Sex and Gender – Essential but Messy (Part 2)

By Elizabeth Dangerfield

Continued from Part 1

PART TWO – MESSY GENDER

What you don’t know about sex

Please note: This article, whilst scientific in purpose and nature, contains explicit material which some people may find offensive.

Gender identity refers to a person’s deeply felt, internal and individual experience of gender, which may or may not correspond to the person’s physiology or designated sex at birth. World Health Organisation

Colours of the rainbow

A rainbow is a spectrum of coloured light where one colour gradually merges into another so that no boundary between the colours can be seen. Gender is like a rainbow because it encompasses many possibilities of sexual preference and identity. The need to use the acronym LGBTIQA+1 (standing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, asexual and other sexually or gender diverse people) to encapsulate these differences in gender indicates that one size does not fit all. People are complex and sexual orientation and gender identity can be fluid.

In 2023, Gallup reported that 7.6% of US adults identify as LGBTQ. In 2024, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that it estimated 4.5% of the Australian population aged 16 years and over were LGBTI+ in 2022. Young people are more likely to identify as LGBTIQA+1 because there is greater visibility, acceptance, and understanding of gender and sexual orientation among younger generations and because more young people are identifying as bisexual or non-binary. It is not due to young people being induced or coerced to adopt a non-traditional sexual orientation.

The vast majority of people are strictly heterosexual there have always been people with different gender identities. Gender diversity is nothing new. It has existed in many cultures in the past and many gender diverse people have contributed remarkable things to their societies. However, some people have had to defy social norms of a particular time and place to express their gender. People have suffered greatly, and still suffer appallingly in some places for crossing restrictive gender norms.

Homosexuality is not unnatural

Gender is messy. There is no clear-cut delineation between homosexuality and heterosexuality. In a number of societies homosexuality was seen as a natural part of sexual experience and not limiting of later life choices. For example, in ancient Greek societies young men often formed relationships with older men but also went on to marry.

Queen Victoria may not have known what a lesbian was because homosexual relationships between women were often concealed, for example, Sally Ride, physicist, astronaut, lesbian.

But there is no doubt that female homosexuality has existed for a long time and in many cultures. Here is an incomplete lyric poem written by Sappho, a woman born around 630 BC on the island of Lesbos in present day Greece.

He seems like a god to me the man who is near you,
Listening to your sweet voice and exquisite laughter
That makes my heart so wildly beat in my breast.
If I but see you for a moment, then all my words
Leave me, my tongue is broken and a sudden fire
Creeps through my blood. No longer can I see.
My ears are full of noise. In all my body I
Shudder and sweat. I am pale as the sun-scorched
Grass.
In my fury I seem like a dead woman,
But I would dare…

Sappho 31, trans. Edward Storer

From Sappho we get the word lesbian and sapphic.

Other famous sapphic women include Florence Nightingale, Eleanor Rosovelt, Virginia Wolf, Emily Dickinson, Queen Christina of Sweden, Josephine Baker and Vita Sackville-West.

The is no single theory on the cause of homosexuality but its persistence in different cultures and different times despite persecution in many societies, suggests it is a natural and normal variation in human sexual relationships and therefore is likely to provide an evolutionary advantage to the survival of the human species. There is some evidence that there could be a biological basis for homosexuality.

As Thomas Cannon said in 1740 in his book Pederasty: Unnatural desire is a contradiction in terms. Which reminds us that all human behaviour is natural even if we prefer that it didn’t exist. While there may be a genetic component, heterosexual people can have homosexual children, and homosexual parents can have heterosexual children. The adoptive children of homosexual parents are not more likely to become homosexual.

What we do know is that trying to change people’s homosexual orientation, as well as being cruel, is decidedly ineffective. Homosexuality is not a disease, mental failing, or due to childhood experiences or bad parenting. It just part of the gender spectrum and whether it is accepted or not depends our social constructs on what constitutes allowable sexual relationships and acceptable gender roles. In other words, to what extent we value diversity or see differences as a threat to our way of life.

Of course that is not to say that sexual predators are not a threat. But the gender most likelyto force people to have sex against their will is heterosexual and male. Homosexuals are not more likely to abuse boys, for example. Furthermore, more than half of transgender and gender diverse people have been sexually assaulted in their lifetime. Of course, any people in any gender category can commit sexual violence.

Intersex

People who experience sexual ambiguity due to differences of sexual development can feel confusion about their gender identity because they can have (to a greater or lesser extent) both male and female sexual parts in their bodies and puberty can exacerbate their awareness of such differences. Unsurprisingly, people with extra or atypical sex chromosomes, such as people with Klinefelter’s Syndrome (XXY), can experience sexual dysphoria. People born genetically male (XY) but who have androgen insensitivity produce testosterone but the body does not respond to it normally. They are genetically male, but they may have only female genitalia and sex organs or a mixture of male and female features.

Consider the case of Maya Posch, who was brought up as a male, who had a boy’s body then at puberty started to get cramps in her lower abdomen. She was taken to the doctor but because the symptoms were not present then was told that she was simply seeking attention. She then tried to ignore the changes that were happening. It wasn’t until she was 24 that she had an MRI scan which showed she had both male and female genitals in an otherwise feminine body and was intersex (DSD) meaning she was affected by differences of sexual development.

She had a sealed off vagina which explained the pain she felt every month when she menstruated. Later, at 31 her body started producing female hormones she realised that her body had been functioning mostly as that of a woman all along. This led to her to getting surgery to remove non-functioning testicles. This was important, because in the Netherlandsyou can only assume a female identity if you are not a fertile male. Can you imagine going through that process without any knowledge or support!

Consider the case of Hanne Odiele whose parents were shocked to discover when they took her to a hospital to have an infection treated that she was a boy not a female as they thought. Hanne was androgen insensitive, which meant although she was genetically XY, her body did not respond to the testosterone she produced and so she had both male and female parts. She then went through a series of operations and hormonal treatment to normalise her body to that of a female. She did not know what was going on and her parents weren’t fully aware either.

Hanne went on to be a famous model, and get married, and have a hetero sex life. She advocates for intersex (DSD) people emphasising the importance of carefully considering the options before undertaking surgery. There are times when surgery is medically necessary for a healthy life, but a lot of surgery is purely cosmetic designed to make an intersex person look like one sex or another. In 2016 the United Nations condemned nonconsensual surgery on intersex children. As adults they can choose what makes them comfortable in their own skin.

Transgender

You can only know a person if you can walk in their shoes, or at least have an imagination to understand what shapes people. Imagine the distress of being trapped in the wrong body. Transgender is a broad term that encompasses a range of people who do not identify with their assigned sex at birth. People raised as males may feel that they are really female, and people raised as females can feel that they are really males such as in the case of award-winning male actor Brian Micheal Smith. They can often feel distress or gender dysphoria at their predicament as they have a strong desire to be the other gender. It seems that only a minority of transgender people undergo surgery to alter their sexual appearance. Cisgenderrefers to people whose gender identity matches their assigned sex. They may be heterosexual or homosexual or bisexual and but they don’t face this daunting challenge of identity.

The causes of gender dysphoria are not known but genetic, biological, environmental and cultural factors play a role. One thing intersex and transgender people are not; they are not straight heterosexual males attempting to take over the space of straight heterosexual females.

People who are transgender may pursue multiple domains of gender affirmation, including social affirmation (e.g., changing one’s name and pronouns), legal affirmation (e.g., changing gender markers on one’s government-issued documents), medical affirmation (e.g., pubertal suppression or gender-affirming hormones), and/or surgical affirmation (e.g., vaginoplasty, facial feminization surgery, breast augmentation, masculine chest reconstruction, etc.). Of note, not all people who are transgender will desire all domains of gender affirmation, as these are highly personal and individual decisions. American Psychiatric Association

Messy gender – women living as men, men living as women

There are many reasons why people have chosen to live as the opposite gender, but the main reason was that it enabled them to live freer lives unrestricted by the constraints of societal expectations of the gender assigned to them at birth.

In some cases this was to enable them to earn an income, or practice a profession normally reserved to a particular gender, to access privileges only granted to the opposite gender, to avoid gender pathways that forced them into dependence and denied them a voice, to fight for equality, or because they felt that more natural living the kind of life normally reserved for the opposite sex.

Throughout history, many women have taken on male personas and sometimes their sexual identity has only been realised after death. Men have also taken on the persona of females.Men have dressed as women, and women as men, across the centuries for many reasons. Such cross-dressing often was censured by the powers that be for destroying the natural order of gender in society,.

Messy social constructs of gender

Our sex may be determined one way or the other by our biology but how we identify ourselves on the spectrum of sexual possibilities (our gender) is also influenced by the social constructs of a particular time and place. Certainly, the traditional constructs of XY male and XX female heterosexual relationships do not come anywhere near describing the reality of the range of people’s gender identities either now or in the past.

Gender norms, roles and relations vary from society to society and evolve over time. They are often upheld and reproduced in the values, legislation, education systems, religion, media and other institutions of the society in which they exist. When individuals or groups do not “fit” established gender norms they often face stigma, discriminatory practices or social exclusion – all of which adversely affect health. Gender is also hierarchical and often reflects unequal relations of power, producing inequalities that intersect with other social and economic inequalities. World Health Organisation

Unfortunately, people who just want to live their lives true to their own gender identity, without hurting anyone else, are often demonised as if the whole fabric of society is so frail that it will disintegrate if a small proportion of the population wants to live in a different way. It is extraordinary, that a supposedly democratic, enlightened and well-off country such as the United States should wish to eradicate all trace of those people who embrace non-traditional gender roles as if they are some sort of blot on the landscape.

In his first day in Office, President Trump, signed the Anti-Transgender Executive Order Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. Its purpose was to end legal recognition of transgender and nonbinary people under federal law. It allows for discrimination against the full LGBTQ+ community in the workplace, education, housing, healthcare. Unfortunately, it is based on ignorance of biology, history, the reality of that gender is not black and white, the way gender diverse people live their lives, and how they contribute to society. It is also based on propaganda that seeks to promote paranoia.

In January 2025, President Trump signed another executive order Prioritizing Military Excellence and Readiness, to force transgender people out of the military. This action wasout of all proportion to any threat, if any, that such people pose to military operations or other peoples’ gender identity. There  were 4,240 people in the military with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. They made up only 0.2 % of the 2 million people currently serving. Forcing such people out of the military is extraordinarily damaging and demeaning of people, many of whom have served their country with distinction (such as Rachel Levine).  

Over 30 countries allow transgender people to serve in the military as well as other non-traditional genders. Gender equity is a high priority for the Finish military and had yielded very positive results for the operation of the services. It is interesting that transgender people can serve in the military in Finland and Netherlands, two countries that rank at the top of all countries in terms of the happiness of their people and the health of their democracy; unlike the United States that does not perform anywhere near as well given that it is the world’s richest country.

The executive order states that the adoption of a gender identity inconsistent with an individual’s sex conflicts with a soldier’s commitment to an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life and that it is not consistent with the humility and selflessness required of a service member. It is a pity that there is not a similar order to govern who can be in charge of the nation.

 

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