https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_gender_incongruence

This was very much my experience with the trans girl I grew up with 35 years ago. From the instant she was able to express preferences (I'm talking like age 18 months to 2 years), it was all princesses and dolls and makeup and trying on mom's high heels. We all just assumed she was a gay boy because we had never heard of a transgender person before.

We encouraged her to just keep that behavior at home because she was bullied mercilessly for appearing to be an effeminate boy. But nothing would stop her; she was completely irrepressible.

When in high school, she told us she was really a girl, it was like the most face-palmingly obvious thing. Of COURSE that's what we'd been seeing her entire life. It just made sense. That's just who she is.

I don't think witnessing it is really enough to understand it for everyone.

For example, I don't fit in with traditional gender norms. Yet at the same time I don't feel like I was born into the wrong sex/gender. And if I was born as the opposite sex, I think I'd be pretty indifferent about it. I don't really care either way for myself, personally.

I have both transgender and nonbinary friends and I simply don't relate to their struggles. While I don't feel like I fit in, I don't feel like I'm the "wrong" gender/sex either.

I respect transgender and nonbinary individuals. And I think they absolutely deserve to live their life the way that makes them the most comfortable being themselves. But unfortunately, even witnessing this stuff fist hand doesn't mean I'll ever personally be able to understand gender dysphoria.

I'm supportive, but I'll never truly understand. But I don't think you have to fully be able to understand to be an ally.

The number of times people that have denied the literal dictionary definition of gender when I place it in front of them... with linked sources... from multiple dictionaries... often ones those people chose themselves...

Education about the definition of these words is important, but it does nothing to combat the mainstream conservative position that "the dictionary is wrong and woke because... idk - the Jews want them transes to rape babies or something." The only way to combat that entrenched, willful ignorance is with a big rock.

You're being too kind.

While I know where you're coming from, there's no path to ever making things better without kindness, empathy, and an open mind. Yes, their actions are draconian and misguided, steeped in superstition and myth, but if we simply give up entirely, we don't have any hope of making the progress that we all seem to agree needs to be made.

I don't have a silver bullet to solve the problem, I'm simply suggesting that those among us who are truly progressive should steadfastly seek to enroll others in our cause, rather than simply writing them off as a lost cause. Some people certainly are, others simply haven't had issues explained to them in a way that fits into their world view. Good luck to us all on the path that lay ahead.

Yeah it's the first time I've heard of it referred to as a spectrum. Although the term is insensitive it's more like two sides with a few outliers.

You have your XX females and your XY males making up 99.9% of the population and then some individuals who are XXY, XYY, or XXX. You can even have some who are XXXY, XXYY, or XXXX.

In terms of how that affects biological sexual development and associated gender identity i can't say offhand and it would likely be a rabbit hole that one can spend hours looking into.

https://youtu.be/kT0HJkr1jj4?si=_gOsunaQoUZ0bg0W

TL;DW: your understanding is a simplification. It an assumption that allows educators to move past complex nuances when teaching about broader topics as part of a general education. Chromosomes and gene expression are a chaotic mess in reality.

It's not really about the genotype. Every context that uses sex to divide people into groups has its own definition of sex. Sometimes with a spectrum sometimes not.

Example car crash testing: When testing safety features of cars, you're not gonna care about whether the person has a vagina or not, but features like height, neck strength and other stuff will matter.
Since women are on average smaller and less muscular than men, small people with weak necks will be categorized as female. Tall people with strong necks will be categorized as male.

Example Condoms:
Two categories: has penis (male, can use) and has no penis (not male, cannot use [for inteded purpose]). So if you are XY genotype, but without a penis (idk cut off?), you're not a male in that context.

As you see both examples correlate with the gonosomes, but are not defined by it.

Some figures claim that 1.7 percent of the population is some form of intersex, which is more common than having red hair I believe.