There is a debate raging at the heart of modern society. It is based on two key questions:

• What is a woman?
• What is a man?

There are two main perspectives in this debate:

1) Scientific view: Sex is binary. It is based on chromosomes and our ability to produce ‘gametes’ (i.e. eggs and sperm). It is based on thousands/millions of years of evolution. Our bodies are fundamentally ‘sexed’. We may be able to change certain physical appearances relating to our bodies, but we are still biologically either one sex or the other – male or female.[1]

2) Gender identity view: Sex is not binary, but a spectrum. It is not something that can be measured, but rather, it is something that we ‘know’. It is personal to us, and only we can ever know it. It is part of our personal identity. Some people may feel as though they don’t fit in their bodies – they don’t feel comfortable with the sex/gender they were assigned at birth. In these cases people may declare that they are of a different gender and so ‘change’ their sex.

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