The federal government now defines sex as only male or female; there is no federal recognition of gender identity, including on passports; and there are new restrictions on gender-affirming care for federal employees. And more than 600 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in state legislatures in the past few years, with at least 27 states enacting major restrictions or outright bans on gender-affirming care for minors.

Some say this protects children, particularly from transition surgeries. However, these surgeries are incredibly rare, and transition surgeries on genitals are not even allowed for minors in the U.S. Another concern is that transgender women competing in sports are given an unfair advantage. But transgender participation in sports is also incredibly rare. The NCAA has roughly 510,000 college athletes, and NCAA President Charlie Baker claims that he knows fewer than 10 of those athletes who are transgender—0.002 percent.

Regardless of how you feel about policy, when you ask the science community whether gender is binary, the answer is “no, not necessarily,” and any argument for gender as binary falls apart quickly when you look at biology.

Most people like to think of gender as part of our biology. Each cell in our body has 46 chromosomes. A father’s sperm and a mother’s egg each have only half—23 each. At conception, the chromosomes of the........

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