Sex (as Assigned at Birth)

Abstract

Sex assigned at birth is “the category of female, male, or intersex that a person is assigned by medical professionals at birth” (TSER). Both transgender and intersex advocates encourage the use of sex assigned at birth instead of biological sex because the latter implies that these categories are completely innate. While it is true that people naturally have different arrangements of chromosomes, hormones, and anatomies, the system by which we categorize people as female, male, and/or intersex is socially constructed.