J.K. Rowling's public challenge on gender draws ire and legal speculations

J.K. Rowling, who created a series of phenomenally popular books about Harry Potter, then, to the surprise of many, decided to use the popularity gained in this way to challenge the rights of transgender people, whose global population is about 2 percent.

It's hard to say on what basis the author of popular youth books considers herself an expert in the field of human gender, which is complicated. On April 21, Rowling offered one million pounds on the X platform to a hypothetical woman with the extremely rare Klinefelter's syndrome, who "is unhappy with her." Individuals with this syndrome are born with an XXY chromosome combination (or more "extra" X's), as opposed to the typical chromosomal patterns in women (XX) and men (XY).

Proving to oneself and the world that there are only two genders and denying transgender people the right to exist encounters significant problems. From a scientific perspective, there are many determinants of gender, and among them, we find gonadal sex, chromosomal sex, mental sex, and cultural sex. External gender is the presence of specific external genital organs and is usually the only basis on which newborns are assigned an official gender.

The controversial "joke", according to Rowling, was that individuals with Klinefelter's syndrome are officially assigned male sex because of the presence of a penis and testes. Symptoms of the syndrome can include, among others, underdevelopment of male gonads, often resulting in infertility, weak muscles, lack of mutation during puberty, and the presence of "female" breasts. The criterion arbitrarily chosen by Rowling to determine the sex of individuals with this syndrome is the presence of the "male" Y chromosome.

A user of the X platform @turnintoabat answered her million offers. She wrote: "I'm a chick with Mosaic Klinefelters syndrome and I am most definitely unhappy about your behavior Joanne. When can I expect a check?". Rowling replied: "Cheque will be written the moment I see proof of no Y chromosome!". It remains unclear on what basis she holds her conviction that just this chromosome determines sex in a person with a rare genetic syndrome.

The presence of the Y chromosome is not a guaranteed indicator of "masculinity." Individuals born with the rare Swyer syndrome have X and Y chromosomes, similar to typical "biological men." However, their bodies develop fully as a "biological woman's" body, including all organs and secondary sexual characteristics.

The issue of gender is not binary, and it would be beneficial if experts rather than loud and biased laypeople contemplated it. Many people in the comments encourage the user with Klinefelter syndrome to go to court against J.K. Rowling if she does not issue the promised cheque for one million pounds.