This article is an offshoot of the babble to which we (LGBT) all were subjugated while standing up for ourselves at the recent County Commission Hearings. The Human Rights Ordinance passed 5-2 thanks to our progressive County Commissioners, but so much **** was shoveled by opponents of the ordinance that I wish I had been wearing waders.

It is well chronicled that our opponents believe that God is on their side and that there is no empirical evidence backing our claims that we are born as we are. “Well, think again, bubba!” (Oh, I forgot you all don’t believe in evolution either, but you do believe in George Bush, Jr.).

In her book, “The Sexual Spectrum” (no this is not The Bible but it was written in 2004 with a most recent copyright of 2007), Olive Skene Johnson provides numerous examples of studies done that indicate differences in the human brain of gay males versus straight males. The studies don’t find as many examples in LB and T individuals, but as she states, far less research has been done on these communities.    

Since Transgenderscope is intended to deal predominantly with transgender issues, I will cue you in some of the findings that hone in on the transgender community. First, there is the brainsex test, which she takes from the book “Brainsex” by Anne Moir and David Jessel.  This test is made up of 10 questions; most males score between 0 and 60, and most females score between 60 and 100. Here is a sample question: You’re with a group of married friends. Two of them are having a clandestine affair. Would you detect their relationship? Your possible answers are: A) Nearly always B) Half the time C) Seldom. I’m not going to divulge the scoring system for those who might want to take the test, (pg. 22) but I can say that I scored 90. Whew! What a relief!

Moving on in the text, a few pages are given to studies that reveal that transsexuals have more non-right-handedness. Even when transsexuals are right-handed, they have a more extreme version of right-handedness with moderate right-handedness being associated with more typical development. In a study of 500 transsexuals done in 2001 by Richard Green, all the transsexual groups regardless of their erotic orientation had higher rates of non-right-handedness than the control groups. Erotic orientation in the previous sentence brings up a good point. Gender identity is not about sex! We in the transgender community can be gay, bisexual, straight or none of the above just like the community at large.

So what? Well hand preference is laid down in the womb according to Dr. Johnson, who also points to a study by The University of Waterloo, which measured the amount of testosterone in the second trimester amniotic fluid of expectant mothers. The resultant children were tested 10 years later to see how prenatal hormone level had influenced their hand preference and the way their brain hemispheres were specialized. They found that girls who’d been exposed to higher levels of testosterone in the womb compared to other girls, were more strongly right-handed and had stronger left-hemisphere ability for speech, a pattern more often found in males. Among boys in the study, those who’d been exposed to higher testosterone levels in the womb had stronger right-hemisphere specialization for emotion, a pattern more often found in females. 

Going further, transsexuals also have been shown to have anatomical differences in the brain.  Dr. D. F. Swaab and his researchers first reported in 1995 that they had found female sized brain structure in MTF (male-to-female) transsexuals. The structure, called the bed nucleus of stria terminalis (BSTC), is known to be smaller in women than men. They then examined FTM (female-to-male) transsexuals and found the BSTC to be larger as in biological males.

I’m not going to go any further with this, but you get the point. There is evidence of a biological component to gender identity, and as stated earlier, even more evidence relating to sexual orientation, 248 pages worth if you want to read just this one book. It was impossible to get all this out in the 3 minutes I was allotted for speaking at the County Commission Hearings, so I didn’t try.  I wish I could have. Not that it would have changed the minds of the opposition, but maybe the two naysayers on the commission would have thought again. Probably not, prejudice is hard to eradicate, but I will keep trying. I hope you do too.  In the meantime take the brainsex test!

Gotta go now! I need to give the test to my partner Sarah. Should be interesting!

Margeaux Mutz is the facilitator of Transgender Tallahassee.  Reach her at margeaux.mutz@comcast.net.