Q Toon: I'll Get You, My Pretty

By now, you are probably well aware that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Idiocracy) last week responded to a colleague's transgender rights flag across the hall from her office by posting a sign reading "There are two genders: male and female. Respect the science."

If you really want to respect the science, you have to acknowledge that reality is not as simple as that. I'm no biologist; but someone who is attempted to explain the possible and existing complications in a Twitter thread a couple years ago. For example,

Turns out there is only ONE GENE on the Y chromosome that really matters to sex. It’s called the SRY gene. During human embryonic development the SRY protein turns on male-associated genes. Having an SRY gene makes you “genetically male”. But is this “biological sex”?

Sometimes that SRY gene pops off the Y chromosome and over to an X chromosome. Surprise! So now you’ve got an X with an SRY and a Y without an SRY. What does this mean?
A Y with no SRY means physically you’re female, chromosomally you’re male (XY) and genetically you’re female (no SRY). An X with an SRY means you’re physically male, chromsomally female (XX) and genetically male (SRY). But biological sex is simple! There must be another answer...

Most of what I know about biology comes from BBC nature programs, so genes and chromosomes are beyond what I could ever hope to explain. I also have no idea what it's like to feel that your gender doesn't match your genitalia. 

Heck, I couldn't tell you why I write and draw with my left hand yet shave and use silverware with my right. Maybe some L2R protein leapt from one chromosome to another somewhere along the line. It is what it is and thank God I don't need surgery or hormones to make me fit someone else's ideas of who or what I am.

So Biologist Tweeter Rebecca Helm can have the last word today.

[P]lease be kind, respect people’s right to tell you who they are, and remember that you don’t have all the answers. Again: biology is complicated. Kindness and respect don’t have to be.