Transgender Identities Exist And Are Valid

Well first of all, gender is most definitely a social construct. And although a lot of people say that sex is more biological and objective, it really isn't. I'm assuming by gender, you mean pertaining biological characteristics (which I'll call sex for the sake of clarity). But how objective is sex really? We live in a world where kids are born with genitalia that disproves that sex is objective, and so doctors perform surgery in the baby so they fit into one of the categories. We looked at all the people in the world, and picked a few arbitrary characteristics that varied between people to varied degrees, and decided that there are objectively these categories we call sex/gender. If sex is objective, then it must be distinguishable. This means that there must be a distinguishable characteristics that everyone of the same sex must have that people of any other sex do not. However, there is no objective thing that everyone of one sex has that no one of any other sex does not have. People can be born with a variety of genitalia, chromosomes, and hormone levels, which is what I assume you mean by biological. Allow me to list some categories that people can belong to or not belong to: People with breasts, people that can lactate, people with a Y chromosome, people with only X chromosomes, people that can give birth, people that menstruate, people that produce sperm, people that have the hormone estrogen in their blood, people that have gonads inside their body, people who's gonads hang out of their body, people whose nub between their legs is less than 5 cm, people whose nub is greater than or equal to 5 cm in length. If sex could be objectively determined by these things, it would mean one of two things. 1. Sex is distinguishable in such a way that if someone has fits into one of these categories, you can determine all the categories that person fits into and does not fit into. This is absurd and definitely not true. Can someone who was assigned male at birth but identifies as a woman use a women's bathroom? Strangely enough, the sign on the door doesn't prevent her bladder from working. And although she can't give birth to a child, coincidentally neither can her mother who has gone through menopause. She may have a Y chromosome, but so does her sibling, who has two X chromosomes as well. Now one might say "well, she has a penis", but the nub between her legs is actually pretty small, since she is someone who was diagnosed with androgen insensitivity syndrome. The point is, what we think of objectively making someone one sex or another are actually pretty ineffective at doing just that. The only reason I used medical terminology throughout this is so people can look it up to confirm it is a thing. 2. The other option is that it's a combination of these things that determine sex. But which ones and how many of them does one need to get to belong to one sex? Is it the size of your nub and your chromosomes? What about when those don't match up? This option is not valid for the same reason as the one above. Also, you never answered the argument of gender being a performance. From what we wear to how we talk, there a variety of different expressions. Society just limits how people can express and identify based on the arbitrary categorization that is sex. Phrases like "boys don't cry" and "ladies behave more politely" stem from these things. Anyone can cry, and anyone can be rude. The fact that there are societies with more than two genders further prove this. In the end, a doctor writes the sex on the birth certificate. The baby's genitalia doesn't hold the pen and sign. And definitely neither does their DNA or some omniscient being. Doctors can be wrong and subjective, especially if the system they use is wrong and subjective.