People – that is, we Terran-humans -- often confuse
gender, sex, and sexual orientation. Sex identification arises from biology,
and most of us are either male or female genetically and phenotypically. That
is, we possess either XX or XY chromosomes, and our genitals conform to the
norm. These are not the only possibilities (you can have XXX or XXY, for
example) and problems arise from the societal demand that every person fit into
one or the other category. This has nothing to do with “masculine” and
“feminine,” which are cultural interpretations, or with who a given individual
is sexually attracted to. The binary division of male and female, while
appropriate for many people, does not work for everyone.
Gender, on the other hand, has to do with how you
experience yourself, a personal sense of being a man or a woman (or both, or
neither). Each of these is distinct from sexual orientation, which has to do
with an enduring physical, romantic, and emotional attraction to another
person. Gender has been described as "who you want to go to bed as, not
who you want to go to bed with."
