Lot you are covering here but quick fire.

1. No it is not correct. Sex is a multifaceted thing split between chromosomal, phenotypic and hormonal aspects. Horomonal transition changes phenotypic (physical structural aspects of sex) structures and changes the way the body chemically responds to fit a physical presentation more in line with the group the person is transitioning to more than the group they transition from. If you wanted to be very pedantic about it in a way that is somewhat unkind post medical transition trans people are functionally intersex but for medical purposes like determining dosages of medications and how they respond to medical procedures they are consistent with membership of their post transition group. A trans woman treated as a man by a pharmacologist would be getting the wrong dosage. In this case they need to be medically treated as a woman to receive adequate care.

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2. The assumption that there is inherent biological factors that do not change create logistical problems and errors in medical care. There is a widespread lack in the medical system of doctors who understand these principles which mean trans people can receive varying quality of care from people like EMTs or Emergency services based on the political whims of the place they are in. It also throws gasoline on bigoted rhetoric that trans people aren’t “real” but are frauds “just pretending” as though their needs to be treated as their sex are just skin deep and not a complex mix of complex and fundamental biologic changes and a series of mental and social challenges of interfacing with a society that is unprepared to do the work to understand these differences.

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3. Calling a trans woman “biologically male” is just calling her a man under a different format. That’s really all it is. It affects a trans person mentally the same because it causes them to have their physical characteristics reported back to them the exact same way. It tells them “we don’t care about your psychological needs” The term “biological” being used isn’t scientifically consistent with what is actually going on. The terms are “trans” and “cis” women/men because that registers the difference of experience in a way that doesn’t take one’s greatest challenges of existing and shove their nose in it. It acknowledges that they have crossed a boundary and are what they say they are. “Biological male” is bigotry disguised behind a pseudo scientific veneer.

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4. It contradicts. “Biologically male” places the EMPHASIS on MALE. When looking at any gender inclusive or gendered language the noun is key, the adjective is supplement. A femBOY is a man who is comfortable in his manhood with the gender expression that is feminine. A tomGIRL is the opposite. A trans WOMAN and a cis WOMAN are both in language affirmed as culturally feminine. A “Biological MALE” is medicalizing that persons experience and placing the emphasis not on their cultural experience or on their psychological needs, it’s fronting the speakers desire to comment on that person’s body and categorize the subject as a man with a masculine experience.

There are a lot of good points here, but one that I feel often gets overlooked at times like this is in the history of a person’s experience.

Completely sidestepping the debate, let’s assume a trans woman is a woman. What we’re acknowledging here is that this person lived some of her life as a boy or man. This would include the various biases of that.

A (biological) woman would have lived with a single set of biases and challenges. In addition to the huge experiences around child birth, female reproductive health is seriously under provided for. I’ve met many women with ongoing health issues related to it that appear to be sidelined or completely ignored by medical science.

Trans women clearly have their own challenges, but their societal biases would be different as would their possible health issues.

This leads to me believe that we might view a person outwardly as being a woman, but being a biological woman or a trans woman leads to different sets of life experiences that would likely have significant influences on a person’s worldview, modes of communication, hobbies, interests etc.

I’d say that a trans woman is a “woman” now, but in not having lived as a girl or young woman that she is a trans woman. In the same way that a (biological) woman is not and never will be a trans woman.

Maybe, and why does it matter?

1. sex and gender are different things.

2. Trans women were biological males. But sex is determined by a lot of factors, including hormones. Trans folks often use man made chemicals to trigger sexual development into the sex they wanted.

Think of sex like a slider bar on a screen, with “male” on one side and “female” on the other. You start somewhere on the scale. With hormones you can put your finger on the slider and schwoop that lil sucker anywhere you want. It’s not just for trans folks though! Straights use the slider too. Wanna be more butch than you already are as a guy? Add testosterone! Going through menopause? Add estrogen!

The impact of opposite sex hormones to a trans person’s already developed sex organs is mostly to render them useless, but that’s fine, straights do that too, mostly on purpose. That’s what adoption is for. If a trans person wants to go all in on the change, they can get the reverse-that-thang surgery and turn that outie into an innie.

At that point, there’s like… Zero difference between a “natural born” woman who had a hysterectomy for some reason, and a trans woman.

It’s all very science fiction when you get into the details.

1. Typically, but not always. Some trans women are biologically intersex. (This also depends on how you define “biologically male” which is not totally straightforward.)
2. It matters in some contexts, not in others. Their physician should know, because various hormone treatments cause different effects in people’s bodies, and certain health conditions effect biologically male or female people differently too. That’s nobody else’s business but the patient and their trusted medical providers. As far as their dignity, opportunities, and general acceptance, it doesn’t matter. Trans folks deserve the exact same rights, opportunities, and acceptance as anybody else.
3. Usually people who bring this up aren’t acting in good faith, so I don’t engage with them. On the rare occasion where somebody is genuinely curious and wants to learn, I answer them in the same way as I am doing right now.
4. Because the word “woman” denotes multiple concepts, like the word “parent”. If a child is adopted at birth and is raised by a couple, the child and their community will refer to those people as the child’s parents. This is not a false statement, because the word “parent” doesn’t only mean the direct biological progenitors of a person. Parent also is a social role, hence the verb form “to parent somebody.” This is also why we have the terms, “biological parent” and “adoptive parent” to add additional information when it’s necessary.

Trans women are women in the sense that they are filling their society’s sociological role that surrounds the expected concept of a woman. That will be different depending on many factors, and will have many different aspects including their pronouns, fashion and clothing, voice, makeup, hair, activities, and so forth.

Just like any other woman, they will chose which social roles they desire to fit into, and which ones they don’t, and all of that is completely acceptable.

Try responding with shut the fuck up, or i don’t care

It’s a statement. It needs no response.

1. Maybe.
2. No. Because biology is not a black/white science. There are shades of gray. If you define male as “XY” , then what is a person born “XXY”? What if that person is born with both a penis and vagina?
3. It’s not a logical statement to begin with, it’s a statement of taxonomy, a classification. It’s like saying “How do you argue with someone who thinks red and pink are the same color?” You don’t. They see what they see.
4. “woman” is a gender (a sociological term, not a biological classification).

And, of course, I have MUCH more to say on the subject. But, ya know, gotta start the conversation somewhere…

Good questions, keep 'em coming!

Don’t debate with idiots. They drag you down at their level and beat you with experience. - Mark Twain

Seriously, complex question usually requires complex answers, the type that doesn’t fit in a 10 words meme. If I learned anything, it’s that you won’t convinced people who don’t care about the truth. People won’t change their mind unless they are personally affected by something. They don’t deserve the tolerance they refuse to others.

Let them compete in non sanctioned ways. But there is a definitive advantage to having naturally occurring heart destroying hormones.

I don’t think mtf trans folk are trying to game the system by going through transition hell, but in serious situations a mtf person who grew up on test is likely going to win the fight all other things considered.

Edit: bring on the hate, y’all already proved your hypocrisy.

The IOC just put out guidance on this and it makes sense to me.

I don’t care, trans women are hot.

1. Yes
2. It matters if you want clear definitions. People here will probably get mad over my definitions if I further lay them out.
3. You know those movies/cartoons/web comics where the main character guy wakes up as a girl one day and then starts freaking out like a freaky friday? Or perhaps he immediately starts checking out his own body naked in the mirror? Well that person just became a trans man/boy.
4. Trans refers to the brain. ‘biologically male/female’ refers to reproductive organs.

The only way that trans people make sense is if gender and sex are two separate things.

How is it that I, a straight man, am attracted to trans women if they’re actually men? Does that mean that I’m bisexual? No, because I’m not attracted to cis men. (Or trans men, for that matter.) Think about the pretzel logic you have to get into if you have a worldview like JK Rowling. “Bisexual for femininity” isn’t a thing. Straight men are attracted to women. Cis women, trans women. Women. Period.

Now, I know that it’s about more than attraction, but this is what got me to start thinking about this. Another was this thought experiment somebody gave me: “If your dick got chopped off, would you instantly turn into a woman?” No, of course not.

At this point a gender essentialist would probably start talking about chromosomes. Chromosomes determine what your gender is! Nobody uses this as a definition for gender in any practical way, though. When you’re looking at somebody from across the room, you don’t know what their chromosomes are. How many of your friends do you have chromosomal data on? How about the people you’ve dated? Are they going to use chromosomes to determine which bathroom you can use? Or which team you can play on? This is incoherent. It’s like basing gender upon whether you have an even or odd number of atoms in your body.

I had one person tell me that a trans woman would be unsuitable for marriage because she couldn’t give birth. I’m not interested in having children, but setting that aside…would they say the same thing about a cis woman who’s infertile? Every single one of these arguments is incoherent.

who cares

if someone asks to be called she/her/susan then just do it. it doesn’t need to be so complicated

conservatives ranting about biology are attacking a straw man. nobody actually gives a shit

In addition to what others have said, I’d like to add a little more information.

Hormones work by changing your gene expression. Every one of us has all the DNA for both typically male and typically female traits. Hormones play a part in deciding what parts of your DNA are active within your cells and what parts aren’t. There’s a complicated set of interactions that decides what hormones you produce naturally and how your body responds to them. Sometimes something happens in an atypical way with that complex set of interactions and that’s how intersex people exist.

(There are examples of people with XY chromosomes who have internal testes but are insensitive to testosterone and grow up female, and even examples of people with XY chromosomes who have functioning uteruses and have given birth naturally. It can get very complicated)

When you go on HRT as part of a medical transition, the instructions your cells are following in your DNA switch to the instructions tied to those hormones. That’s how trans people’s bodies change. Their cells are actually functioning differently.

A trans women on estrogen for a long enough time will eventually have their blood proteins go to a more typically female profile. They’ll also see their risk factor for certain diseases switch. The risk of cardiovascular disease goes down (typically something that affects more males) and their risk for autoimmune disease go up (typically something that affects more females).

So are trans woman biologically men? Eh, not quite. Saying somebody is biologically male/female is a little reductive. It can be complicated.