Listen up, transphobes – this is Biology 101.
An American biology teacher responded perfectly to a viral transphobic meme. The meme, posted below, labeled transgender people as having a ‘psychological disorder’.
Grace Pokela teaches biology at Arlington High School in Lagrangeville, New York and identifies as gay. When she saw the meme, she put her biology knowledge into practice and wrote a response on Facebook.
Check on it below:
“First of all, in a sexual species, you can have females be XX and males be X (insects), you can have females be ZW and males be ZZ (birds), you can have females be females because they developed in a warm environment and males be males because they developed in a cool environment (reptiles), you can have females be females because they lost a penis sword fighting contest (some flatworms), you can have males be males because they were born female, but changed sexes because the only male in their group died (parrotfish and clownfish), you can have males look and act like females because they are trying to get close enough to actual females to mate with them (cuttlefish, bluegills, others), or you can be one of thousands of sexes (slime mold, some mushrooms.)
“Oh, did you mean humans? Oh ok then.
“You can be male because you were born female, but you have 5-alphareductase deficiency and so you grew a penis at age 12. You can be female because you have an X and a Y chromosome but you are insensitive to androgens, and so you have a female body. You can be female because you have an X and a Y chromosome but your Y is missing the SRY gene, and so you have a female body. You can be male because you have two X chromosomes, but one of your X’s HAS an SRY gene, and so you have a male body. You can be male because you have two X chromosomes- but also a Y. You can be female because you have only one X chromosome at all. And you can be male because you have two X chromosomes, but your heart and brain are male. And vice – effing – versa.
“Don’t use science to justify your bigotry. The world is way too weird for that shit.”
The post has gone viral, with over 21,000 shares and the same amount of likes.
Pekola told the Huffington Post: “The fact that a group of people would deny evolution, deny global warming, and deny basic principles of ecology, but then turn around and use science to support their bigotry… was something I found repellent.’
She hopes the post will empower transgender people.
Oh this is one smack down for the ages, Very well put.
Erm, where is the meme? Didn’t see it.
My bad. It’s up now.
“You can be male because you were born female, but you have 5-alphareductase deficiency and so you grew a penis at age 12.”
Just to point out that the above statement is wrong. The condition affects genetic males making them tend towards a female appearance.
Otherwise, perfect example of how to win an argument.
my chest. “oh, did you mean humans?, okay then and the closing statement killed me. it drove the nail right into the wood!. really, good response.
Copying, saving, sharing, pasting! Good one. ???
I hope she flipped her hair after typing that.
Has anyone read CONUNDRUM by Jan Morris??? Now I’m thinking one of these might apply…
“Nobody really knows why some
children, boys and girls, discover
in themselves the inexpungeable
belief that, despite all the physical
evidence, they are really of the
opposite sex. It happens at a very
early age. Often there are signs of
it when the child is still a baby,
and it is generally profoundly
ingrained, as it was with me, by
the fourth or fifth year. Some
theorists suppose the child to be
born with it: perhaps there are
undiscovered constitutional or
genetic factors, or perhaps, as
American scientists have lately
suggested, the fetus has been
affected by misdirected hormones
during pregnancy. Many more
believe it to be solely the result of
early environment: too close an
identification with one or the
other parent, a dominant mother
or father, an infancy too
effeminate or too tomboyish.
Others again think the cause to be
partly constitutional, partly
environmental — nobody is born
entirely male or entirely female,
and some children may be more
susceptible than others to what
the psychologists call the
“imprint” of circumstance.”
Jan Morris (1975)