Biology is not Bigotry

 
Key points

• Humans have only 2 sexes
• No human being has ever changed sex
• People with Differences in Sex Development (sometimes called ‘Intersex’) are not a third sex
• It is not bigotry to acknowledge the reality of biological sex

Human beings cannot change sex. No matter what hormones they take, or what surgery they undergo, a male will always be male, and a female will always be female.

We are being told by activists that people can change sex, or that sex is a spectrum, or that there are more than two sexes. Even the Australian Human Right Commission has declared that sex is not binary and that a man can become a woman (and the AHRC has come under criticism in the current Parliamentary Inquiry into Australia’s Human Rights Framework).

This simply isn’t true!

The facts on sex

• Humans have 2 sexes
• No human has ever changed sex

• Human beings are mammals. We have two sexes, male and female, and reproduce sexually. There are no other sexes and there is no ‘in-between.’
• The female sex is defined as the adult phenotype that produces or has the capacity to produce large gametes (ova or eggs); the male sex is defined as the adult phenotype that produces or has the capacity to produce small gametes (sperm).
• Females usually have XX chromosomes and males usually have XY chromosomes. These chromosomes are present in every cell of our bodies.
• Humans cannot change sex. We are not clownfish.
• Sex is determined at fertilisation and can become apparent in utero at around 6 weeks. It is not randomly ‘assigned at birth.’

What about intersex people?

• People with Differences in Sex Development are not a third sex

• There are a small number of people with DSD (Differences in Sex Development.) Estimates range from 0.2% to 1.7% of the population. They are not a different sex, and they are not transgender. 
• In fact, many people with DSD object to being categorised under the same umbrella as transgender people and being used as a ‘reason’ to allow males into female spaces.

Why does biological sex matter?

• Women need sex-based health care and services because of our bodies
• Accurate data is needed to manage our healthcare system
• Calling women by their body parts is dehumanising
• “Inclusive” language can cause confusion among people whose first language is not English

• Male and female bodies are different. We have different skeletal and physiological structures, different health risks, and different symptoms for the same conditions. 
• Only women can gestate and give birth, and only women face the risks associated with childbearing.
• Women need sex-based health care and services because of our bodies.
• The replacement of sex with ‘gender’ in many situations such as healthcare information, data collection and provision of services is causing serious issues. 
• Activists have managed to confuse the language around sex and gender and to peddle misinformation to the point where people’s safety is at risk.
• For example, a trans-identified female lost her unborn baby during a hysterectomy because she didn’t realise she could still get pregnant
• The use of ‘inclusive’ terminology relating to gender rather than sex is affecting women’s healthcare and wellbeing. Terms such as ‘cervix-owner’ ‘chest-feeder’ and ‘people with a uterus’ are not only demeaning and alienating to women but are inaccurate and have been introduced without consultation.
• This language has the potential to cause confusion among people whose first language is not English.
• Effective health care relies on research and solid data into the different risks and responses in male and female bodies.

The legal fiction that there are more than two sexes, or that people can change sex, has seen women lose our sex-based rights and single-sex spaces across the country.