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by slumdev 1831 days ago
> It is an objective fact.

An attribute that can change based on someone's feelings is definitely not objective. And all of the genders that are neither male nor female were invented in the last few decades, so membership in one can't be factual. Likewise, membership in a construct called "gender" which is divorced from biological sex was also invented within the last century, so that can't be said to be factual either.

Objective [1]:

1. Of or relating to a material object, actual existence or reality.

2. Not influenced by the emotions or prejudices.

3. Based on observed facts; without subjective assessment.

Fact [2]:

1. Something actual as opposed to invented.

2. Something which is real.

[1] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/objective

[2] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fact

1 comments

Non-binary gender identity and roles have been present in human societies dating as far back as 4500 years ago[1]. The only thing relatively new in the last 100 years is the moral panic about it.

Furthermore, from a scientific standpoint, there's not really any such thing as a clean binary division between male and female. Chromosomes get messy, and even absent issues with the X and Y chromosomes themselves [2] there's some fun stuff with the SRY gene [3] and hormonal receptors in utero that can affect gender identity and presentation [4].

[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transgender_history [2] - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9396296/ [3] - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20184645/ [4] - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6235900/

We can be sensitive about edge cases, but we don't generalize from them.

Actual intersex conditions occur at a rate of approximately 0.018%. [1] This is a pathology, not a third category.

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12476264/