By Janet Marugg | FāVS News Columnist
Once there was a faithful man who climbed onto the roof of his home as the flood rose when a neighbor in a canoe came and called, “Get in!”
The faithful man refused, “God will save me!”
“Get in!” came the call from a rescue skiff as the water continued to rise.
Again, the man refused. “God will save me!”
At the last hold of his chimney, a helicopter lowered a rope, which the man refused, “God will save me!”
In heaven, the man asked God, “Why didn’t you save me?”
God answered, “I sent you a canoe, a skiff and a helicopter!”
That’s it — my best joke is our 21st century reality given the technological advances of the day. There has never been a better time to be alive if you enjoy learning and are exploring things that reduce human harm and maximize human benefit.
Riding the Wave of Human Knowledge
As the arc of human knowledge soars, I think, “This is my ride!” I can’t get enough professorial lectures and science podcasts (through wireless earphones!) as I go about my day. It is surprisingly comforting to know that there are such smart people in the world working on problems, presenting new ideas and getting us into life-saving canoes, skiffs and helicopters.
I can’t speak for all secular humanists, but for me, humanism nurtures an infinite interest in human beings. Humanities and the sciences of human health and well-being are irresistible for their ability to validate human experience, particularly in the developing fields of psychology, neurology, endocrinology, human biology and physiology, anthropology, sociology, history, philosophy and literature, including theology and mythology.
For instance, anybody willing to learn something today can tap the body of knowledge regarding human biology and find that there is a difference between gender and genitals — that gender is a societal construct unrelated to the chromosomal terminology used in the laboratory to communicate the variable state of chromosomal gametes.
The century-old discovery of chromosomes, the X and the Y that once rocked our world was just the beginning. It turns out the human setup is not as binary as once thought, and that human gender is unique to individuals beyond a body’s available gametes.
The Biology Behind Gender Isn’t Binary
Dig into human X and Y chromosomes, and the binary explodes into a multitude of possible combinations. So far we know that a human can be born XX (“female”) but have 5-alphareductase deficiency and a penis grows at age 12.
A human can be XY (“male”) but be insensitive to androgens, causing a “female” body. Someone can be XY (“male”) but the Y is missing the SRY gene, instructing the body to form female. A person can have XX (“female”) chromosomes but have an SRY gene and have a male body. A male can be XX with a Y. A female can have only one X. Sections of genes on chromosomes can bind and recess at random. Y
ou can have two X chromosomes with a heart and brain that is male. And vice-versa. Sometimes women are born without reproductive parts (uteri and ovaries) like the men walking among us without gonads.
In addition to the crapshoot of our chromosomal makeups, humans have unique external environments that individualize brain development, neurochemical structures and endocrine systems. In short, everyone has a unique chemical composition that contributes to the external shape of a body and the internal self-knowingness. And all of this matters naught. Zilch.
When we meet someone, we don’t whip out a DNA test to see if they are “male” or “female” by chromosomal data. We perceive and react to how a person presents their gender. And if we are going to have genders at all, we are lucky to live at a time with available gender-affirming care is available.
Today, many people benefit from consuming gender-affirming hormones such as estrogen and testosterone. People access cosmetic surgery, hair replacements, hair removal, clothing and makeup to assist with our gender presentation. And still, with all this gender-affirming technology, we wear the same human uniform of skin, and the rule is still golden — with an upgrade: Treat people as you want to be treated AND as they want to be treated.
The old gender ideas and societal structures that limit a human’s potential to live authentically are held in place by rigid ignorance, the kind of rigid ignorance that is not sustainable. In our world, it is the ability to adapt to our human environment, including the environment of our growing human knowledge base, that is crucial for human survival.
Besides the immorality of harming others by scapegoating and dehumanizing transgender and nonbinary people, being anti-transgender is being anti-knowledge at a time when the universe is expanding at an increasingly accelerated rate that is quite intolerant of willful ignorance. We can only be unadaptive and anti-knowledge at our individual and collective peril.
The expanding body of knowledge of human biology and psychological wellbeing in the areas of sexuality and gender identity is a gift — a deliverance from the evils of human ignorance — a corrective canoe, a savioral skiff and a heroic helicopter.
Thanks, Janet, for more scientific proof of the infinite variety on the human gender spectrum. For many years those who study nature have noticed the same variety among other creatures, so why not us too?
As someone born bodily on the margins of the male sex, I find this humanist perspective hubristic. Doctors did what they did to my infant/child/adolescent body to conform it to present male because that was/is the current best medical practice. Now I have no way to experience the body I was born with, the body Creator may have intended for me, for for my role on earth. Biological sex is something mysterious, beyond a nose job or hair transplant. To equate them is dangerous.