So this video has certainly created a bit of controversy. Let me address a few things that have come up in just the first couple of days since its posting: 1. Is there "scientific evidence" of non-binary genders? The consensus of the scientific, medical, and sociology communities is that gender identity (what is colloquially shortened to just "gender") is an individual's inherent, internal sense of being a man, woman, both, neither, or something else entirely. I didn't make this definition up, and no, it is not universally agreed-upon, but it is the consensus definition nonetheless. Given this definition of gender, "scientific evidence" of non-binary genders doesn't make sense. If a person reports themselves as non-binary, they are. Period. (I suppose unless they are lying). Telling an individual who identifies as non-binary that they are not non-binary is like telling a patient who reports a stomachache that they are not having a stomachache. So asking for "scientific evidence" of non-binary genders isn't the right question to be asking, since a hypothesis that non-binary genders don't exist is non-falsifiable. Instead, a better scientific inquiry would be: Why do some individuals identify as non-binary? Because of the political nature of gender, and the relatively recent widespread acceptance in medicine of non-binary genders, not much biological research has been done on this, yet. One possible approach that could be taken would be to find cisgender men and women, and scan their brains with fMRI while they are exposed to gender-related stimuli, or are asked to complete gender-related mental tasks, with the hope that differences between men and women can be established in how their brains process that information. If such differences can be established, then transgender and non-binary individuals can undergo the same process, to determine if transgender individuals' scans are more consistent with their birth sex or with their gender identity, and whether non-binary individuals have a pattern that doesn't fit either men or women. I know next to nothing about the practical aspects of neuroscience research, and have no idea if this approach is feasible, but in principle, this is one approach that might help better understand what some viewers are pushing back about. But to be clear, even if such an experiment was carried out but failed to reveal an explanation for why some people identify as non-binary, it would absolutely not mean that non-binary individuals don't exist. 2. Is there other evidence of non-binary genders? As noted elsewhere in the comments, there are many cultures throughout history and throughout the world which have had various forms of non-binary or so-called "third genders". While the term, non-binary gender, may be relatively new, the phenomenon predates modern medicine, and is not some leftist conspiracy. Additional note: This video has triggered a modest number of comments which were disrespectful, or otherwise inappropriate. Sincere questions are welcome; insults and bigotry are not. Thus, comments must now be approved before they are shown. If someone happens to be able to explain why the idea of non-binary genders is so threatening to a small minority (who are not, in any way, personally affected by it), please fill us in!

I so would like to thank you for taking it upon yourself to professionally cover this topic. Unfortunately, even healthcare providers could be significantly illiterate about it especially the ones who had received their medical education in a developing country. For instance, in my own med school, only biological disorders concerning genitalia are discussed, but never the psychiatric aspect or the topic of sexual orientation in the first place.

What an amazing video! Especially as it was made 2 years ago... I love how everything is broken down and respected. It is my first contact with this channel but as i truly love how much respect and sensitivity was put into that, i will stay here for longer. You are great Dr. Strong!

Thank you for this video! Many people mess up with these terms (some for really not knowing, some for prejudice). The informations were taken seriously and it was very clarifying.

Thank you for sharing this. It’s sad that people need things to be explained and proven in order to accept someone. Regardless we are all human and deserve love and validity.

This is very informative Dr. Strong!

What an amazing video! Really informative. Recommend everybody to watch this video, as everyone should have a sense of gender, sex and orientation.

So let me get this straight...

Welcome explanation of difficult and controversial concepts, even less understood between medical professionals. Thank you .

This is a fantastic overview. Thanks so much for this informative video

Thank you Dr Eric Strong for a good review of lexicon , i nearly skip this one :) . This one might as well replace one chapter in Textbook of Psychiatry after all.

Thank you for this video!! I needed a video like this to inform others!

Thank you so much! Love to see a non-political informational video on this! Btw your ABG videos got me through my ICU training

very informative and delivered with a great deal of respect. thank you

I find prety good this new video format. You standing by the slide. I hope is not hard to do so, and you can keep doing it.

sir you are an amazing teacher😊.

Can you make a video about medical specialities ? what they do, study..etc Your videos are the best, thank you for making them!

Dr. Strong, thank you for this video and I love how understanding, accepting and respectful you are in this video when discussing what intrsex is (which is a sex as sex is a bimodal and infinite [in its own ways] spectrum of its own), what transgender is, and what sexuality and gender expression are. This is helping me with unpacking my internalised transphobia (as I'm a transmasculine man of his own genders who's struggling with himself).

I am doing a group project on this topic. Honestly I was completely blank before watching this video. This helped me and my buddies to understand about our topic.THANKS A LOT!!

Very useful information, thank you!

Thank you for this video, it was a great review. If anyone is having doubts about the validity of this topic just ask yourself how important it can be for patient populations within these groups to be treated with dignity and respect. If you start from there, the rest will be easier to understand, including how to go about the science and biology of it. If you're an aspiring physician and you still aren't trying to learn and commit to these values, then good luck...

Most helpful. Thank you.

Great presentation I wish you could suggest what is the best age to teach this and this would be a great model for our schools. Instead of arguing 🙏😇

love that you did a video on this, dr. strong. huge fan!

Hello Eric, thanks a lot for your content. How is the outlook for more videos on clinical reasoning? The existing ones on building a DDx and Hx taking are amazing. Also, greatly appreciate videos that part from a clinical syndrome or sign/symptom (e.g. syncope) and go through the mechanisms and main diseases. Would love to see your approach on topics like dyspnea, chest pain, abdo pain, anemia, etc. Best wishes from Brazil.

helpful, thankyou

Thank you so much for helping me understand this better. I found it very educational.

In Japan, March 3rd is Japanese Doll Festival for girls. May 5th is Children's day for boys. Do you know what day this is today, April 4th?

Hi, I love your videos so much, these are very useful for my study. But how about part 3 of series "Acute Kidney Injury" ? I still hope to watch it for a long time :)

Right on! 🤘 Thanks for the support!

Those two twin boys that are always talked about when discussing gender is truly a very sad and disturbing story. It cannot be referenced in any positive light. It's tragic. But it can be then suggested that there indeed truly does exist a sometimes disconnect between gender and sex.

What is it called when someone identifies as the opposite sexual orientation?

Hey there, while I wholeheartedly respect the video you made on this topic, I do think it is a valid concern to ask whether or not there is scientific evidence on gender-fluidity or being non-binary. I’ve been struggling with these two labels for quite a while now, trying to differentiate between them, and understand my own gender identity. It would quite honestly be validating to hear that these identities have been scientifically proven to be accurate so that I can distinguish and understand my gender identity, and finally choose what to label myself (not saying that everyone needs to be labeled, but it is preferable and more comfortable for me to be labeled).

amazing video.

Thank you so much now I have an even better understanding of sex and gender, now I can educate others on the matter. Again thank you so much your an amazing person and I wish you the best in life

*Can you make a video about how gender identity forms*

Wait...why is the word homosexual offensive? I dont understand

So...we are all potentially what we now label "intersex"?

This video is life changing! Literally blew my mind.

Thank you ..👍👍

This video is amazing. Thank you. :)

thank you

thank you very much

Thanks for this and Teach 💕👍👏 4/22/20 10:24 Am Wednesday

was really looking for an explaination from a medical standpoint, great stuff!!

1:39 Homosexual is a term "that should be avoided"? What?

What about all the genders NYC recognises?

Thanks!

I'm panromantic asexual n non-binary 🙏 thank you for accurately explaining things.

Thank you for the video! Truly helpful. Just a thought about the comment: asking about scientific evidence of non-binary genders seems similar logic of asking the person (who posed the question) for evidence to prove themselves is human, please prove it! Recently I have been reading some papers on stigma in social science around LGB topics, and understand that power dynamic is a major component of discrimination/victimisation.

I have learn a lot

So my 3 year old boy likes to wear a dress occasionally. Is this some sort of genetic aberration (mosaic). Do I refer to him as her and encourage him to be a girl? Sorry but this video doesn’t really clarify anything.

thanks sir

Awesome video :) Eric

Wait.. homosexual is a bad term now? Why? And what word is better to use? Gay?

Great video 💞💞💞

Seems educational and informative for native english speaking people *according to other comments). However, there are also other languages and not all of them have different words for sex and gender. My native language is czech and we have one word "pohlavi" for both. It may be reason why in czech population nearly nobody takes these new meanings seriously and most people ridicule americans (usually leftists) for it. To understand me: we have no problems with the concept but with the changes in meanings of words. In the old literature, what you refer as "gender" was referred as "sex identity" or "gender identity". In CZ we say "sexuallni identita" or "pohlavni identita" and they both mean the same as what you describe as gender. Czech-English dictionaries also translate "pohlavi" as "sex" and "gender" (suggesting they are synonyms). Also old oxford english dictionary (1969) says they are synonyms. I must admit that I really don't understand the point of changing the meaning of words due to some political issues. Is it really necessary? Or am I missing something?

Thank You for this informative video! I have a question regarding sexual attraction, maybe somebody knows the answer: Is sexual attraction based upon gender identity or sex? For example I'm a cis-gender male. If I'm attracted to a transgender women, who has not yet had surgery, so they have male genitalia, would I be gay or straight?

Its sad that humans insist to put humans through this, to go through all this research just to love who you want to love. I realized today that I am what I would consider a pansexual because I love who I love so why can't everyone else? Why do people like to tell everyone else how they should be living their life? We all get one life, one journey and its only ours, no one will take the fait with you in the end. Meaning you will die and only you alone. This goes for every living creature, why make it harder for others? Just because they do it doesn't mean you have to. You don't even have to agree with it. If everyone made a law for everything they disagreed with we would all be sitting at home bored because everything would be illegal.

👋 I am also interested to hear everything/anything about Sexuality/Sex Education 👍 🙂

hello, nice video explaining the common terminology about this issue. Will you make a video that explain some of these concepts with evidence and how it could affect patient health

This video is going to be so helpful, for those of us standing up for our LGBQ sisters and brothers. Because this was done 4+ years ago, I hope the terms have not changed too much. The political climate today is moving in an ugly direction and the more we are able to understand, about why not everyone is the same, the better. For me, the information about "sex" has been the most helpful. I have know about people who were born different. In school PE class, there was a gal who showered after everyone else was done. Some of the mean students called her "chick with a dick". As hard as this must of been for her to deal with, I wish there were a way to let her know, that she is the only reason I have known all these years, that people are born different. That God did not give us just "man" and "woman" and of course the gender roles could not set in stone as well. I do believe that God has turned a dial, causing more of us to be born for some other purpose, than to reproduce.

They all match for me ? Sex: female Gender: women Sexual orientation: heterosexual

Gender is a social construct. It should never be attached to discussions on sexual orientation being sexual orientation based on observable reality, that is, biological sex.

How can I know if I'm Pansexual? Because.. well I don't give a shit about what gender the other person has (at least I think so!) and that must mean I'm pansexual, right? But the question I ask myself is how do I really know if I'm able to be attracted to every gender? Yes sure you have to find out through experiences but I don't often get the chance to meet anyone who I could date, in addition there are even less people I usually get to know that are neither men or women. So how do I really know if I'd be pansexual when I don't often get the chance to find out, if you understand my problem. Actually I don't even really give a shit about labeling my sexual orientation, but on the other hand it's a question that keeps coming to my mind and I somehow want to know. Would be great if someone could answer and help a little bit P.S. great video, very educational

So what is gender? He just explains gender identity

thank you doctor stronk

This has 4K views. My experience is it should have at least 100 comments. So 60 percent of the comments have been expunged.

My comments were not trying to be offending but critical. Why can’t we show our opinions and have to follow these agendas?

I can appreciate the desire for doctors to treat their patients with respect. But it is possible to respectfully disagree with someone’s perception of reality. Beyond interacting with a patient in a respectful manner a doctor should stick to biological facts. This video assumes that to treat people with respect you must agree, or seem to agree, with their beliefs about themselves. This would not be sensible in any other subject except sex, for some reason. The reason this video triggers some negative reactions is because it has so much political terminology. For example, saying that someone has a disorder of sexual development is a medically accurate phrase while intersex is of political origin. Biological sex is for reproduction, so if a person’s sexual organs develop in a way that they are unable to engage in reproductive sex they have a disorder. This is true whether or not the person is distressed over it. If people are concerned that parents may try surgery for their child too quickly, then simply advise them, and doctors who may recommend this, on why it might be better to wait. The wording itself gives no implication that immediate, drastic steps need to be taken so the demand for new terminology should be met with skepticism. In fact, the political language endorsed in this video has brought about a new development where parents of children with gender identity disorder (sorry I know that is not the current term) are getting their children hormonal treatment to delay their body’s natural development. Most of these children regain a biologically accurate sense of themselves in their teens and doctors should not be recommending this treatment as it has so much potential for harm. At the very least, no doctor should be pressured to provide treatment they consider inappropriate or immoral. This video does not address this issue at all. Gender reassignment surgery also used to be called sex reassignment surgery because gender and sex used to be interchangeable. It used to be that a person who thought their sex/gender was different from their biological, factual reality was considered mentally ill. Just like we consider anyone else who believes they are something they are clearly not. This wasn’t to be disrespectful toward them, but to maintain facts above opinions. Gender was separated from sex in our vocabulary to make it more acceptable for public expression and affirmation of this confused thinking including the medically unnecessary surgery and hormonal treatment altering a biologically healthy body to appear as if it were something else. The author of this video, I believe, assumes that people are born preset to have a particular gender identity, but this is unproven. Just as he ignores the evidence that people, especially children, can experience gender confusion for years and then change (seemingly for no apparent reason), he ignores the lack of proof that acceptance of transgenderism doesn’t also increase the occurrence of it. What I mean is that the percentage of the population that identifies as LGBTQ is higher among younger age brackets. The unproven assumption is that younger people are more honest about what they desire. Just as likely is that people’s thinking and desires can be affected by their cultural surroundings and these percentages will continue to increase as acceptance becomes more widespread. The fact that Hindu India has had a concept of a third sex comes with potential cross cultural confusion and, I believe, the relevance to our modern conversation is limited. The ideas of cross dressing and same sex attraction are widespread with clear historical evidence but the transgenderism being promoted today goes beyond anything we’ve seen before. Those of us who are skeptical and concerned by these developments do not deserve to be negatively labeled (the video does not explicitly do that but I think the implication is there). Overall the video is informative for someone who wants to know the current trending terminology but it has a clear bias that is not based in science or medicine. And it strongly implies that anyone who objects to using all these political terms will be disrespectful, if not bigoted, toward their patient. Therefore, for people who do not agree with the LGBTQ political position, it provides no help for how to interact with people within that group.

Lol wtf? “Man and woman” are not gender categories… “feminine and masculine” are gender categories… Man and woman are sex based categories for human species.

Sex is a tool for procreation, while the foundations of sexual orientation are infatuation and pleasure, and gender is the measurement of the degree of femininity or masculinity in an individual. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Watched video 💯

Primum non nocere. Science and medicine should not be divided from morality.

UCSF's Center of Excellence for Transgender Health also has great resources for caring for the health of gender diverse people, you can check them out here: transhealth.ucsf.edu/