“Take them home and love them … just the way they are.”
Sage advice for any child.
That isn’t always possible in cases where the genetic programming is messed up. A person with the XY chromosomes who cannot respond to testosterone does not develop as a male, and probably is unaware of being genetically male. The difference in a male and female brain is not caused by the genetics, but by the amount of testosterone present during fetal development. Without testosterone, the brain is female.
Some individuals are the result of the fusion of two early embryos. If those embryos are male and female, then that person is a true hermaphrodite and has both estrogen and testosterone guiding their growth and brain development.
I feel so sorry for the parents in these situations. What do you do? Not really much of a clear answer.
AIS is proper term. I can’t link to anything as I’m on phone, so do some Googling. But rumor has it that Jamie Lee Curtis and possibly Ann Coulter has this condition.
A one in a thousand biological accident does not violate the male/female binary of the human species.
And radical physical mutilation to make a man a “woman” doesn’t prove the gender barrier is as mutable as sex roles.
Fascinating article.
mark