I post this not in the hope that any conservative 'Christians' will actually read and try to understand it. They will, of course, continue to falsely insist that the issues it discusses haven't been addressed. But this might be an easy place to bookmark and point to next time they whine about questions not having been answered.
Of course, I harbour no hope at all that any of them will actually honestly address the issue.
Humans have two sex chromosomes - they are labelled (although, of course, the labels are arbitrary) x and y. Those with two x's (i.e., XX) are biologically female; they have female genitals. Those with an x and a y (i.e., XY) are biologically male; they have male genitals*.
Each human also has an innate sense of whether they are male, female, both or neither. This is known as their 'gender' or 'gender identity'.
gender:
- either the male or female division of a species, especially as differentiated by social and cultural roles and behavior: the feminine gender.
- a similar category of human beings that is outside the male/female binary classification and is based on the individual's personal awareness or identity.
gender identity
a person's inner sense of being male or female, usually developed during early childhood as a result of parental rearing practices and societal influences and strengthened during puberty by hormonal changes.
Like myself, the majority of people have a gender identity that corresponds with their biological sex. Unfortunately, a significant portion of the population does not. They are biologically not female, but have a gender identity of female, for example. In some circumstances, this is labelled 'gender dysphoria'.
gender dysphoria
a psychological condition marked by significant emotional distress and impairment in life functioning, caused by a lack of congruence between gender identity and sex assigned at birth.
It is important to note that gender dysphoria is not an illness, and DSM V does not list it as one. It is also important to note that not all people whose biological sex differs from their gender identity have the condition known as gender dysphoria; gender dysphoria is, as the definition says, "marked by significant emotional distress and impairment in life functioning". We have no way of knowing how many people have a biological sex that differs from their gender identity but deal with it without their lives being "marked by significant emotional distress and impairment in life functioning".
There is no way to resolve this "lack of congruence between gender identity and sex". It can't be reasoned or counselled away; no medication 'fixes' it.
The best way to deal with this condition yet discovered is for the person with it to live, in every way feasible, as the gender as which they identify, rather than as their biological sex. Those who do this are known as 'trans'. A person who is not biologically female but lives as a female in every way feasible is a transwoman; a person who is not biologically male but lives as a male in every way feasible is a transman.
It is also customary to drop the 'trans', noting that a transwoman is a woman, and a transman is a man. It is not an attempt to deny, obliterate or denigrate the person's biological sex; it is merely to note that the way that they present themselves to the world is by their gender, rather than their biological sex. Of course, this utilises the propensity of English language words to have multiple meanings. In this case, among other meanings, 'male' (for example) can refer to a person's biological sex or to their gender, as can similar terms like 'man'. The same is true of the female versions of such words. Thus a person could be a male (biological sex) woman (gender) or a female (biological sex) man (gender).
Some have complained that in English, words cannot have multiple meanings; 'male', therefore, only and always refers to a person's biological sex. This is false both in general (huge numbers of English language words have multiple meanings) and in particular, as shown by the dictionary.
male
a: (1) : of, relating to, or being the sex that typically has the capacity to produce relatively small, usually motile gametes which fertilize the eggs of a female
(2) : having or producing only stamens or staminate flowers a male holly
b : having a gender identity that is the opposite of female
In order to aid and show support for such people, large parts of society have chosen to treat such people, in every way feasible, as being of the gender as which they identify, and support their 'transitioning' from one gender to another. Thus, there is huge support for such people from large sections of society. Why anybody would object to helping others in such a way is beyond me.
*I deliberately omit from this discussion those relatively rare people who have other than XX or XY chromosomes. I do this not to ignore, denigrate or dismiss their position or minimise the problems that arise from such a situation, but rather to simplify the discussion in the hopes that the conservative 'Christians' will be able to understand it, without getting into the complexities of the various varieties of intersexed persons.