© Provided by Washington Examiner On Monday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that its prohibition on sex discrimination will include protections pertaining to gender identity. Reflecting the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, this was seen as reversing the Trump administration's policy, which defined "sex" as "unchangeable" and determined at birth.
No one should face discrimination when seeking medical services, and adults should be able to live their lives freely, identifying as the opposite sex if they so choose. But this policy illustrates the Biden administration's continued theme of inaccurately conflating sex and gender identity. If these terms are used correctly, one cannot simultaneously uphold protections for both sex and gender identity because this would be contradictory.
Sex is determined by biology - whether an individual produces eggs or sperm. Gender identity refers to how a person feels regarding their sex. For most people, their sex and gender identity are the same (for example, someone who was born female and identifies as female). Transgender people identify as the opposite sex. From a scientific perspective, the previous administration's definition did not invalidate transgender people because transitioning does not change a person's sex. It only changes their gender.
Similar to Biden's "Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation," HHS's policy prohibits "sex discrimination," when a more apt term would be discrimination regarding gender.
"Sex" and "gender" cannot be used interchangeably because not everyone who identifies as female is female by virtue of their sex. Using the word "sex" in place of "gender" obfuscates this, implying that anyone who identifies as female is a woman due to biology. This was presumably with the goal of facilitating greater acceptance for transgender individuals by diminishing the defining difference between them and non-transgender people. What it also does, however, is render sex-based protections meaningless.
Both documents also inappropriately lump in gender identity with sexual orientation. Sexual orientation refers to whether someone is heterosexual, gay, or bisexual. Gender activists have been very successful in convincing the public that gender identity is the same as sexual orientation - determined at birth and immutable.
Although research supports the idea that sexual orientation is biological and unchangeable, how someone identifies with regard to their gender can change, particularly in the case of prepubertal children. As well, as we've seen, non-transgender individuals will claim to identify as the opposite sex (or a third gender) to access women's spaces nefariously.
Did no one in the current administration go to the trouble of asking a biologist, or anyone with a basic understanding of human sexuality, whether any of these ideas are logically coherent? Or, more disturbingly, did so-called experts sign off on this because it all sounds nice in theory?
When basic terms are stripped of their meaning and redefined according to those shouting the loudest, women will bear the brunt of this - in competitive sports, sex-segregated spaces including prisons, and a bizarre new lexicon that reduces them to terminology such as "pregnant people."
Dr. Debra Soh is a sex neuroscientist, the author of The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society, and the host of The Dr. Debra Soh Podcast.
Tags: Opinion, Beltway Confidential, Blog Contributors, Biden Administration, HHS, Transgender Issues, Gender Issues, LGBT
Original Author: Debra Soh
Original Location: Biden administration's gender identity policies are contradictory and unscientific