Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., said Tuesday that gender is not binary, but instead is something that can vary greatly for many people who can get stuck “in between” genders.
“Determining gender is … difficult, right?” Polis said on CSPAN Tuesday morning. “We would like it to be black and white, but God has made it a continuum.”
“There are many kids that are born in between,” he added. “They’re often assigned one gender, there’s some people that are misassigned what gender they are, and yes, there are some people who transition.”
His comments came as state and federal officials continue to debate rules for what bathroom transgender people should use. But the specific question he was asked dealt with the eligibility of transgender people to play on certain sports teams.
Polis said in those cases, only fully transgender people should be able to be eligible under their new gender.
“It is appropriate, post-transition, for somebody that is fully transitioned to play sports and be eligible for sports under their new gender identity,” he said. “It’s not simply something that you say.”
