This Is Something That We Knew

And now research is bearing it out, gender is a spectrum and is not binary.

Even through this is an article from last year it is worth repeating,

Nature and sex redefined – we have never been binary
A recent article in Nature suggests that biologists ‘now think’ the idea of two sexes is inaccurate; in fact, says Vanessa Heggie, for decades biologists have been at the forefront of campaigns against this simplistic understanding of sex
The Guardian
By Vanessa Heggie
February 19, 2015

 A recent article in Nature claims that biologists ‘now think’ that sex is not a binary feature for human beings – rather than being simply male or female, there are various kinds of sex, such as chromosomal sex or hormonal sex, and all of us exist across several spectrums of sexual identity.

Two sex; five sex; nine sex models
The claim that we are non-binary is well evidenced, but the claim that this is what biologists ‘now think’ seems to ignore much of the history of sex and gender research. This is made clear by the very first comment on the article, signed ‘Anne Fausto-Sterling’. Fausto-Sterling is a pioneering researcher into sex and gender identities, and published controversial work in the early 1990s suggesting that there were at least five different ways of measuring sex – a publication which is not mentioned at all in the Nature article.

The scientific scepticism of ‘binary’ sex – that is the idea that there are men and women and they can be clearly distinguished – started even earlier. In 1968 the Journal of the American Medical Association carried an article by biologist Keith L Moore, listing nine different components of someone’s sexual identity: external genital appearance, internal reproductive organs, structure of the gonads, endocrinologic sex, genetic sex, nuclear sex, chromosomal sex, psychological sex and social sex.
[…]
(Barr) Bodies of Evidence
Moore wrote his article in 1968 specifically to criticise one form of sex testing: the tests that were being used in international sport to decide whether athletes were eligible to compete as women. Sport is often an arena that absolutely insists that human beings come in only two forms, male or female, and has spent around 80 years trying to find an objective scientific test that will prove that this is the case. So far it has failed.

This failure came as no surprise to many of the scientists working in genetics, or endocrinology, or other areas of the study of sex and gender. At least as early as the 1930s it was scientifically understood that some aspects of biological sex and gender identity might not match in individuals, and surgery and hormonal treatments were used to help people create stable identities. There were several high-profile cases of transgendered athletes in the 1930s and ‘40s, so the idea that sexual and gender identity might be fluid rather than fixed was discussed in the popular press as well as in scientific journals. These stories were part of the reason international sports organisations began to introduce stricter eligibility rules for women’s sports in the 1940s.

So when you see those comments about chromosomes determine sex, they are showing their ignorance, gender is much, much more than chromosomes.

In another 2015 article this time in the Huffington Post the author writes about brain sex.

Neuroscience Proves What We’ve Known All Along: Gender Exists on a Spectrum
By Amanda Koehn in Ravishly.com
January 20, 2015

Ever wonder about the brain’s white matter microstructure diffusivity? Don’t know what the hell we’re talking about? Well, start paying attention . . . because it may be important in determining our gender identity.

Earlier this month, the Medical University of Vienna issued a press release announcing that “the very personal gender identity of every human being is reflected and verifiable in the cross-links between brain regions,” with distinctions specifically in what’s known as brain “white matter.”
Translation: We now have some proof of a neurological distinction between gender identity and biological sex. Says the report:

“While the biological gender is usually manifested in the physical appearance, the individual gender identity is not immediately discernible and primarily established in the psyche of a human being.”

Led by Georg S. Kanz of the University Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, the study was composed of 23 trans men, 21 trans women, 23 cis women and 22 cis men. Researchers used a type of MRI (“diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging” is the proper term, should you ever want to sound impressive during a dinner party) to measure diffusion of particles across brain matter. Cis women had the highest diffusivity — which means (bear with me here) that particle movement in white matter brain regions was greatest for this group, followed by trans men. Trans women had lower movement than the former, with cis men having the least.

We are different, we didn’t just wake up one morning and decide “Gee, I think I want to be transgender!” but there is something deep within us that points to our gender… this is who I am.

Nature is very complex and mysterious we will never know all the interworking’s of mind and body, this might be only one vector to why we are trans and it might not be one thing that makes us trans but a whole combination of things that make us feel like we do. But one thing is true for all of us, we just want to live our life in peace.