I often feel as if there may be a slight disconnect between gender theorists and trans people on the basis of biology.

Theorists like Butler do such important work analyzing how culture and socialization impacts gender that sometimes I think they miss out on what so many trans people keep insisting: my gender is in my brain and body — an innate, biological part of who I am that would exist no matter what culture I lived in.

That’s not to say performance isn’t important, just that it isn’t everything.