Comments by "Winston Smith" (@winstonsmith935) on "JK Rowling’s savage transgender takedown" video.
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HERE’S WHAT WE KNOW: BIO 101: Part of the definitive answer.
Sex is set, or “determined,” when an X chromosome from an egg finds itself in a nucleus with an X or a Y from a sperm. XX=female: XY=male.
For six weeks, the embryo unfurls two sets of “indifferent” gonads, with two sets of plumbing. At week 6, a gene on the Y called SRY, for “sex determining region of the Y,” turns on and the fledgling female parts shrivel away. Without SRY, and under guidance of other genes, the male structures vanish instead. So anatomically we all start out with a bit of both.
Mess with the genes and chromosomes behind our sexuality, and mismatches arise. A mutation in a gene called Wnt4, for example, disables the switch to femaleness, and an XX embryo drowns in testosterone. Vagina, cervix, and uterus never develop. In fact, SRY was discovered in people who looked female but were XYs missing SRY, and people who looked male but were XXs with an SRY gene plunked onto one of the X’s. Another type of female with XY chromosomes has androgen insensitivity syndrome, lacking receptors on cells that bind testosterone, cutting of the hormonal signals necessary for maleness.
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