What are your opinions and views about gender identity?

Answer 1

If you ask any of us who have a non-mainstream sexuality, you will get very similar answers. Most of us know/knew by 12 yrs old or so. That doesn't necessarily mean we were sexually active, just that we knew we were different. If you view human sexuality as linear or like a pendulum swing, you have exclusively homosexual on one end of the swing and exclusively heterosexual on the other end of the swing. All points in between are some combination of both, with bisexuality being in the middle of the swing.

The problem is, heterosexuals, especially fundamentalists, expect scientists to come up with a 'gay gene' as "proof" that we are born with our sexualities intact as most of us contend. The problem with that it is, it has turned out to be more complicated than that and human homosexuality can't be attributed to just one gene or even a simple set of genes. Remarkable gene studies have been done with twin research and families of boys where there are at least five full blood siblings who are male. If one of the boys is gay, there is an 80% chance that another sibling will be gay as well. Trust me, being the second gay boy in that family is not a 'sympathy gesture'. Statistically, that's phenomenal. There has also been a lot of recent research in the animal kingdom to qualify homosexual behavior among animals. Turns out that things like pair bonding of the same sex, have a function and the old theory that homosexuality in the animal kingdom were just 'mutant anomalies' is false.

Recently, there has been some fascinating research on babies in the womb and the bombarding they get with hormones by the mother. One study shows that women who have more than two babies, bombard the third (or later) male fetus with female hormones - almost like a 'rejection' of some sort.

The above is about sexuality, not gender identity, though the answers are similar. Gender identity is the persistent feeling that you are a boy or a girl. It is probably inborn, but we don't know for sure. There are at least 4 components to sex and gender identity. That would be the physical sex (your body), your gender identity (who you have always been inside), your gender expression (your style of dress and behavior), and your orientation (preference in sexual partners). All 4 components have in-between states, and can occur in any mixture. For a cisgendered, heterosexual person, all 4 things line up. That would include someone born with male parts, who always felt like a male, who acts and behaves as a man, and who prefers women sexually. That would also include someone born with female parts, who always knew and felt she was female, who dresses and acts as a woman, and who is attracted to men. If your gender identity is at odds with your body, that is called transsexualism. If your gender expression is at odds with your body, then that could be feminism or transgenderism depending on the degree. Questioning society's roles would fall under feminism or a gender equality mindset, while actively trying to vary one's gender expression would be transgenderism. So if your body and ego are at odds, hormones and surgery are one option, while a person whose body and chosen expression are at odds would typically not require nor desire surgery, since their body and inborn identity are not at odds.