#Wejustneedtopee: Your Biology Is A Death Sentence
Whether it’s racist anthropologist claiming people of color are dumber due to their cranial capacity, or women not being able to do the same task as men because they are “physically” weaker, biology has always been at the forefront of discrediting and dehumanizing minority groups. The argument of “But your chromosomes say this…” has been a large tactic used to invalidate transgender and gender non-conforming identities for years.
But what do we really mean by chromosomes dictating gender? What affect does that have on the Trans community at large?
People will very often say, “You aren’t a ‘real women’, you were born with a penis,” specifically directed at trans women. This is often followed by the “you can’t change your chromosomes,” and blah, blah, blah. But sex in itself is a continuum. Freya Brown states in their article, On the social construct of Sex, “Primarily, there are five criteria that biologists look at when analyzing sex characteristics…” These categories being: Chromosomes, Gonads, Genitals, secondary sex characteristics, and hormones. Science has told us that there is a variance in chromosomes, (XX=Female, XY=Male), therefore these chromosomes will dictate certain genitalia. What most people refuse to acknowledge is that people with chromosome variance may exhibit XO, XXY, XXXX, or XYY chromosomes. So someone with these chromosomes may have ovaries, but have a penis, or testes and a vagina, etc. Yet, people are still subjected to surgeries (without consent, or by parents who can “choose” the sex) to conform to this binary idea of sex. This often feels like it’s more for the comfort of those around them the comfort of the child. “Let’s uphold binaries Y’all”
Despite chromosomal variance refuting the type of genitals you may have, the biology argument has caused strong damage and violence towards the trans community. By enforcing the binary sex, we are putting trans people, specifically trans women of color and trans youth at risk.
Joan Scott states, “Gender identification, although it always appears coherent and fixed, is in fact highly unstable. This means to me that gender isn’t always what it appears to be and there isn’t one way to be a woman, a man, or anything in between. But even with this,
24 Transwomen of color/ Transfeminine individuals, have been murdered and 19 Trans youth between the ages of 14–31 have committed suicide in the US just in 2015 alone.
Murder being the most extreme form of violence towards trans people, biological sex defenders have reared their transphobic and transmisogynistic heads in other ways as well. Let’s look for example at Arizona’s bathroom bill. This would require people to use the bathroom the coordinates with the gender assigned at birth or the gender that is on their birth certificate. This has brought up the movement #wejustneedtopee.
I mean do you really want to make him use a women’s restroom
Or her use the men’s restroom???
I don’t think so. I mean really? Come on now.
All humor aside, things like this are an act of violence towards the trans community all in the name of “Upholding Biology,” when really you are putting trans people in danger.
In 2014, California because the 1st state to ban the Trans Panic Defense. This meaning you cannot blame the victims gender identity for the excessive amount of violence placed on them. Sorry peeps you can’t tell a judge, “Well, she was actually a he and I lost control because he lied to me.” Which is shitty in itself because trans people aren’t trying to fool you.
California, to this day, remains the Only state to have banned the trans panic defense.
Again, 24 trans women/trans feminine people have been murdered this year because biology has said they are trying to fool people. 19 trans youth and adults have committed suicide because of constant misgendering, being told they are going through a phase, being forced into the wrong bathrooms, and not being seen as their authentic self because biology says they will “grow out of it”. Biology is asking Lesbian Transwomen why they won’t just “stay a man” and be straight and vice versa for trans men. Biology tells trans youth they are a “Tomboy,” or “gay”.
Trans Latina Writer Mey states, “If sex isn’t the All Mighty Binary Universal Constant that some people think it is, why do they place so much importance on it?” Biological Sex defenders give society an excuse to demean and exclude transgender people, more specifically trans women and trans women of color.
Trans people are here, we exist. We are not mythical centaurs, the tooth fairy, or Santa Clause. We are here and your biology is killing us.
