"Biological sex" is not a meaningful scientific term
Transphobes use it as a dogwhistle with a wink nudge that "biological" means "real" or "immutable"
Actual biologists understand the complex multifactorial nature of sex and have specific language to reflect that
🧵 (1/x)
JK Rowling is not an expert in genetics. But I am!
Chromosomal "sex" is more complicated than a simple binary. XXY women exist. Hell, XY women and XX men exist because of translocations of the SRY gene.
Stop erasing real people to fit your 5th grade understanding of biology
@WinnowingWind
No, the point is that sex is bimodal, not binary. It is a cluster of multiple traits that tend to fall into two buckets, but not always.
The medicalization of intersex people has led to forced, nonconsensual surgeries and erasure of identities. Listen to actual intersex people
Sure these angry commenters will be excited to read the book I'm writing on the science behind sex and gender and why it's all more complicated than people think. What a great list of questions to refute!
Signed, an actual genomics PhD and not someone with Dunning Kruger 😂
When you're writing for an app with limited characters, it's a conscious choice to phrase it this way instead of just saying "A student who is a trans man"
A conscious, transphobic choice
A student who said they identify as a transgender man asked Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin during a CNN town hall if he believes high school girls would “feel comfortable sharing a restroom with me.”
Here’s what the governor said.
My job involves editing health copy to be more inclusive
We still say "woman"
We just clarify when we mean cis women specifically, or when "women's health" actually means reproductive health that affects trans men and AFAB non-binary people
It's not difficult to have nuance
If you would actually like to learn about the science of sex and gender, and why J.K. Rowling's views are hateful and ignorant, here is a pdf of my Pride talk from Friday
Please share with anyone else looking to learn about trans and nonbinary issues
@ravenscimaven
Can I just say thank you for this? I swear I never see other cis sci commers talking about this when it's the perfect opportunity to explain how science and biology actually works
Even if 90% of the population decided they were trans, that would be fine
You're only worried about the increasing number of trans people if you think there's something wrong with being trans
Ready to share the truth:
I left my husband in Aug
After years of emotional, financial & sexual abuse, the final straw was catching him reading a "Rape is now woke" article
He then admitted to always hating diversity/social justice ideologies
To me
Like a feminist Get Out
Texas is already starting to investigate trans kids and their parents
This is not a hypothetical
This is real abuse by the state. This is a eugenics program intent on stopping people from growing up into trans adults
Traumatizing to watch this unfold
BREAKING: Texas has begun investigating parents of transgender children for possible child abuse for providing them with gender-affirming care.
Among the first is the family of 16-year-old whose mother works for the state agency responsible for such investigations
Story TK
1/
So next time a TERF asks you about "biological sex," ask them what they mean:
Genetics?
Internal organs?
External organs?
Hormones?
Neurology?
And why are supposed feminists so focused on reducing people to their genitals and how they reproduce?
I can't get over how profoundly messed up this
#BethAnn
Sciencing Bi hoax is
It hurts:
- Indigenous people
- LGBTQ people
- the "MeToo" anti-sexual harassment cause
- Title IX cases
- Trust among scientists
- Trust in scientists around COVID
- Efforts to delay reopening campuses
Imagine if the atheist/skeptic movement had been organized enough to fight prayer in school, taxes going to religious schools, and the loss of Roe instead of
*checks notes*
imploding because it refused to stop platforming white cis men credibly accused of sexual assault
🫠
I guess the Pope's views on gay marriage entering the 1990s is vaguely interesting, but what if we perhaps stopped caring about what he had to say altogether?
"Womxn" isn't inclusive
It invalidates:
-trans women by treating them as not-quite-real women
-AFAB nonbinary ppl as "women-lite"
-AMAB nonbinary ppl who aren't transfemme
-Trans men who are men
Just say "women and gender minorities" if that's what you actually mean
I am a geneticist and science communicator
And I'm also transgender
We are a natural part of human diversity and no amount of eugenics, legislative or violent, will stop our existence
Our visible joy is our power
#TransDayofVisibility
#TDOV
#TransInSTEM
Opponents of trans rights use the phrase “trust the science” to make false claims about sex and gender. We support what the science actually says: accepting and affirming trans people has a positive impact on their health. Learn more
The existence of religious scientists is not evidence for the compatibility of scientific and religious beliefs, but rather the ability for humans to compartmentalize
Sorry not sorry 🤷
"Sex assigned at birth" is simply a euphemistic way to say "external genitalia"
Doctors aren't karyotyping infants to see their sex chromosomes, nor are they running an MRI on internal organs
They're just looking at one feature (3/x)
My 1st pride parade was in Chicago at 17
I lied to my parents and said I was going to Taste of Chicago
Every time I saw a TV camera I relocated, terrified my parents would spot us on the news
17 years later and I'm a proud queer trans man who lives 5 blocks away
Happy
#Pride
Y'all
My landlord's landlord just said to me "Jey, is <deadname> around?"
He thinks we are two different people living here
This is unintentionally hilarious
Religion is a belief system like any other and does not deserve special protection from criticism
The onus for providing evidence for religious claims falls on the religious person making that claim. Until then I'll be sitting over here with my null hypothesis
@cmclymer
You know, not everyone is going to read a pdf & I need to process my JKR-induced rage productively, so here's the Twitter version!
tl;dr Biological sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression are distinct concepts and more complicated than you think (1/x)
And last but not least, "mental sex" - what people generally call "gender identity"
It's how trans people KNOW their internal sense of gender innately
It's why HRT has the affect of "lifting brainfog" and alleviating anxiety
The brain is an organ too (8/x)
Time for a
#TransInSTEM
biologist rollcall 🏳️⚧️
Are you a trans and/or nonbinary scientist who understands chromosomes better than MTG and others who defend their bigotry with "science"?
Introduce yourself below and I'll give you a RT!
Let's follow some trans scientists
"Chromosomal sex" refers to how many copies of X and/or Y chromosomes you have
XX and XY are not the only combo - there's X0, XXX, XXY, XYY, chimeras, and more
Sometimes people with XX chromosomes are AMAB, and sometimes people with XY chromosomes are AFAB (4/x)
So I got out (with Pixel) and I already feel so much safer, more relaxed, and in a better place mentally and physically
Relationships shouldn't make you feel depressed, anxious, used, disrespected, walking on eggshells, and gaslit all the time
"Sex" attempts to summarize many variables into a binary that works for most, but not all, cases
For the practical aspect of doing research, most scientists assume cis bodies and/or actively throw out data points from intersex and trans people
But that nuance still exists (2/x)
Feels right welcoming new followers on
#DNADay
👋
Hi, I'm Jey! I'm a Genomics PhD who does science communication for precision health care & research
I don't tweet much anymore, but I'm available for keynotes, panels & podcasts
And I'm writing a book on 🏳️⚧️🧬 - stay tuned 👀
"Genetic sex" refers to the presence or absence of the SRY gene
This gene kicks off "typical" male development and is most commonly found on the Y chromosome
But sometimes Y chromosomes lack the SRY gene, and other times X chromosomes have a translocated copy (5/x)
Hi! I'm Jey McCreight (they/them)
Nope, that's not a typo. Jen, Jennifer & Jennifurret have officially been retired
You can also call me J, or Dr. J if you want to pad my ego
Thank you in advance for the support!
#TransAwarnessWeek
#TransInSTEM
#LGBTSTEMDay
Comic:
@jeypawlik
If you would actually like to learn about the science of sex and gender, and why J.K. Rowling's views are hateful and ignorant, here is a pdf of my Pride talk from Friday
Please share with anyone else looking to learn about trans and nonbinary issues
"Gonadal sex" refers to if you have ovaries or testes
Some people are born with neither, some with both
Some people have internal reproductive organs typically associated with women but male external genitalia, and vice versa (6/x)
Richard Dawkins both has the resources to educate himself and to provide a platform for trans authors to educate others
But instead he actively chooses to be willfully ignorant
He killed the skeptic movement with his misogyny, so no surprise he's transphobic too
"Hormonal sex" refers to levels of testosterone and estrogen
All sexes have both hormones present, with wide standard ranges for each sex
Trans people do hormone replacement therapy to change their hormonal sex and induce secondary sex characteristics (beards, breasts) (7/x)
Three scientific reasons why eugenics doesn't work:
Recessive alleles
Polygenic traits
Epistasis
I accept, at this point, that Dawkins doesn't understand ethics, but he should really understand genetics
Reminder ahead of the
#ASHG22
session on sex:
"Biological sex" is not a meaningful term scientifically
Be specific about what you actually measured in your study when labeling someone's sex
Most commonly that's their self reported legal sex, or their chromosomal sex
Well, I just dropped a full coming out post on Facebook and tagged my family
I know it may seem weird that I'm not explicitly out to them given how out I am on Twitter, my blog, and even at work, but I tend to keep my personal life pretty siloed
Wish me luck? 😬
#Pride
Your regular reminder of what "science" actually says:
- Sex is bimodal, not binary
- Gender is not the same thing as sex
- Trans and nonbinary gender identities are real and part of natural human diversity
Between this and the entire blogosphere being killed by the death of Google Reader, I feel like I experienced a golden age of the internet that will never return
Thanks, unregulated capitalism
My former employer CollegeHumor did this. In order to beat YouTube, Facebook faked incredible viewership numbers, so CH pivoted to FB. So did Funny or Die, many others. The result: A once-thriving online comedy industry was decimated. A $40m fine is laughable; shut Facebook down.
@MaraWilson
Other people have tackled a lot of details, so here are some games I think you might like:
Stardew Valley
Untitled Goose Game
Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney
Overcooked
Animal Crossing (coming out 3/20)
I don't think cis people realize how hard it is for trans people right now
Endless news about new legislation literally ment to criminalize our existence
Matched with radio silence from even other members of the LGBTQ community
It's exhausting
@AlexPetrovnia
Same. Anyone self identifying as "gender critical" is too far gone for reason or evidence or science to matter. They're in an ideological cult
I engage people who are willing to listen and learn
"Biological sex" is not a meaningful scientific term
Transphobes use it as a dogwhistle with a wink nudge that "biological" means "real" or "immutable"
Actual biologists understand the complex multifactorial nature of sex and have specific language to reflect that
🧵 (1/x)
Today is the ten year anniversary of Boobquake
It's hard to believe a decade has passed since I accidentally made an internet meme. What started as a rushed attempt at a funny blog post ended up totally changing my life
Reflection thread incoming (1/x)
This is incredibly hard for me to share, as I know many see me as this strong, independent woman...so how could I *let* this happen to me for so many years?
But maybe being honest about what has happened can help inspire one more person to leave
Again, why I don't want the X
Why does a plane even need to know your gender to fly? Airplane restrooms are unisex and TSA scans are based on visual assessment that assumes binary cisgender bodies, not your ID
@Delta
is discriminating against
#nonbinary
individuals and not allowing them to fly despite legal ID issued by states that allow X on birth certificates and state-issued IDs. This thread is the ongoing saga of me trying to purchase a ticket for my non-binary adult child. 1/x
I don't "identify as" a trans man, I am one
That language exists only to make transness seem like some make believe whim, not an innate, unchangeable fact
JK Rowling is now parroting Dr David Bell, who has done pannels for Genspect which seeks 100% detransition among youth and calls HRT "opposite sex imitation drugs" and youth who transition "failures."
Tonight I'm having some close friends over for what I've been glibly calling my Gender Re-reveal party, but is really a celebration of a year of living independently all around
I can't believe how far I've come since getting out of my abusive relationship last August (1/x)
Dawkins is not an expert on sex, gender, or transgender issues
He's a known misogynist who directly led to the removal of the progressive wing of the atheist movement
He literally blacklisted feminists from cospeaking at events with him
Stop asking him about trans rights
My Uncle is a 60-something retired soap salesman from Chicago who usually votes Republican and still goes to church
And it was the simplest thing in the world for him to make an effort to support me being trans
I wish more people were like him
#TransRightsAreHumanRights
(5/5)
I just "graduated" from top surgery recovery! Surgeon said I'm looking great and don't need to come back in again, unless something pops up 🎉
I am seriously so glad I did this. I simply can't express how much happier and less anxious I am just... existing 🏳️⚧️
12/17/21 6am PST
Tune in for the new livestream hit:
"Pixel and Brigitte Go To Chicago"
Two cats get high on gabapenton and have the journey of their lives
Will Jey make it through unscathed? Unlikely
Well, huge news
I bought my first home and I'm officially moving to Chicago this December
I feel so relieved that I can finally be by my friends and family again after 12 years away
I spent 20 years trying to be more feminine so I could fit in. To be seen as "professional." To avoid exacerbating the calls of "dyke" and insinuations that I was a man
My hair was a mask, and I always hated my hair
Now I can't stop smiling whenever I pass a mirror
I heard y'all love pedantry over the chirality of DNA
But have you tried the drag version?
Presenting Lady GWAS's new hit, "Right Handed"
A parody of
@ladygaga
and
@BLACKPINKGLOBAL
's Sour Candy for
@ParkinsonDotOrg
's Moving Day fundraiser
Leaving an abusive relationship is hard
Leaving an abusive relationship during a pandemic when you can't travel to see family, or receive a hug from a friend, or have any chance of dating until a vaccine is Ironman Impossible Mode 🙃
Here's a thread of trans positivity for your timeline:
I had lunch with my Uncle yesterday
I had been most nervous about coming out to him, since he's the one member of my family who still goes to church and sometimes votes Republican (but completely loathes Trump) (1/x)