Anyone else think that having to prove you were “born this way” has outlived its usefulness.

I’m mainly referring to LGBT+ identities, but feel free to apply this to whatever you see fit. I still remember the discourse around gay people leading into the 2010s (and earlier than that) was about this idea that gay people are gay because of some gene or similar biological imperative. During that time, it may have helped many people hold more empathy toward gay people, but it ultimately just made them the subject of pity by straight people as though their entire existence was some kind of accident. And though there are many strong speculations, we to this day have no solid answer on what makes someone gay.

Fast forward to 2022 and I come out to my parents as transgender. They pull this whole “love the sinner hate the sin” thing with it. However, a little bit later, I found out that I have a chromosomal abnormality and have XXY chromosomes. After hearing that, they had this massive change of opinion and ultimately accepted me (for the most part). In theory, that sounds great, but it is such a flawed world view.

First of all, people with Klinefelter syndrome (XXY) are MORE likely to be transgender, but around 80% of them still identify as men. Considering in the general population, transgender people are like 1% give or take of the population, that certainly is a large correlation, but it still means that this variation is not some biological imperative for being transgender.

Beyond that, chromosomes aren’t even necessarily (being the key term) tied to sex. Having this, I did have more feminine features which ironically, I was super insecure about before coming out as trans. However, I still grew up relatively normal and literally didn’t find out about it until my mid twenties. Literally the main issues I have from this are autoimmune disorders, EDS, and pots. There’s nothing inherently trans about being able to touch your forearm with your thumbs and getting insanely dizzy upon standing up.

At the end of the day, I don’t really want to be considered some biological anomaly who can’t help identifying this way. I’m transgender because I want to be and am happier that way. If Christians want to find a weird intersex person, they can look to Jesus with his single X chromosome from the virgin birth.