It used to be called sex-change surgery, even though it’s impossible to change your sex.
Then it was gender reassignment surgery. Now it’s gender confirmation surgery.
But whatever you call it, a simple tweet made an important observation, asking, “Why does everyone that ‘transitions’ pick male or female to transition to, when there are supposedly many other genders?”
That’s a great question. And it’s a fair question.
Why only “transition” from male to female or female to male?
The answer is ridiculously obvious. It’s because there are only two sexes, male and female. Consequently, there are only two types of bodies into which humans are born, male and female. (Those who are intersex because of a chromosomal or biological abnormality only confirm the rule. They do not form a new gender or sex.)
I’m sure transgender activists would have some kind of response to this, explaining the difference between gender and sex or providing some kind of hairsplitting nuance.
Unfortunately for these activists, the very terms they have chosen to use refute their own arguments. After all, isn’t this called “gender reassignment” or “gender confirmation” surgery? Here, “gender” is identical to male or female anatomy. (And note that, in the early days, these same activists spoke of “sex change surgery.”
That’s because biological realities are pretty stubborn things, as expressed succinctly by a molecular geneticist. When asked why she strongly disagreed with the statement that “transwomen should be legally treated as women,” she replied, “Because I’m a molecular geneticist.”
Exactly! It’s as simple as that.
That’s why a trans-identifying, biological male might say, “I’m attracted to women, but I identify as a female lesbian, and I want to transition to female.”
He might even say, “I identify as multi-gender and am pansexual, but I do not feel at home in a male body and want to transition.”
Either way, the choice is male body or female body. That’s because there are only two sexes/genders.
As the molecular geneticist noted, “Being male, or being female is a developmental process. You can’t go backwards. You can't change your sex.” (By “developmental process” she did not mean something you develop in your own perceptions. She meant biological and genetic development, beginning in the womb.)
That’s why, to this moment, every human being is the product of a male and a female. Every. Single. One.
That’s why female inmates left alone in a prison will never get pregnant, even if they are sentenced to prison for life. But if they share a cell with a “transwoman” who has not had bottom surgery, they might end up pregnant. That’s because the “transwoman” is a male, no matter how he identifies.
That’s why people seeking to transition choose either male or female surgeries. How they identify in their own brains is another matter, with an endless stream of choices, including human, animal, and entirely imaginary.
But when it comes to concrete reality, there are only two choices: male or female. That’s why transpeople identify as MTF or FTM. Those are the options.
To be sure, there are some people who identify as agender or asexual or non-binary to the point of mutilating their bodies in a different way. But the surgery they undergo is called “nullification” surgery (seriously). They are not “transitioning.”
When it comes to transitioning, you either feel trapped in a woman’s body and want to become a man or you feel trapped in a man’s body and want to become a woman.
To say it again: those are the only choices.
As Professor Sherif Girgis pointed out when arguing before the Supreme Court in the Obergefell case, “After all, male and female are not just any two sexes, as black and white are just two races. Maleness and femaleness, and a certain social purpose, are necessarily inter-defined: one cannot fully explain either maleness or femaleness without reference to the other and to a certain social good. The reason is that what differentiates them are not just different anatomical or genetic features, but— at a deeper level of explanation— their joint (basic) physical potential for a biological task: reproduction. And this task, its social value, and its link to sexual composition are certainly not mere social inventions.” (As cited in Ryan T. Anderon, When Harry Became Sally, an important book banned by Amazon.)
Or, in the words of Professors Lawrence Mayer and Paul McHugh, “The underlying basis of maleness and femaleness is the distinction between the reproductive roles of the sexes; in mammals such as humans, the female gestates offspring and the male impregnates the female. More universally, the male of the species fertilizes the egg cells provided by the female of the species. This conceptual basis for sex roles is binary and stable, and allows us to distinguish males from females on the grounds of their reproductive systems, even when these individuals exhibit behaviors that are not typical of males or females.” (Also cited in Anderson.)
As I wrote in February 2021, “In a series of tweets posted on February 3, the ACLU alleged that ‘trans girls are girls’ and that ’the idea of sex being rooted in biology is a ‘myth.’’ Yes, the ACLU affirmed, ‘Biological sex and gender are not binaries,’ and, ‘Trans athletes do not have an unfair advantage in sports.’ Accordingly, the only reason to deny a trans-identified student the right to play on the sports’ team of his or her choice is ‘pure discrimination.’
“To this I say – with love and compassion to these young people who struggle with their gender identity – this is a lot of bunk.”
That’s why a 2017 study conducted by researchers in the Molecular Genetics Department of the Weizmann Institute discovered that of the 20,000 genes analyzed, “6,500 of them are expressed differently in men and women in at least one of the body's tissues.”
Those molecular geneticists again!
“Sex-change” surgery or “gender reassignment” surgery or “gender confirmation” surgery simply confirms what we know.
There are only two sexes/genders. Anything beyond that is the product of our own imaginations.