Dear Editor,

The Federal Department of Health and Human Services’ draft redefinition of gender as binary, immutable and defined by genitalia at birth (resorting to genetic testing in the inevitable instances of ambiguity) is intellectually bankrupt, scientifically baseless, unworkable and cruel. The living world defies simple categorization, perhaps never more so than when it comes to sex and gender. The richness and complexity of the human experience of gender cannot be narrowly defined out of existence; any attempt to do so discriminates against some and diminishes us all. We stand with transgender people as they assert their right to be recognized and to live as they wish.

Barry Logan, professor of biology and chair of biology department, Richmond Thompson, Barry N. Wish professor of social sciences and director of neuroscience program and members of the department of Biology and Neuroscience Program