Transgender, intersex, and gender non-conforming people #WontBeErased by pseudoscience
2018/10/26
Signed, 2617 scientists
As scientists, we are compelled to write to you, our elected representatives, about the current administration’s proposal to legally define gender as a binary condition determined at birth, based on genitalia, and with plans to clarify disputes using “genetic testing”.1 This proposal is fundamentally inconsistent not only with science, but also with ethical practices, human rights, and basic dignity.2
The proposal is in no way “grounded in science” as the administration claims. The relationship between sex chromosomes, genitalia, and gender identity is complex, and not fully understood. There are no genetic tests that can unambiguously determine gender, or even sex. Furthermore, even if such tests existed, it would be unconscionable to use the pretext of science to enact policies that overrule the lived experience of people’s own gender identities.
The proposed policy seeks to erase the identities of millions of Americans who identify as transgender (individuals whose gender identification differs from their assigned sex at birth) or have intersex bodies (individuals with biologically atypical patterns of male and female traits). In transgender individuals, the existence and validity of a distinct gender identity is supported by a number of neuroanatomical studies.3 Though scientists are just beginning to understand the biological basis of gender identity, it is clear that many factors, known and unknown, mediate the complex links between identity, genes, and anatomy.4
In intersex people, their genitalia, as well as their various secondary sexual characteristics, can differ from what clinicians would predict from their sex chromosomes. In fact, some people will live their entire lives without ever knowing that they are intersex.5 The proposed policy will force many intersex people to be legally classified in ways that erase their intersex status and identity, as well as lead to more medically unnecessary and risky surgeries at birth. Such non-consensual gender assignment and surgeries result in increased health risks in adulthood6, 7 and violate intersex people’s right to self-determination.
Millions of Americans identify as transgender or gender non-conforming, or have intersex bodies, and are at increased risk of physical and mental health disorders resulting from discrimination, fear for personal safety, and family and societal rejection. Multiple standards of health care for transgender and intersex people emphasize that recognizing an individual’s self-identified gender, not their external genitalia or chromosomes, is the best practice for providing evidence-based, effective, and lifesaving care.8, 9 Our best available evidence shows that affirmation of gender identity is paramount to the survival, health, and livelihood of transgender and intersex people.10
Given its scientific and ethical failings, we call upon the administration to withdraw this proposed policy. We also ask our elected representatives to oppose its implementation, as it would cause grave harm to transgender and intersex Americans and weaken the constitutional rights of all Americans. Transgender and intersex people deserve equal access to the rights, livelihoods, liberties, and dignity to which we are all entitled on the basis of our shared humanity. Read the full statement via not-binary.org
Scientists Oppose Administration’s Gender Definition Proposal
Media contact for authors: press@not-binary.org
More than 1,600 scientists have signed an open letter opposing the US Administration’s proposed legal definition of gender, saying that it cannot be supported by the scientific evidence and is an unethical assault on human rights and basic dignity.
The scientists, including eight Nobel laureates, are speaking out in response to the proposal to legally define gender as either male or female, determined at birth based on anatomy, or later using unspecified genetic tests.
The scientists call on the Administration to withdraw the proposal, and also urge elected representatives to “oppose its implementation, as it would cause grave harm to transgender and intersex Americans and weaken the constitutional rights of all Americans.”
The letter explains how the Administration’s proposal, which was leaked to the New York Times, is unscientific and promotes pseudoscience, despite the administration’s claim that it is “grounded in science” as well as unethical and in violation of human rights and basic dignity.
“There are no genetic tests that can unambiguously determine gender, or even sex,” the letter states, and “even if such tests existed, it would be unconscionable to use the pretext of science to enact policies that overrule the lived experience of people’s own gender identities.”
Not only is the proposal unscientific, the letter explains, but it “erases the identities of millions of Americans who identify as transgender (individuals whose gender identification differs from their assigned sex at birth) or have intersex bodies (individuals with biologically atypical patterns of male and female traits).”
In addition to erasing transgender and intersex people, the proposal also endangers them, because they “are at increased risk of physical and mental health disorders resulting from discrimination, fear for personal safety, and family and societal rejection” and “affirmation of gender identity is paramount to [their] survival, health, and livelihood”. Intersex people are at particular risk of being harmed by the proposal, as they may “be legally classified in ways that erase their intersex status and identity” and be subjected to “more medically unnecessary and risky surgeries at birth.”
At the time of this release, the letter had attracted 1,642 signatures. The signatories include biologists, geneticists, neuroscientists, social scientists, biochemists, and other scientists in solidarity. The signatories include scientists working in industry and government as well as academia. The number of signatories continues to grow as scientists add their names. The letter, and complete list of signatories, can be found online at https://not-binary.org/statement/.
The signatories include nine Nobel Laureates (listed by year of award):
Sheldon L. Glashow of Harvard & Boston University (1979, Physics),
Dudley R. Herschbach of Harvard University (1986, Chemistry),
Richard J. Roberts of New England Biolabs (1993, Physiology or Medicine),
Eric Wieschaus of Princeton University (1995, Physiology or Medicine),
Wolfgang Ketterle of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2001, Physics),
Andrew Fire of Stanford University (2006, Physiology or Medicine),
Craig Mello of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and UMass Medical School (2006, Physiology or Medicine),
Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins University (2009, Physiology or Medicine), and
Jean-Pierre Sauvage of the University of Strasbourg, France (2016, Chemistry).
The letter is addressed to elected officials, but the authors hope it will have a broader impact. “We also feel it is critical for this message to reach transgender and intersex people, many of whom are reading the news and feeling like the scientific community doesn’t care about them as human beings,” says Russell Neches, one of the letter’s authors. The letter may also serve an educational role for both policy makers and the public at large.
The letter was a grassroots effort. Immediately following the publication of the New York Times article about the administration’s proposal, with its “grounded in science” claim, scientists began voicing their objections on social media. Twenty-two biologists and other scientists in related fields planned and wrote the letter collaboratively.