Genetics - Letter 2

Genetics

Dad and Mom,

I hope you are happy, and well. I’m doing well.

I wanted to try to tell you a little bit about me, and explain a few things, in the hope that it will lead to greater understanding.  It is important to me to convey to you some things that might help you understand a bit more about me as a person, and about where life is taking me. I know this is all confusing, and distressing, and that it can be a fearful thing.

I’m sure you know that most Christians believe that being transgender is a sin. While there is nothing in scripture about it being a sin, many Christian argue that God ONLY creates “XY” men and “XX” women. It’s actually by far the most common argument and is even used by non-Christians who simply are prejudiced against transgender people in general, so they use a religious-based argument. I suspect you have heard the same sort of argument. So, I think we should talk about it.

I’m sure you have wondered what makes me think I’m transgender. How do I know I’m transgender? It’s an easy question to ask, and a hard one to answer. Dad, how do you know that you’re a man? Is it because someone told you that you’re a man? Or is it because deep in your innermost being you know who and what you are? Mom, how do you know you’re a woman? Is it because someone told you that you’re a woman? Or is it because you have absolutely no doubt that you are a female? Dad, you’ve always been a guy? Never felt otherwise, right? Mom, you’ve always been a girl? Never felt otherwise, right? Well, that’s not me. As I got old enough to understand what guys are and what girls are, I realized that I didn’t match up. I know I’m a girl because I KNOW, just like you know because you know.

Before we go on, I need to define a few terms:

Gender Identity – One’s sense of self as a man, woman, or something of a mix between the two. This is often referred to as who one understands themselves to be, in their spirit/soul. This is not what they see in the mirror, but what they see in their mind, when they think of themselves, and who they are. You have a gender identity. If you’re like most people, you’ve never considered that reality, but you do have a gender identity. Mom, do you think of yourself as a woman? Dad, do you think of yourself as a man? Then those are your gender identities.

Gender Expression – How one expresses their gender identity in physical form. This is a combination of clothing, accessories, hair, cosmetics, actions, demeanor, etc. This relates to how someone presents themselves. So if you can recall a time you’ve seen someone who physically appeared to be a woman, but she was dressed in very masculine attire, that would be an example of gender expression. Dad, you tend to wear men’s jeans, a ball cap, a man’s t-shirt or a flannel shirt. You have masculine appearing hair. You express a male gender. Mom, you wear women’s pants, a woman’s top, and have a feminine hairstyle. You express a female gender.

Anatomical Sex – This is the biological sex, the physical traits that a person has, such as body shape and proportion, genitals, voice pitch, natural muscle mass, body hair, pattern baldness, etc.

Gender expression usually follows, and depends on, gender identity, but sometimes doesn’t. Gender identity often aligns well with one’s anatomical sex. But sometimes, this is not the case at all. Gender identity, though often following anatomical sex, doesn’t depend on anatomical sex. These can be, and sometimes are, different.  There are women who express their gender in a masculine form. Much more rarely, there will be a man who expresses a feminine gender.

Genetics, of course, drives what sort of person we are, physically – our anatomical sex. It’s what made me a dogged defender in soccer, but a poor offensive player. My low center of gravity helped me withstand the approach of faster offensive layers from the other team, but my short legs made for slow running speed and thus made me a poor forward.

People receive their anatomical sex, as you know, primarily as a result of what is termed the sex chromosomes. People commonly believe that these combinations are “XY” (male), and “XX” (female), and lots of people believe that there are no other possibilities. Many Christian leaders (and thus many Christians) insist that scripture says that there are only two possible gender configurations – male and female. Mind you, the Bible actually doesn’t say that. These same leaders insist that science bears this out, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The reality is quite different than what people believe. Certainly, most “XY” people are male, and most “XX” are female. But there are “XY” people with generally female bodies and “XX” people with generally male bodies. There are even “XXY” and “X” and “XXX” and “XXXX” and “XXXXX” people, which under the idea that “ONLY XY male and XX female exist”, would literally be impossible for them to even be here, walking around. Yet, there they are. 

Additionally, there are people called intersex who are born with either all or portions of, both male and female genitalia. The number of people in this condition is absolutely massive, with about 1 out of every 2000 babies born intersex in the USA. Though often spot on, chromosomes don’t determine physical sex with any real reliability at all.

Scripture says we are knit together in the womb by God, and that He knows us before we are born. Additionally, scripture says that all things were made by Jesus, in John Chapter 1. There are many people who are not “XY” or “XX”. Yet, God made all people. Despite clear medical and scientific evidence to the contrary, Christian evangelical leaders, knowing that these people exist, still insist on perpetuating the false argument that God only created “XY” and “XX” people. This, in Bible phraseology, is bearing false witness, In other words, they lie. They lie over and over. They act out of their prejudice and lie to solidify their “Godly” argument. Think about that for a moment.

Then let’s consider Jesus. Mind you, I’m not saying that Jesus was transgender. Jesus was born of the virgin, Mary. He had a human mother. He was birthed. Thus, He certainly had an “X” chromosome. But genetically, He would not have had a “Y” chromosome, because He had no human father. Under that scenario, physically Jesus possibly wasn’t genetically a guy.  In fact, all persons known to science and medicine as only having a single “X” chromosome (as opposed to being “XX” or “XXX”, for example) have been physically female. I understand that Jesus is accepted to be male. Jesus expressed a male identity. Had a male name. But if Jesus didn’t have a “Y” chromosome…

Again, I’m not saying Jesus lived as a transgender person. I’m just saying it isn’t impossible.

Let’s not forget Eve, who was created out of Adam’s rib. As such, she could not possibly have initially been a woman, because if she were actually grown from a part of Adam, she’d have been cloned, and thus, genetically, would have been identical to Adam. So one has to wonder.

Additionally, scripture says that we are all made in God’s image. In other words, who we are, what we look like, reflects God, and who God is. Thinking about that, did you know that scripture speaks to God’s gender identity? It’s true. The Hebrew words used for the three persons of God are telling. Jesus walked the Earth as a man, though He is God and had no human father. The Father is, well, the Father. But the Holy Spirit? The Hebrew word for the Holy Spirit is often rendered in feminine form. The Bible actually refers to God specifically in a feminine way in many places, including:

God comforts his people like a mother comforts her child (Isaiah 66:13); Like a woman would never forget her nursing child, God will not forget his children (Isaiah 49:15); God is like a mother eagle hovering over her young (Deuteronomy 32:11); God cares for his people like a midwife that cares for the child she just delivered (Ps 22:9-10, Ps 71:6, Isa 66:9); God experiences the fury of a mother bear robbed of her cubs (Hosea 13:8); and Jesus longed for the people of Jerusalem like a mother hen longs to gather her chicks under her wings (Luke 13:34).

God created genetics. Genes do what they do because God made us, imagining our internal systems, designing our bodies to do what they do, and it is simply amazing! Car engines send a massive number of signals, on an ongoing basis, each part communicating with the other parts, working in unison. Our bodies are the same way. Proteins and hormones communicate signals to body parts, but long before we have functional body parts, proteins and hormones communicate to our genes, flipping genetic switches, causing a timed sequence of changes and physical developments that help determine who we are. When you think about it, it is genuinely breathtaking. Here’s the thing. My genetic switches flipped too, but some of them flipped a bit differently than most other folks.

The World Health Organization, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Psychiatric Society, the American Medical Association, the Cleveland Clinics, the Endocrine Society, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, the Mayo Clinic, the National Institutes of Health, the American College of Endocrinology and a host of other organizations agree that transgender people are who they are because of genetic and/or hormonal causes. There is a massive wealth of knowledge, all speaking together, all saying the same thing I’m saying. I am who I say I am. I’m me. I’m real. I do exist. I’m not a mistake. I’m human.

Mom, genetics made you a left-handed person. Do you remember when people told you that you were writing with the wrong hand, and made you try to use your right hand? Do you remember thinking how unfair that was? Dad, you’re the oldest of you three brothers. Your two siblings are all much taller than you. Why? Because when you were developing, a genetic switch flipped to something slightly different than it did for Uncle Jerry. So, he grew crazy tall. His body took a different path. Well, being transgender is believed to be caused by differing hormone levels in the mother’s body during pregnancy, which causes genes that typically do one thing, to do another thing instead. Twelve different genetic differences have already been identified in transgender people. Genetic triggers for different things respond differently in transgender people than they do in typical people. In short: It’s part of your genetic makeup. In short: No one chooses to be transgender. In short: It’s chosen for you before you’re even born.

I hope that I’ve given you something to think about. Be well!

Addison