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by houstonn 1293 days ago
That's a category error. Developmental sex disorders (DSDs) are variations of anatomy, not variations of sex.

The existence of intersex people does not change the fact that sex is binary. Sex is defined by gametes.

Intermediate gametes do not exist.

1 comments

You are choosing a narrow definition of "sex" that isn't supported in current medical literature. Yale for example defines "intersex" as "describing a person whose biological sex is ambiguous" (https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/what-do-we-mean-by-se...). In 2001, a UN committee was formed to establish some guidelines on the definitions of sex and gender, and "in the study of human subjects, the term sex should be used as a classification according to the reproductive organs and functions that derive from the chromosomal complement" (https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysio...). Scientific literature is still a bit fuzzy on the issue, especially when describing atypical sex or gender-related matters in humans, and researchers sometimes prefer the term "gender" because of cultural sensitivities (ibid.).

> Intermediate gametes do not exist.

These are called ovotestis in some people with particular forms of intersex conditions. A subset of ovotestis includes gametes containing both "male" and "female" reproductive tissue.