Assigned gender at birth: Difference between revisions
source: own experience working at obgyn office
(→AFAB: Typo here) |
(source: own experience working at obgyn office) |
||
| Line 17: | Line 17: | ||
* '''Biological sex''' ('''biological girl''', '''biological boy''') isn't a good phrase for talking about assigned gender or sex. For example, although a typical transgender woman was assigned male at birth, it would offend her to call her a biological male. She's not a non-biological woman or a robot. Because she is a woman, she might not consider herself to have a "male biology". It would be more tactful to describe her as AMAB. Even more tactful, no direct explicit reference to her assigned gender at birth at all, and simply say that she is a trans woman. | * '''Biological sex''' ('''biological girl''', '''biological boy''') isn't a good phrase for talking about assigned gender or sex. For example, although a typical transgender woman was assigned male at birth, it would offend her to call her a biological male. She's not a non-biological woman or a robot. Because she is a woman, she might not consider herself to have a "male biology". It would be more tactful to describe her as AMAB. Even more tactful, no direct explicit reference to her assigned gender at birth at all, and simply say that she is a trans woman. | ||
* '''Genetic girl''' and '''genetic boy''' aren't good things to call someone, for similar reasons as "biological sex". "Genetic" refers to chromosomes, but doctors usually don't check babies' chromosomes at birth. | * '''Genetic girl''' and '''genetic boy''' aren't good things to call someone, for similar reasons as "biological sex". "Genetic" refers to chromosomes, but doctors usually don't check babies' chromosomes at birth. During pregnancy, some OBGYN practices offer fetal genetic testing and use the sex chromosome result to assign a gender, but chromosomes aren't part of how gender is assigned at birth. Even adults only rarely get to find out what their chromosomes are. Doctors only do that test if they think it might answer questions certain kinds of challenges with health and fertility. Intersex conditions prove that there is no guarantee that a person's assigned gender might match their chromosomes. | ||
* '''Natal sex''' (as in '''natal female''' and '''natal male'''). This means the sex that a person supposedly had when they were born.<ref>"Trans, genderqueer, and queer terms glossary." [http://lgbt.wisc.edu/documents/Trans_and_queer_glossary.pdf]</ref> Because of the problems in determining a baby's actual sex, a more accurate phrase is "assigned at birth" or one of its variants. | * '''Natal sex''' (as in '''natal female''' and '''natal male'''). This means the sex that a person supposedly had when they were born.<ref>"Trans, genderqueer, and queer terms glossary." [http://lgbt.wisc.edu/documents/Trans_and_queer_glossary.pdf]</ref> Because of the problems in determining a baby's actual sex, a more accurate phrase is "assigned at birth" or one of its variants. | ||