This post, rather than being a reflection on my experiences, is going to be more of a set of tools that I hope are useful for you. I’m writing this specifically to provide sources to help those that have even a slight possibility of listening, understand that being transgender is more than just a “feeling” or how someone “chooses” to live.
Being trans is not an ideology that was or can be “groomed” or “taught.” The complex microbiological factors that lead to the development of someone’s gender identity also aren’t things that can be taught in grade school biology class, which is another widely used catch phrase by those that wish to criticize trans folks.
Being trans is a fundamental aspect to someone’s brain biochemistry.
While I’m not a scientist that can break these complex subjects down personally, we’re fortunate to live in a time where many doctors and scientists alike have collaborated, peer reviewed, and published many different bodies of research to give us the understanding that we have today on what it means to be trans.
So let’s get right into it, shall we.
If watching or listening to something in the background is more your style, or the style of the person you may want to send this to, check out this video from biologist Forrest Valkai that does a spectacular job breaking down the fundamentals of biology in relation to chromosomes, sex characteristics, and gender identity. This is probably one of my favorite videos on the subject, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
As for written studies on the subject, here’s a list of some of my favorites:
This article from PubMed, one of the most respected research publicans of Medicine on the planet, categorizes explains the sexual differentiation of the human brain in relation to gender identity.
This site goes into detail about how MRI scans suggest transgender people’s brains resemble their identified gender.
Here’s a great research paper from the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University about how gene variants provide insight into the brain/body incongruence in transgender people.
Here’s a fantastic article from Oxford Academic about how a sex difference in the hypothalamic uncinate nucleus has a relationship to someone’s gender identity. It is worth noting that this research was presented in 2008, proving once again that this isn’t some “ideology that started just a few years ago by the woke left” as some people have started to claim.
Here is another, also from 2008, also from PubMed, about genetic expression and androgen receptor length being a contributing factor to being trans.
Here’s an article from ScienceDirect that has more than 10 collaborative scientists confirming that there is a molecular basis for gender dysphoria, by discussing the androgen and estrogen receptor interactions.
This next one is one of my favorites and is especially useful as a rebuttal to “trans people are just mentally ill, get them help!” It is from the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and it is simply the page on gender dysphoria, the mental anguish that typically drives a trans person to want to transition, though is not required to want to transition.
It’s relevant because this is the APA, comprised of the most well respected mental health professionals in American academia and in this diagnosis page, they have a whole section dedicated to the treatment of a trans person with gender dysphoria, and it is simply to transition.
So the next time you see someone saying “get help! Mentally ill!” it’s worth noting the “help” they’re referring to, is quite literally to transition.
Oh? Someone isn’t arguing the science anymore but is now quoting Blanchard, the disgraced scientist with a bunk theory that proved to be wildly inaccurate? Look no further.
Here is a critique of Blanchard dating back nearly 15 years.
Here is a great piece by Julia Serano, a biochemist from Princeton deconstructing the autogynephilia framework presented by Blanchard.
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I intend to keep this blog post alive and to provide new sources as they are released, and even to make revisions as needed if one doesn’t seem up to par with disputing the narrative that being trans is merely “an ideology” adequately enough.
I was inspired to write this because I’ve seen this blatantly incorrect phrase thrown around many different online spaces. Despite the prevalence of this false narrative, I am still of the mind that most people are skeptical of being trans not because they’re all evil, but because they’re simply ignorant.
And I don’t use the word “ignorant” as a pejorative, but rather it’s simple definition—they don’t know any better. They do not know what they do not know, and so like most people being faced with something they don’t understand, they lash out.
I hope this post is used as a tool and a resource to many people that are trying to explain what being trans is to others from a more scientific perspective.
If you’re a trans person that has maybe struggled with your own body incongruence and think you’re just crazy, or even that you’re alone in how you feel, I hope these help you understand that you are not alone, and that baby, you were born this way.
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