sex ≠ gender

On Sunday night, The New York Times broke a story. You know the one.

The current administration is planning to redefine gender as sex. The Department of Health and Human Services wants to define gender “on a biological basis that is clear, grounded in science, objective and administrable.” Their proposed definition would define sex as either male or female and determined by genitals at birth, with "disputes" clarified using genetic testing.

There is so much wrong with this. It's wrong and unacceptable and terrible. It's also factually inaccurate and not grounded in science. 

1. Defining gender by sex assigned at birth is wrong. 

2. Sex is not a binary. There are many sex characteristics, and any of them are variable along a spectrum. Assigning sex is not "objective and administrable." Defining sex as strictly male or female, attempting to create a binary and root it in biology, is inaccurate and excludes folks who exist on the spectrum / within the mosaic. 

3. Genetic testing isn't a "tie-breaker" and doesn't tell you about someone's sex. Knowing about someone's chromosomes does not tell you their sex. 

How do they propose to place people into the binary using science? Science shows us that sex isn't a binary. 

Gender is not a binary. Sex is not a binary. These proposed definitions go against science.