By Bela “Bill” Suhayda
Sex exists in nature for the development of new generations of diverse organisms within many species. The very important reason for sexual reproduction, in nature, is for the production of new and diverse populations of plants, animals, or for that matter, human beings. Diversity is important for all species of living things for reasons of adaptation to changes in environment. As the environment changes, so must the organisms living in it. Sexual reproduction creates the diversity needed for the environmental changes that are always happening. Sameness of a species would mean anything coming into a population of organisms and killing one individual, could kill all of them. All organisms, produced sexually, have distinct differences from all other individuals in a population. So what kills one individual may not kill another because of the differences. So as a result of sexual reproduction, some organisms always will survive. Diversity is a hedge against extinction.
It is the mixing of our genetics, through sex, that produces all of the variety of human beings in the world. Our genes are contained on structures called chromosomes. Some organisms have hundreds of chromosomes. We humans generally only have 23 pairs or 46: 23 chromosomes come from the male parent and the other 23 from the female parent. The consistency with which the number of chromosomes is the same in every individual born, is amazingly consistent. In fact, having extra chromosomes, or fewer than 46 is very rare. Extra chromosomes lead to abnormality physically, behaviorally, or both. In some cases extra chromosomes or not enough, leads to death. Nature has a cruel quality control system preventing genetic, or chromosomal defects from being passed to future generations. It’s called death. But in some cases the damage done by extra chromosomes doesn’t cause death so the individual can continue to live but not necessarily reproduce. Who are we then if we have three sex chromosomes (XXY) or one (X) or just a (Y)? And how do these abnormalities affect sexual identity?
A person with two (X) chromosomes is a biological female. Having one of each sex chromosome (XY) and is a biological male. Tragically, identifying humans as male or female has become political. We have politicized sexual identity. Politics always will twist, then destroy science. We’ve done the same with climate change and seemingly everything else in our world, including Dr. Zeus and Mr. Potato Head.
When we disagree with nature and her realities, things become bizarre. We have created a political climate in which biological men are now being allowed to compete against biological women, simply because the men identify as women.
It almost never happens the other way around for obvious reasons. This kind of thing leaves me in a quandary because I am a biology teacher.
Some persons experience gender dysphoria. It is a psychological condition with which some young people struggle.
I have run out of space for now. If this publication is so kind as to allow me to finish this article in its next publication, I will try to make some sense of men competing against women and the biology that we have to consider in that regard in the next edition of The Voice.
Continued at thevoice.us/on-politics-and-gender-identification