For instance, an individual such as Sherilyn Connelly (2010), who is male sexed but identifies as a woman and performs the gender identity of a woman, may participate in a transgender culture but always also belongs to the dominant culture of heteronormativity, although most likely in the margins of that culture. Connelly, who decided not to have sex reassignment surgery, explains the complexities of being transgender and not transsexual, “I’m not a boy because I have a penis, and just because I don’t have a vagina doesn’t mean I’m not a girl” (p. 81). Connelly finds herself always wondering whether she is “guilt[y]-by-biological-association” because she has a penis. She is perceived as a “threat” in cultural activities such as music festivals and bathhouses because of anatomy and despite gender performance (Connelly, p. 80). Connelly has an understanding of her status in dominant gender culture, but also finds that it can conflict with her status in transgender or feminine subcultures.

Connelly, S. (2010). The big reveal. In K. Bornstein & S.B. Bergman (Eds.), Gender outlaws: The next generation (pp. 76-81). Berkeley, CA: Seal Press.

Likewise, Sherilyn Connelly calls for a new understanding of what makes someone a man or woman—one that does not base gender on an individual’s genitals. Connelly states that just because she has a penis rather than a vagina does not mean that she is not a woman. While this argument is not new—transgender people have long asserted that gender identity, or an individual’s sense of his or her own gender, should be the final arbiter in determining gender—the transgender community has not always abided by its own philosophy.