Here’s What That Means

First it’s important to realize one key point that underlies all these complicated terms you might find us “special snowflake” millennials using: Biological Sex =/= Gender. Biological sex, as implied by the term, is tied to a person’s biology, and is thought about in two basic ways: on the chromosomal level of XX vs XY and on the anatomical level where a determination is made based on a person’s genitals. The distinction between chromosomes and anatomy is important because as science has progressed, we’ve come to realize that having two X chromosomes does not necessarily mean that a baby will be born with a vagina, and having XY chromosomes does not necessarily mean that a baby will be born with a penis. As the World Health Organization phrases it, “there is a range of chromosome complements, hormone balances, and phenotypic variations that determine sex”. Determination vs. Differentiation.

Instead of speaking of biological sex, many trans and nonbinary people (myself included) feel that it is more accurate to speak of assigned sex. In terms of gender, I’m neither a man nor a woman, but if it’s necessary to discuss biology, the appropriate term for me is AFAB, which stands for Assigned Female At Birth. The binary opposite to this is of course AMAB, meaning Assigned Male At Birth.

The assignment at birth is of course tied to genitalia, but this does not result in the clear binary divisions that people seem to crave so much. It’s estimated that as many as 1 in 100 Americans are Intersex. This happens when either the chromosomes arrange themselves someway other than XX vs XY, when a newborn’s genitalia are ambiguous, when genitalia appear nonambiguous but don’t match the hormones released during puberty, when both male and female biology appear in some way, etc.