Why Gender Theory Gets It Wrong About Biological Disorders

Let’s talk about something that’s become a bit of a fashionable mantra in modern thinking: the idea that chromosomal and hormonal disorders aren’t really “disorders” at all, but just another expression of gender. Sounds lovely, doesn’t it? Inclusive. Open-minded. But peel back the feel-good wrapping, and what you find isn’t so much science as it is Gender ideology wearing a lab coat. And it’s about time we started asking tough questions.

Biological abnormalities are medical disorders, not expressions of gender identity.

The Basics: Disorder Means… Disorder

First, let’s get something clear. A disorder is, by definition, something that deviates from the normal functioning of the body or mind and often causes distress, dysfunction, or increased risk of harm. That’s not moral judgement. That’s not “phobia.” That’s just medical language.

Take Turner Syndrome, where a female is born with only one X chromosome. Or Klinefelter Syndrome, where a male has an extra X. These are not variations in gender expression. These are chromosomal disorders that typically come with health complications—infertility, developmental delays, learning difficulties, and higher risk of certain diseases. Rebranding these as just “another way to be” doesn’t erase the struggles they bring.

Romanticising Illness Doesn’t Help Anyone

We’ve reached a point where simply acknowledging biological reality gets you labelled as hateful. But is it really compassionate to call a disorder a “difference” and move on? Or is that just a way to avoid dealing with the uncomfortable truth?

People with hormonal or chromosomal disorders need support, treatment, and in many cases, lifelong medical attention. Calling their condition a “gender identity” might earn applause at university lectures, but it doesn’t help those actually living with the disorder. That’s like telling a diabetic they’re just expressing a “sugar identity” and handing them a cupcake.

Science vs Ideology

Gender theory has a habit of lumping together a whole range of things under its umbrella—from how someone feels about their identity to hard biological facts. But feelings, however valid, are not biology. You can feel like you’re six foot tall, but if you’re five foot three, no amount of emotional conviction is going to help you reach the top shelf.

Likewise, just because someone with a chromosomal disorder doesn’t fit neatly into the typical male/female boxes, that doesn’t make their condition a new gender. It makes them someone with a biological irregularity—one that science can explain, often treat, and sometimes cure.

Intersex ≠ Third Gender

You’ll often hear intersex conditions—like Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome or Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia—used as proof that sex isn’t binary. But again, that’s a misdirection. These are medical conditions, not genders.

Someone born with ambiguous genitalia or hormone imbalances isn’t living proof of a third sex. They’re proof that, like all systems, biology sometimes misfires. It’s no different than someone being born with a hole in the heart. Do we then say there are “many types of hearts”? No—we acknowledge a defect, diagnose it, and try to fix it.

What’s troubling is how the gender theorists co-opt these rare and often difficult conditions to support a social theory. That’s not advocacy; it’s exploitation. These are people who deserve medical care, not a political identity imposed on them.

Blurring Lines Helps No One

The push to treat disorders as identities also creates confusion for doctors, teachers, and even parents. If you can’t call a disorder what it is without being accused of bigotry, how do you help a child who needs hormone treatment? If everything’s a “valid identity,” how do you spot when something’s gone biologically wrong?

It’s the same problem we see in education and mental health—diagnoses delayed or avoided because nobody wants to use terms that might sound offensive. But euphemisms don’t cure disease. And wrapping a disorder in rainbow flags doesn’t change the fact that someone needs care, not affirmation.

What About Compassion?

There’s this assumption that if you don’t go along with the rebranding of disorders as identities, you must be cruel or ignorant. But the opposite is often true.

Real compassion means being honest. It means recognising when someone is sick, not telling them their symptoms are simply a new way of being. It means giving people the best chance at health and happiness—not dragging them into a social experiment.

Compassion is helping a person with Turner Syndrome understand what it means for their health and fertility—not pretending it’s just an “alternative femininity.” It’s offering treatment, not hashtags.

The Dangerous Slide into Anti-Science

When you start saying biology doesn’t matter—when disorders are no longer disorders, just “differences”—you open the door to all sorts of nonsense. If science is just a matter of personal feeling, then what’s to stop us from saying cancer is a “different way of cell growth”? Should we celebrate it as a bold new identity for immune systems?

The truth is, there’s a line between respecting people’s experiences and denying objective reality. And the moment you abandon that line, you’re no longer helping anyone—you’re just playing make-believe in a world that demands real answers.

Why This Matters

This isn’t just semantics. Lives are at stake. Medical research, healthcare policies, education, even crime statistics—all depend on accurate data. If we keep blurring the lines between disorder and identity, between biology and belief, we lose our grip on reality. And that helps no one, least of all the very people gender theorists claim to champion.

You can believe in gender expression. You can support people’s right to define themselves socially. But you can’t rewrite biology to fit your narrative. Disorders are not genders. They’re medical facts—and denying them doesn’t make you progressive. It makes you dishonest.

At the end of the day, kindness and clarity are not opposites. We can be kind and truthful. We can support people without pretending that disorders are just “variations.” And maybe, just maybe, it’s time we stopped letting ideology dictate medicine—and started trusting science again.