Do you think gender minorities should be afforded the same civil rights protections by the federal government as racial minorities?

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Though the terms gender and sex are often used interchangeably, the two terms have distinct meanings. Sex refers to biological differences among members of a species, typically observable in the chromosomes and reproductive systems of an organism. Gender, on the other hand, refers to social and cultural identity based on a set of expectations regarding characteristics, behaviors, and norms. Gender identity refers to an individual’s internal sense of their own gender and how they determine they fit into their culture’s gender paradigm. In many cultures, the concepts of gender and sex have traditionally been divided into the binaries of male or female (sex) and masculine or feminine (gender), which do not allow for alternatives. While some people continue to hold the view that only these binaries exist, this idea has been challenged by academics in the sciences and the humanities. Scientists have objected to the binary model because such a view is incompatible with physical evidence, noting that biological sex cannot be reduced to two categories. Science determines a person’s sex based on chromosomal karyotypes and reproductive systems. However, the most common forms of male (XY) and female (XX) sex chromosomes only account for two of several known types of chromosomal arrangements. Additionally, a person’s reproductive systems and genitalia may deviate from strict definitions of male and female. People born with ambiguous sexual biology, including some characteristics identified as “female” and other characteristics identified as “male,” are referred to as intersex. Members of a small community in the Dominican Republic known as guevedoces, for example, are born with genitals that resemble a vagina but may grow a penis at the onset of puberty. While scientists credit this to a genetic mutation that prevents the body from converting testosterone, the experiences of the guevedoces and other people identified as intersex provide a substantial challenge to the argument that only two genders exist.

Background

Historically in some Western cultures, people have been expected to adopt a gender that matches the sex determined and assigned to them by others at birth and maintain that gender for life. Since the mid-twentieth century, however, many psychologists and gender theorists have asserted that gender is neither dependent on a person’s biological sex nor definitive. Medical advances have challenged ideas that a person’s sex is permanent and that a person’s sex can be clearly identified as either male or female. People who identify as the gender assigned to them at birth are called cisgender. People whose gender still fits into the male-female binary but is different than the one assigned at birth are transgender. However, these definitions do not reflect the experiences of all people. Some people do not feel they fit within the male-female binary at all and identify as having a nonbinary gender. Nonbinary can be understood in several ways. Some view nonbinary as a combination of masculine and feminine traits, while others assert that a nonbinary defies the masculine-feminine binary altogether. The ambiguity of what it means to be nonbinary, coupled with biological and cultural inconsistencies regarding sex and gender, prevents the creation of a definitive list of how many genders exist. This allows an infinite number of genders, each defined by a person’s own experience. Other gender labels adopted by people whose identities are not adequately reflected by the binary model include genderqueer, gender fluid, and gender free, or agender. Gender identity is distinct from gender expression, which refers to the ways a person’s behavior and appearance are associated with one gender more than another. Just as assigned gender and gender identity may not conform to traditional norms, gender identity and gender expression also may not align, or their alignment may be variable and inconsistent rather than fixed. When a person’s gender identity is at odds with the gender assigned to them at birth, they may experience gender dysphoria. Individuals with gender dysphoria may experience distress due to the conflict between their gender identity and their primary or secondary sex characteristics and sex assigned at birth. This can vary among transgender people and over time, from severe to mild or even nonexistent. In 2018 the World Health Organization (WHO) stopped classifying gender dysphoria as a mental disorder in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD).

Main Ideas

When babies are born, they are typically assigned a gender that coincides with the sex determined by their external genitalia. Though gender and sex are often presented as synonyms, distinctions exist between the two terms. In humans and other mammals, sex is generally considered in terms of male and female, based on sex chromosomal arrangements. The two most common sex chromosomal sets are XX, which can be found in females, and XY, which can be found in males. However, other combinations can occur. People born with some characteristics identified as “male” and others identified as “female” are referred to as intersex. Traditionally, gender has been framed according to contrasts between what is considered feminine and what is considered masculine, commonly referred to as the gender binary. Many experts believe this does not fully represent the scope of human experiences related to gender. Individuals whose gender identity remains consistent with the gender assigned to them at birth are considered cisgender, while people who identify with a gender other than the one assigned to them at birth are considered transgender. Others may identify as gender-nonconforming, nonbinary, or genderqueer. Additionally, some people identify as agender, or without a gender. Some scholars consider gender as something to be learned and later performed. According to this idea, people learn what society expects from them and decide to act in accordance or defiance of those expectations. Children learn gender expectations from their parents and other family members, peers, and the media. People whose gender identity does not conform to the traditional gender binary can face harassment and discrimination. In some cases, gender minorities face unique challenges in accessing social services and employment opportunities. Some states have forwarded legislation to address these injustices.

Shifting Perspectives on Gender

Academics working in the humanities, such as sociologists, anthropologists, and philosophers, have countered assumptions that gender is scientifically determined with the assertion that gender is a social construct. According to this approach, gender is created and collectively defined by society, something cultural rather than innate and natural. As such, parents and other social forces impart the cultural values that inform a person’s understanding of gender. As part of the women’s liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s, second-wave feminists promoted the idea that socially constructed conceptions of gender enabled the oppression of women. They asserted that the concept of femininity had been conflated with submission, passivity, and weakness while associating masculinity with leadership and dominance. To liberate themselves from patriarchal oppression, women would need to shed the cultural baggage associated with gender that prevented women from fully participating in society. Strict adherents to this belief contend that gender is a social category dependent on a person’s nurturing. Some cultural theorists argued that gender’s elements of performance, including conscious and unconscious behaviors that either reinforce or challenge traditional gender precepts, are evidence that gender categories and roles are reproduced through social rather than biological forces. By the twenty-first century, most experts agreed that gender identity, often framed within a nature-versus-nurture debate, is shaped by both. Rather than being tied to external genitalia or entirely a product of socialization, gender identity is formed through a complex interplay of biology, psychology, social expectations, experience, and environmental factors unique to each individual. This more nuanced understanding of how gender is regarded, reproduced, and revised has led activists and scholars to increasingly present gender identity as existing on a spectrum. For some, this idea suggests a linear spectrum with a definitive masculinity on one side and a definitive femininity on the other. According to this view, each person’s gender falls somewhere along the spectrum between the two extremes and can fluctuate during the person’s lifetime. Some scholars have criticized this conception of the gender spectrum for perpetuating a gender binary by defining all experiences in terms of masculine-feminine. Others reject it because they feel such a conception of gender results in nearly every person being classified as nonbinary.

Gender Socialization and Commodification

Gender socialization is the lifelong process through which a person learns about gender from family members, peers, and other social networks. Over the course of their childhood and adulthood, a person internalizes society’s expectations regarding masculinity and femininity. Gender socialization often begins immediately. After being assigned a sex at birth based on external genitalia, a child receives additional trappings that encourage a traditional interpretation of gender. These trappings may include a historically masculine or feminine name and gender-coded clothing and accessories that use blue to indicate a baby boy and pink to indicate a baby girl. Children learn how to perform their genders from their environment, including the behaviors modeled by their parents, their peers, the toys they play with. As well as learning what is acceptable based on others’ reactions to their behaviors. Some parents try to temper the effects of gender socialization through gender-neutral parenting, which encourages self-exploration and discourages gendered play. Some critics have challenged whether attempts at gender-neutral parenting have been successful in promoting gender equality. While girls have been encouraged to adopt behaviors, styles of dress, and hobbies considered traditionally masculine, boys still face stigma for behaving in ways that society deems feminine. When young girls begin to exhibit previously masculine-coded characteristics, such as assertiveness or competitiveness, parents and teachers may regard the girl as capable of meeting and exceeding gender expectations. However, young boys who exhibit signs of feminine-coded characteristics, such as empathy or compassion, may be considered as falling short of expectations by peers and adults. Scholars note that this disparity may reflect society’s bias against feminine personality traits and preference for masculine traits, regardless of gender identity. Popular media also plays a role in gender socialization. Gender role models can be found in films and television programs, which feature numerous examples of characters who fit traditional gender norms or project extreme and unattainable expressions of either masculinity or femininity. Businesses and advertisers often make use of prevailing gender norms and insecurities to help sell their products. An advertisement may imply that a product will help consumers act or appear like a “real man” or a “real woman.” Diet products, for example, are marketed more heavily toward women, advancing the idea that a woman’s social value is more closely tied to her physical appearance and the aesthetic expectations of her gender than a man’s. In other cases, companies market identical products as gendered products by adding “for women” or “for men” to the products’ names and packaging the items in coded designs such as camouflage or pastel florals. Other companies have launched campaigns and introduced new items, hoping to appeal to consumers interested in nongendered products. In 2018, for example, clothing retailer Abercrombie Kids introduced a gender-neutral collection of outfits. Though some parents applauded the retailer’s decision, critics maintained that the collection primarily provided clothing coded as masculine in sizes designed to fit girls and provided few new clothing options for boys, such as skirts or traditionally feminine color schemes. Critical Thinking Questions How does gender identity differ from gender expression? In your opinion, should the practice of assigning a gender based on genitalia in utero or at birth be revised to account for the existence of more than two genders? Explain your answer. Do you think gender minorities should be afforded the same civil rights protections by the federal government as racial minorities? Why or why not?

Challenges and Protections for Gender Minorities

Identifying as a gender outside of the conventional binary can have material consequences and affect a person’s ability to fully participate in society. The nonprofit organization Advocates for Youth notes that gender minorities may be denied adequate access to restroom and locker room facilities and face limited options in terms of clothing and role models. The task of completing job applications, government forms, and other documentation that require a person to select “male” or “female” can lead to alienating or uncomfortable situations. Individuals may also encounter a lack of support or bullying behavior from community and family members, such as the purposeful use of pronouns that align with the sex assigned at birth rather than their gender identity and birth names rather than the chosen, a practice called deadnaming. A study published in the journal Pediatrics in 2021 suggested that transgender and gender nonconforming adolescents face a unique set of challenges exploring romantic relationships as compared to their cisgender peers. According to the study, trans youth reported facing transphobia, experiencing intimate partner violence, and struggling with questions of whether, how, and when to disclose their gender identity to a potential romantic partner. People who identify as a gender minority may face additional challenges related to their use of personal gender pronouns. While some choose to use he/him and she/her designations, others prefer alternatives such as per/per, ve/ver, ze/hir, and the singular they/them. While some critics have asserted that people should not be expected to learn and use nonstandard pronouns, gender minorities and their allies have countered that using a person’s preferred pronouns is an important way to show respect and acceptance and to challenge discriminatory behavior. In the 2010s, prominent style guides used by journalists and publishers, including the Associated Press Stylebook and the Chicago Manual of Style, revised their guidelines to support the use of the singular they/them when a specific individual prefers a gender-neutral pronoun. In some cases, people can be denied public services and civil rights as a result of being misidentified or discriminated against. Relatively high rates of homelessness among transgender people can be tied in part to both employment and housing discrimination, for example. Perceived inconsistencies between a person’s gender expression and their name or sex on application forms and official identity (ID) documents have been linked to problems securing a job or being approved for a lease. Under the presidential administration of Donald Trump, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced it would no longer recognize gender as a federally protected class under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The DOJ argued that, because the text of the Civil Rights Act includes “sex” but does not mention gender, its antidiscrimination protections did not apply to transgender and gender-nonconforming people. In Bostock v. Clayton County (2020), however, the US Supreme Court ruled 6–3 against the DOJ’s position. The majority opinion asserts that “An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex [. . .] exactly what Title VII [of the Civil Rights Act] forbids.” Gender markers on driver’s licenses have generated debate about how the government should accommodate people with nontraditional gender identities. Depending on the state in which transgender and gender non-conforming people live, they can face substantial obstacles to revising their documentation. As of January 2021, fourteen states and Puerto Rico required documentation from a health-care provider to reflect a different gender on documents. Others have much stricter stipulations: eight states require individuals to provide either proof of surgery or an amended birth certificate for new ID to be issued. Alternatively, nineteen states and the District of Columbia allow residents who do not identify as male or female to obtain driver’s licenses and state ID cards with a third gender option selected. In those jurisdictions, a person may select male (M), female (F), or a gender-neutral option (X). Proponents of this shift contend that people need government identification that matches their gender identity in order to secure jobs, property rentals, proper health care, and other goods and services. At the federal level, the US Department of State allows people to change the gender and name on their passport to match their gender identity, dependent on certification from a health-care provider that the person has undergone treatment for gender transition and proof of a legal name change. A bill proposed in the House of Representatives in 2020 to require a third “(X) unspecified” gender option on passports was not brought to a vote. While a third gender remained unavailable for passports as of early 2021, the State Department was ordered to undertake a review of its policies on gender markers after a federal court determined that it cannot deny issuing a passport to an intersex nonbinary Navy veteran who identifies as neither male nor female. Activists are hopeful that this review will result in US passports with more than two gender options, especially after the number of states that offer third gender classifications for ID rose from just five in 2018 to nineteen in 2021. In January 2021 President Joe Biden signed a far-reaching executive order to prevent and combat discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation on his first day in office.

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 2021 Gale, a Cengage Company Source Citation (MLA 9th Edition) “Gender Identity.” Gale Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2021. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/DTAIPY995832430/OVIC?u=birm97026&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=ab0126f0. Accessed 26 Oct. 2021. Gale Document Number: GALE|DTAIPY995832430

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https://www.heritage.org/gender/commentary/sex-reassignment-doesnt-work-here-the-evidence

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