"A Lab Is Set to Test the Gender of Some Female Athletes"
And with that, my hackles went up. "What is this?!", I thought. "Are we still attempting to define gender by, as the article says, 'an athlete’s external appearance, hormones and genes', as though this will give definitive answers? Has Anne Fausto-Sterling's work reached no one of influence?"
Then I read the article, and was delightfully surprised by the discussion, which included the following complex statements, reported matter-of-factly:
Might our understanding of gender actually be advancing? I'm tentatively excited.Although the verification test has changed to adapt to new scientific understandings about gender — athletes are now evaluated by an endocrinologist, gynecologist, a geneticist and a psychologist — critics say the test is based on the false idea that someone’s sex is a cut-and-dried issue.
“It’s very difficult to define what is a man and what is a woman at this point,” said Christine McGinn, a plastic surgeon who specializes in transgender medicine.
Because of a range of genetic conditions, people who look like women may have a Y chromosome, while people who look like men may not, she said. Many times, the people do not learn of the defects until they reach adulthood. “It gets really complicated very quickly,” McGinn said.
Read the full article by following the title link, or by clicking here.
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