Is transgender linked to sex chromosomes?
Being transgender has to do with how a person feels about their gender, not how many X's or Y's they have.
At birth, doctors look at the genitals of our bodies to see if we are a boy or a girl, and most of the time, when someone physically looks like a boy, they also feel like they are a boy in their brains. People whose feelings about their gender matches their bodies are called cisgender.
However, sometimes our bodies do not match how we feel about our gender. Some people who physically look like boys may feel like they are girls. Some people who look physically like girls may feel that they are boys. These people are transgender, where they have feelings about their gender that do not match their body. These people can identify as transgender when their feelings about their gender do not match their reproductive organs.
About 1 in 200 people identifies as transgender in the United States.
Sex Chromosomes and Genetics
Chromosomes are the instruction manuals of our body, and help determine things like our hair color, eye color, and body parts. Some chromosomes are called sex chromosomes which help to determine whether someone has the reproductive body parts of a boy or a girl.
A female body has two X chromosomes, and a male body has an X and a Y chromosome. Sometimes, this is not the case.
For example, some people may have XXY, and some people may have one X or three X's. These are genetic conditions, which means sometimes having these chromosome differences can result in medical complications.
Typically, if someone has a Y chromosome, no matter what, they have the body parts of a boy, and if they doesn't have a Y chromosome, they have the body parts of a girl. About 1 in 1,600 people may have one of these sex chromosome differences.
But remember: having differences in sex chromosomes doesn't mean that someone is transgender. Because remember, being transgender has more to do with how someone feels.
Intersex
Now, there are other genetic conditions that have to do with people's gender that don't involve extra or missing X's and Y's. There are genetic conditions that cause people to be intersex.
Instead of having whole extra or missing chromosomes like with the sex chromosome conditions, many people who are intersex have specific changes in one of their genes.
As I said before, chromosomes are the instruction manuals of our body. Individual instructions are called genes. Each chromosome has hundreds and hundreds of genes.
For example, the color of your skin is established by genes as well as your constitution, and the pitch of your voice.
Intersex conditions happen when a specific gene is different from what is typical. That difference changes how the gene works.
In some cases, when someone who is intersex is born, the doctors are unsure of if they physically look like a boy or a girl. In other cases, people who are intersex may have the body parts of a boy or a girl at birth, but may go through puberty differently, and find out they are intersex around puberty.
Often people who are intersex need medical treatments so that they can go through puberty or for other reasons. About 1 in 100 people is intersex. This is about 3.8 million people in the United States
Some people who are intersex have treatments because they would like their bodies to look more similar to a typical boy or girl, but some people do not and are happy with the bodies they were born with. That decision is up to them and their families. Some people who are transgender decide to have treatments to make their bodies look more like the gender they identify, but sometimes they choose not to.
One common misconception is that "sex is assigned at birth".
This statement is obviously wrong and unscientific.
Sex is established at conception, in humans 9mo before birth, not 'assigned' at birth.
Pronouns
Regardless of being transgender or not, we'd respect all individuals and organisms.
Minorities and majorities should be equally respected and no particular group should try to dominate, as this would be a limitation of a fundamental right of personal freedom and free speech.
In particular, forcing people to use a particular set of pronouns is in violation of such freedom and should be better left to the single individual to adopt, rather than enforcing it by law.
https://www.thetech.org/ask-a-geneticist/articles/2017/transgender-intersex-sex-chromosomes/
