So gender is based on your genes?

[Dalebert]

So this is a dood?
Genetically XY but his body is immune to adrogen (male hormones). Always has been, even as a fetus.

MY ANDROGEN INSENSITIVITY SYNDROME STORY

[Diogenes The Cynic]

One things for certain. She would never pass a piss test.

[Cognitive Dissident]

I'd say yes, gender is genetic, but it's more complicated than just a Y chromosome, apparently. The reason I say this is because androgen insensitivity is genetic (at least according to what I read.)

Does it matter? In the sense of nature vs nurture, it does. Also, according to what I read, I'd say it leads to the confirmation of more than two possibilities: male, female, other/between/none.

Seems much like the idea of a scale of sexual preferences, though probably unrelated in a scientific sense (and I really cannot personally speak to that, because I don't feel I'm anywhere but one end of that scale--besides, that wouldn't have a lot of bearing on other peoples' experiences.)

[Brooklyn Red Leg]

This just illustrates that we really don't know shit from shinola about evolutionary biology. The Human Genome Project showed results that weren't predicted (far fewer genes than originally predicted). Every time we think we have all the answers we end up with egg on our face.

Edit: And let's face it, she's easy on the eyes (guy or not).

[Dalebert]

Would you do her knowing that your seed would never find purchase in her barren, bloodless vagina?

[SeanD]

Shit dood that is a bonus.

[Brooklyn Red Leg]

Shit dood that is a bonus.

Pretty much nails it. I wouldn't have to worry about accidentally ending up a father. Besides, there is always adoption.

[Diogenes The Cynic]

Thought about it a little more, and I think I have an answer for myself.

John Locke once wrote about brain transplants and how we would view the new person after the switch. That pretty much began the debate on identity. I've heard arguments both ways, but the best argument I've heard is that we generally base our perception of identity as relating to the ability to change in any way, but remain the same person as long as the connection from one entity to another is distinct. For example, if somebody immigrates to another country, and changes their citizenship, we still say they're the same person. If a convict repents for the crimes he committed, he remains the same person. Maybe he changed, but him as a person didn't.

So, the same would apply to someone who is transgender. We would say that they were born one sex, and switched to another, but remain the original person.

But this chick? She was born like a girl, acted like a girl her entire life, and knew nothing besides being a girl, so I think that makes her totally female. Her having XY chromosomes doesn't fit into the picture.

[snowdog2012]

Here is a story I ran into today on "Epigenetics".

http://io9.com/5967426/scientists-confirm-that-homosexuality-is-not-genetic--but-it-arises-in-the-womb?popular=true

Epigenetic mechanisms can be seen as an added layer of information that clings to our DNA. Epi-marks regulate the expression of genes according to the strength of external cues. Genes are basically the instruction book, while epi-marks direct how those instructions get carried out. For example, they can determine when, where, and how much of a gene gets expressed.

[Dalebert]

So, the same would apply to someone who is transgender. We would say that they were born one sex, and switched to another, but remain the original person.

You're kind of right. I'm glad you mentioned the brain transplant because I used that analogy on the show to talk about this and also about being gay.

Our brains are the part of us that we most associate with our own identity. Nothing else really counts in the big scheme of things. We lose an arm, we're still the same person. But imagine someone wanted to cure you of a mental disorder via a brain transplant. Your doc says, we've got a cure for your schizophrenia! We have a donor brain that we've managed to keep alive (this is a sci-fi example, obviously) that is genetically compatible and completely free of any mental disorders!

Doesn't sound so appealing, does it? Sounds like death actually. Well, when someone talks about curing a trans person or a gay person by changing their brain, that's part of their identity. It's sounds anywhere from nigh impossible to not very appealing even if it were possible, but it's also a partial death of the person you are. Changing your body, if you're trans, is actually less dramatic than trying to change your identity--your brain.

So when I said you're half right, what I mean is yes, they are still the original person like you said. However, the original person was actually the gender that they were in their head all along; not the gender that society had assigned to them based on their physical appearance.

[John Shaw]

*Shrug*

Genes + Developmental. Maybe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics

Shit gets switched on and off here and there. Development sometimes leads and sometimes follows. At least that's the shit they're slinging lately.

Unstamped embryos are all female at first so nobody's fucking sure at this point anyhow.

Girls are soft and they smell right and have girl parts and look like girls, last time I checked. I guess if you can get to that by chopping up an unhappy dude and stuffing him full of chemicals for a while more power to him.

Seems to me like the only issue is disclosure and honesty. It's fucked up and damaging to other people to be confronted with little facts like "Yeah, used to sport a seven inch cock but now I listen to Sarah McLaughlin and Enya while sipping herbal tea in the tub."*

Be who you are, by all means, but being who you are means being *everything you are*, and not bullshitting about this sort of thing.

It's always seemed like some sort of death wish for intersex (Whatever the current term is, I don't give a fuck, you know what I mean) people to play fast and lose with the gender thing and try to trick dudes/chicks into sleeping with them before dropping trou and going trolololo. I imagine that sort of shit would more often than not get you beaten on, in the real, non NAP world. You hear stories all the time but I have no idea whether they're apocryphal or what because I don't pay attention to any of this sorta shit.

"Tranny/sheboy/Mr/s potatohead person beaten to within inches of their life for sucking/fucking othersex person and bumming them out with their fleshy Kinder Egg afterward."

Not right to initiate force either way but that's what's gonna happen if you pull those sorta stunts.

The whole thing is so far outside of my limited, boringly pedestrian stereotypical hetero maleness that I probably shouldn't even chime in, but there ya go.

*-I'm just being silly there.