Experts confirm gender identity is biological

[KingSweden]

1) what are androgens?

2) interesting note on identical twins. The only trans sibling pair I'm aware of are the Wachowskis, who are not twins

3) this study conforms with what I've always suspected is true anyhow, which is why I don't get the activists who insist gender is fluid/a choice. Please enlighten me if I'm missing the mark with that analysis, but I've always viewed that rhetorical argument as essentially confirming the SoCon claim that's LGBT is a choice... which LGBT advocates and allies have spent a LOT of time and energy disputing (and with which I agree. It's not a choice, in my view).

[KingSweden]

It's biological because its all about the brain.  A person's brain makes them who they are.

Gender identity is a spectrum and no matter who you are, you have a place on it, whether you're a macho guy or a feminine guy or just kinda in between.

Every one is an individual and every one is unique.

I wish all kids were allowed to just be who they were and not be confined to strict gender roles.

God made each human being their own person.

I myself am not a "man" by society's expectations and standards, or a "woman".  I just identity as other because nothing fits.  Gender is not important to me.  What matters is what kind of person you are.

People who insist that your physical body defines you from birth are just not seeing the bigger picture.

And by the way, a lot of Joe Six-packs are trans too:

I agree with your spirit of your argument, though I generally don't follow how gender identity (man, woman, other) is the same as a socially constructed gender role. Plenty of tomboys out there who still identify as women, after all. And I was not (and still am not) Mr. Macho (though I once tried and failed to be), yet I am nothing other than a man. Not sure I think *how* you are your gender reflects whether you *are* your gender. If that makes any sense. This is not a subject I'm well versed in.

[KingSweden]

Does anyone honestly believe someone would CHOOSE to be transgender (or homosexual, bisexual, etc.)?  Why on earth would anyone choose an extra hardship?  Why would they choose to be discriminated against?  Sexuality is not black and white, and sexual identity and attractions are not simply controlled by one's will.

As long as you're in a state with non-discrimination protections, this isn't much of an argument anymore. Outside of conservative church communities, society is pretty accepting of LGBTs, or at least has a "meh, I don't like it, but it's not worth fighting over" attitude.

It still isn’t something you would choose. Transgender folks are still misunderstood and stigmatized by large swaths of society, even if it isn’t outright discrimination. To think otherwise is to be ignorant of the difference between legal protections and social acceptance.

Yeah, I agree. Chalk me up as sympathetic with the "trutrans" side, I guess.

Does anyone honestly believe someone would CHOOSE to be transgender (or homosexual, bisexual, etc.)?  Why on earth would anyone choose an extra hardship?  Why would they choose to be discriminated against?  Sexuality is not black and white, and sexual identity and attractions are not simply controlled by one's will.

this is the foundation for a pretty bitter division in the online community fwiw between "trutrans" (who view transgenderism strictly through the lens of gender dysphoria) and "tucutes" (who, at their most extreme, deny that GD is even a thing and that anybody can chose to be cis or trans or something in between). Tis odd.

I've seen how hostile these arguments (not this one specifically) can get. See also: anything to do with TERFs (which TBF I understand why transpeople take a dim view)