk to my boss about the letter he should write to the hospital administration.
