Being a transgender bioengineer has its pros and cons. On one hand, it gives me a huge advantage when navigating through the minefield of hormonal transition (given the huge difficulties transgender people face when trying to find a suitable endocrinologist). On the other hand, I have to listen to/read comments from people who haven’t had a biology class since high school explain chromosomes to me. But alas, as Aristotle once said, “With great knowledge comes great mental indigestion.”

…did he actually say that? I’m not sure. Hey, my specialty is science, not history.

Anyways, you science geeks out here are going to love this. And for the non-science people, I’ll do my best to use every metaphor I know to keep my article interesting and engaging, while hopefully teaching you some sweet nuggets of biology along the way! As you have probably guessed from the title of this article, the title of my blog, and literally everything else about this website, we’re going to be talking about LGBT stuff. Specifically, I want to address one of the primary arguments transphobes throw out to try to convince others that this condition isn’t real: that if you were born with an XY chromosomal structure, you are a genetic male (and a genetic female if you have an XX chromosomal structure). Now, don’t get me wrong, in 99.9% of cases, this logic usually holds true. XY -> penis -> men. XX -> vagina -> women However, if we zoom out from the genitals for just a second, we can see pretty easily that there is more to a man or woman than what’s inside their pants. And if you keep reading you’ll see how the definitions of a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’ are a bit more blurry than you might think. Lastly , I hope to explain how the same genetic code can be manifested in entirely different ways (which is the science of epigenetics) and how this pertains to the transgender individual.