Intersex people, or those with variations in sex characteristics that deviate from societal norms of binary sex, exemplify the complexities of sex. These variations can manifest in various ways beyond X and Y chromosomes, such as differences in hormone levels, genitalia or secondary sexual characteristics.

The oversimplification of sex based on societal norms has led many to believe that there are only two discrete sexes. The binary framework of sex excludes intersex people and perpetuates their erasure and mistreatment within both health care and society at large.

For instance, many intersex individuals face unnecessary surgeries, such as nonconsensual genital procedures, to conform to binary norms, violating their bodily autonomy.

While sex typically describes someone’s anatomical characteristics, gender is an umbrella term that encompasses the way someone views and presents themselves to the world. Countless aspects influence how someone defines their own gender and how the world views their gender, including clothing, haircuts and voice tone. Similar to how Western cultures have historically confined sex to two buckets, it has also created two gender categories: man and woman.

Gender is not dependent on anatomical parts or chromosomes. People are not math equations, and having certain combinations of biological parts does not equal someone’s gender. For example, some people may be transgender, meaning their assigned sex is not congruent with their socially or self-defined gender. Nonbinary people do not identify exclusively with either of the two genders in the binary, regardless of their assigned sex.

Just like sex diversity, gender diversity is not rare. A 2022 Pew Research Center analysis found that approximately 5% of adults in the U.S. under the age of 30 are transgender or nonbinary.

These estimates will likely increase as societal awareness and acceptance of gender-diverse individuals increases. Anti-transgender legislation often oversimplifies gender as strictly binary, conflating it solely with sex assigned at birth.

Intersex and gender-diverse people show that sex and gender are both multidimensional. Gender is not solely determined by biology, and it is erroneous to define someone’s gender by their sex, much less by their sex chromosomes.

The idea that biology plays the largest role in determining who an individual is, or bioessentialism, has governed misconceptions about sex and gender for many years. This concept is used to confine people to buckets and limit their self-determination.

For instance, societal norms dictate that women should be nurturing and gentle, while men are expected to be protective and assertive. Such rigid gender roles, often enforced through the lens of biology, serve to uphold notions of evolutionary destiny and a purported natural order.

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