Some LGBT activists are targeting archaeologists to stop identifying skeletons as “male” or “female”. Completely rejecting science and ignoring reality, they insist that potential gender transitions should be taken into account when recording the data.

A Quebec-based archaeology student tweeted,

“You might know the argument that the archaeologists who find your bones one day will assign you the same gender as you had at birth, so regardless of whether you transition, you can’t escape your assigned sex,” the student said. 

“Labeling remains ‘male’ or ‘female’ is rarely the end goal of any excavation, anyway,” she continued. “The ‘bioarchaeology of the individual’ is what we aim for, factoring in absolutely everything we discover about a person into a nuanced and open-ended biography of their life.”

Trans Doe Task Force (TDTF), a transgender-led group that focuses on “unidentified individuals who may have been transgender,” discusses more reasons for the activism on its website, including the “shortcomings of the current forensic approach to identification for trans and non-binary individuals.” 

“In research and practice, estimating the biological sex of a body is determined by whether the person belongs to a male, probable male, probable female, female, or undetermined,” the article reads. “This contributes to the notion of a biological sex binary, and is reinforced by having the outcome only focused on achieving a male or female result. Hinging the identity of an individual on a binary spectrum for biological sex not only affects the missing persons and their identification, but also the greater understanding of biology in the living.”

Binary spokeswoman, Kirralie Smith, said there are only two sexes: male or female.

“There is no such thing as a third sex when it comes to skeletal remains. Sex is binary, there is male or female, that’s it,” she said.

“There are endless personality expressions, including gender, but they are not measurable, consistent or relevant when dealing with biological reality.

“Sex is not assigned, it is observed. Archaeology must rely on facts, not feelings for accuracy in record keeping.”