Gender Revolution: Sex vs. Science

Not too long ago, I watched a National Geographic documentary with Katie Couric. This documentary was called Gender Revolution. This documentary was honestly beautiful in so many aspects and I encourage everyone to watch it. This film focused on transgender and intersex individuals, but what was so unique about this was that there was scientific proof demonstrating how children are born gay, lesbian, transgender, or intersex. When a child is in their mother’s womb, there are so many things occurring during this process and different chemical reactions happen when a child is gay, lesbian, transgender, or intersex. I thought this was so interesting because finally, science can proof that these individuals are perfectly normal. They don’t have a mental condition or whatever else outsiders may have thought. This excites me because I want everyone, no matter their identity or gender, to live equally within the community and this gives me hope because people can try to fight science but at the end of the day I like to think science wins.

Of course though, this documentary was mostly white folks, which was upsetting because it’s conforming to this idea that only white people have these issues but this is the furthest thing from true. All races have these issues, even Native Americans who we think don’t exist anymore. Obviously, I’m slightly biased towards Indigenous peoples because I have been studying their lifestyles and traditions, which is very interesting by the way.

Considering Natives and their beliefs on gender and sex, it’s sad to see that their progress on these issues is a little more delayed than our cultures seems to be. Although “Governor Dennis Daugaard recently vetoed a proposed bill that would have banned youth from using public school bathrooms, showers, and locker rooms that didn’t correspond with their ‘biological sex’” (Estes) this is not the end of this debate that the people in this region face. This is a good start, but they still face such issues just like people in our culture do.

One article written in 2016 by Nick Estes digs into these issues further. The tribe brought up is the Oglala and the elders come forward about their beliefs on transgender Natives and other LGBT individuals. These elders said, “same-sex marriage violates ‘natural law’” but other come out saying that they don’t know what the term “natural law” means in “An O?éti Šakówi? context, and homophobic attitudes like these must be addressed, if only to acknowledge and move past the intergenerational pain and trauma inherent within these statements” (Estes). I think we see older people in our own culture having this same attitude towards people coming forward about their true gender, but it’s important to teach them new ways and educate them that things aren’t the same as when they were younger. These LGBT individuals have the courage and freedom to be who they are and we need to support them no matter what. This goes back to the National Geographic film because Katie Couric was doing so well to learn all the terms individuals use to identify themselves. Couric is an older generation and it’s clear she has never heard of many of these terms, but she tried so hard to learn. She would constantly correct herself and to be better when talking with students and other people.

• indigenous
• lgbt