Okay, it's kind of killing me. Is Claire biologically a man?
Well, if you check her DNA, yes. She also had an operation to transform her penis into a vagina, she cant have babies, and she had to take hormones to make, for example, her breasts grow. In reality also her voice would be male-ish, and the chance that she's a lesbian would be very high (basically reverse chances than for ordinary people).
Ok, time for some remedial Trans 101 stuff, just to make the mods' lives easier if nothing else. There's a couple of things not quite correct here.
Q:
"Is Claire biologically a man"?
Answer the first: Er - do you need glasses? Obviously she isn't.
Answer the second: She identifies as a woman. As do I. So no.
Answer the third: No, and she never has been, not since before birth, and I mean that in a strictly anatomical sense.
See for example:
A sex difference in the human brain and its relation to transsexuality. by Zhou et al
Nature (1995) 378:68–70.
Our study is the first to show a female brain structure in genetically male transsexuals and supports the hypothesis that gender identity develops as a result of an interaction between the developing brain and sex hormones.
We've known that trans women aren't "biologically male" for nearly two freaking decades. Yet somehow the word hasn't gotten out, and questions like "is she biologically a man" keep on being asked in all sincerity, despite the evidence of people's own eyes even if they don't know the science.
If you
"check her DNA" - assuming she hasn't had a bone marrow transplant - then she's likely as female as this mother and her daughter:
J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2008 Jan;93(1):182-9
A 46,XY mother who developed as a normal woman underwent spontaneous puberty, reached menarche, menstruated regularly, experienced two unassisted pregnancies, and gave birth to a 46,XY daughter with complete gonadal dysgenesis.
Of course she may have 46,XX chromosomes, just as it's likely Marigold, Hanners, Tai etc do. Likely, but not certain. Or 47,XXY, or a mix of 45,X and 46,XY (which can cause a natural sex change) or... let's just say that chromosomes aren't an infallible guide.
If she has had a bone marrow transplant, then the majority of her body is composed of cells genetically identical to the donor by now. So anything goes.
She also had an operation to transform her penis into a vagina - Er..
how do you know? She may well have. But she might not. You might find this difficult to believe, but a lot of people get pretty anxious at the thought of major or even minor surgery on their genitalia. Really they do.
A lot of Intersex people in particular are quite happy with what they have, even if that matches neither a male nor female pattern very well. I was a lot happier having genital reconstruction to a female norm, but not all other Intersex people are like me. Same with Trans people. Some can't stand having genitalia they feel is just plain
wrong (as I did), while others don't feel any such wrongness at all. To explain why, I'd have to talk about the feminisation or lack thereof of the Superior Parietal Lobule (SPL), and consequent effect on the body map, but I'll spare you the lecture on neuro-physiology.
Let's just say that the exact configuration of anyone's genitalia - Marten's, Tai's, Sven's, Marigold's, Claire's, Veronica's, is an intensely personal and private matter. One really distressing for some people to talk about. So please heed the mods and let the subject drop on this public forum. PM me if you want medical data.
she cant have babies - almost certainly correct (for now). I know of very few exceptions - women labelled "trans" who were actually Intersex. This will likely change before she reaches her Mom's age.
she had to take hormones to make, for example, her breasts grow. While that's a pretty safe assumption, as we know she's on HRT (hormone replacement therapy), it's not certain either. I'm on HRT, rather more of it than Trans women (even though I transitioned like Claire did), but the breast growth pre-dated that. Just as it does for most women hitting puberty. Mine just came 30 years late.
In reality also her voice would be male-ish - given the timing of when she started HRT, not necessarily. But she likely sounds more like Lauren Bachall than Cyndi Loper. Or maybe not. I went to a speech therapist during transition, after 46 years of presenting as male, and she could do nothing for me. My voice is just outside the "ambiguous" range, into the lower female band. I forgot a 30 year habit of lowering my voice you see, I couldn't do it even though I tried. Probably a psychological block.
the chance that she's a lesbian would be very high - for early transitioners like her, no, about the same for most women her age, but for late ones like me, yes. Especially since I have CAH - women with that Intersex condition do indeed have the probabilities reversed. Except I'm straight. So's Claire. Statistics are just that - statistics. You have to treat individuals as individuals.
I'd still give you a passing grade on this. You may have the details wrong, but you at least have a grasp of the issues. That puts you in the top 20%. The bar's just set very low.
I apologise if I come off all pedagogical and arrogant here. It's just that in US parlance, I *am* a college professor, and do remedial teaching to 3rd year medical and psych students in this area, even though I usually teach safety-critical engineering as a regular gig.