"No, Trans Women Are NOT ‘Biologically Male’"

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“Yes, trans women are women, but they’re still biologically male.”

Ever thought or said something like this? You might even have good intentions by stating what you think is a simple fact – after all, gender is a social construct, while sex is biological, right?

Actually, this “simple fact” of trans women being “biologically male” is inaccurate – and this misrepresentation of the truth is being used to justify some pretty hateful things.


So if you really want the facts, and to follow through on your good intentions by being a good ally, check out Riley J. Dennis’ explanation of why trans women are not biologically male.

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This video is for the people who say, “Yes, trans women are women, but they are still biologically male.” Because, while their intentions might be good, the impact that these words have is actually very harmful. Trans women are not male, and saying that they are allows some people to justify the mistreatment of trans people.

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Alright, so, let’s say you’re trying to be a good ally to trans people, and you heard that sex and gender are two different things: Sex is biological, and gender is a social construct. That’s not entirely true. Sex and gender are two different things, but they’re both partly social constructs – just in different ways.

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Today, many of us recognize that gender is far more complicated than a person’s perceived sex, and we’re able to acknowledge that people can be transgender. Gender was a social construct before and still is now, but how we construct it has changed.

Now, we can say that your gender is based on how you identify because we realized that basing gender on perceived sex was oppressive. Again, I’m not really talking about society at large, because a lot of people still don’t fully understand what it means to be transgender, but I mean within trans-accepting communities.


Because I would argue that sex needs to go through the same change that gender has already gone through. It’s not a static fact; it’s a social construct.

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Sex is a way of categorizing humans based on a combination of a few traits: chromosomes, genitals (Content warning: drawings of genitals, anti-trans aggression), gonads, hormones, and secondary sex characteristics like facial hair or breast development. Most people never have their chromosomes tested. They’re not tested at birth, and they’re not tested at regular check-ups. Unless your doctor suspects that something might be wrong with your chromosomes, you’ll probably never have them tested in your life, and you certainly can’t tell a person’s chromosomes by looking at them.

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Plus, all of these secondary sex characteristics can be changed either through hormones or surgery. When people assigned female at birth take testosterone, they tend to get deeper voices and grow more facial hair, while people assigned male at birth can take estrogen and develop breasts and more subcutaneous fat. And if puberty blockers are taken before hormones, a person assigned female at birth might never experience a “female” natal puberty – or vice versa for people assigned male at birth. So, the sex you are assigned at birth doesn’t necessarily tell you what secondary sex characteristics you will have later in life. That means that telling someone you know their sex based on their secondary sex characteristics is just not true.

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