In the last post, I began a series on the truth, goodness, and beauty of the gender binary. Today, I continue the series by starting to look at the issue of truth. Today's post will examine facts. The next post will look at rationality.
Truth and the Question of Gender
Truth is that which accords with reality. In scientific
inquiry, truth is what accords with physical reality. In rational inquiry,
truth is what accords with logical reality. Ultimately, in a universe created
by the triune God, “truth is found when created reality appears in the light of
its Creator and his disposition of it.”[1] Does
the gender binary accord with truth?
Those who hold to the view that the gender binary is reality are now labeled as “transphobic.”
This ad hominem attack aims to make the binary position seem irrational
at best and bigoted at worst. But is that the case? Or is there truth to the
binary so that the issue is one of what is true and rational rather than an
irrational phobia? This post seeks to use empirical data to
demonstrate that the gender binary is the true understanding of reality. The next post will build on this and use reason to prove it.
Scientific Data
It is becoming common for transgender idealogues to speak
of “sex assigned at birth.” The statement implies that sex is merely something
foisted upon an individual by a doctor who declares, “It’s a boy” or “It’s a
girl.” Embryologists, however, tell a different story based on empirical data.
These doctors are not confused about how many sexes exist or the fact that sex
is present at conception via a biological process. Christians add that this
biological process is designed by God so that he assigns a person the identity of
male or female.
At the moment of conception, the newly formed person is a
male or female. The chromosomes carried
by the sperm determine the sex. An “X” carrying sperm from the male unites with
an ovum from the female and generates a female, while a “Y” carrying sperm
generates a male.[2] Thus, a
person’s chromosomes determine his or her sex.
The genetic information normally determines the development
of the body so that it manifests male or female sexual systems. “In biology, an
organism is male or female if it is structured to perform one of the respective
roles in reproduction.”[3] Thus,
“the fundamental conceptual distinction between a male and a female is the
organism’s organization for sexual reproduction” which provides “the only
coherent way to classify the two sexes.”[4]
It is interesting to note that such a claim is universally
accepted when it comes to other species. As Ryan Anderson notes, “No one finds
it particularly difficult—let alone controversial—to identify male and female
members of the bovine species or the canine species. Farmers and breeders rely
on this easy distinction for their livelihoods. It’s only recently, and only in
the human species, that the very concept of sex has become convoluted, and
controversial.”[5]
What about the Rare Cases of Physical Abnormalities in Individuals?
That being said, “disorders of sexual development,” which
rarely occur, “can result in ambiguous external genitalia, a mismatch between
internal and external reproductive organs, the incomplete development of
reproductive organs, and the formation of two sets of sex organs.”[6] Transgender
proponents seize on this and claim that it demonstrates the existence of multiple and fluid genders (rather
than distinct and classifiable abnormalities). To them, it proves that sex is not a binary but a
spectrum.
However, there is not a “third” sex. There are still only two types of gonads, even if genitalia and organs are abnormal or mismatched. Therefore, “intersex conditions do not disprove the sexual binary . . . because intersex conditions are a deviation from the binary norm, not the establishment of a new norm.”[7] A disorder does not prove an order does not exist.
“In cases involving intersex persons, there are body, chromosomal, and/or anatomical abnormalities that are medically diagnosable and empirically verifiable. No such parallel exists in the case of transgenderism.”[8] In transgenderism, there is no empirically verifiable evidence. Instead, the argument for transgenderism relies on an inner, subjective experience in which one's physical reality does not fit one's feelings (we will discuss that issue in the next post). Thus, acknowledging disorders of sexual development does not open the door to an endless spectrum of gender identities based on scientific data. “Intersexuality and transgenderism are apples and oranges.”[9]
In summary, the scientific data does not indicate that a person's sex is fluid or malleable. Instead, the data gathered by the scientific method demonstrates that the gender binary is in line with truth. In the next post, we will deal with which view fits reason and logic.
[1]
Geoffrey Wainwright, “The True, the Good, and the Beautiful: The Other Story,” Journal
of Theology for Southern Africa 107, (July 2000): 24.
[2]
Ryan T. Anderson, When Harry Became Sally: Responding
to the Transgender Moment (New York: Encounter Books, 2018), 47.
[3]
S. Mayer Lawrence and Paul R. McHugh, “Sexuality and Gender Findings from the
Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences,” Special Report, The New
Atlantis 50 (Fall 2016): 90.
[4] Anderson, When Harry
Became Sally, 48.
[5] Anderson, 49.
[6] Anderson, 52.
[7]
Andrew T. Walker, God and the Transgender Debate: What Does the Bible
Actually Say about Gender Identity? (United States: The Good Book Company,
2017), 158.
[8] Andrew T. Walker, God and
the Transgender Debate, 158.
[9] Andrew T. Walker, God and
the Transgender Debate, 158.
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