Emma Hilton's cheap quick accessible sex test

[fanOfBen]

Maybe this has been discussed here before but I hadn't seen it, so perhaps others will be interested too. Emma Hilton (fondOfBeetles) writes:

Hello all. A quick update from me.

My sex screen assay is progressing well.

I promised rapid: I can detect SRY from a cheek swab in about 30 minutes. I am currently testing whether I can drop it to 10 minutes without compromising reliability.

I promised cheap: The current cost per assay is about £2. I am currently testing whether I can drop this to below the pound line, and it’s very promising.

I promised accessible: The assay could be run by any grassroots sports coach, school nurse, and my Mum.

I promised on-site: This is where my lab efforts are currently focussed. I’ve always held “from the UK to Uganda” as a principle, and ensuring easy deployment is crucial. I’m currently learning a lot of materials science…

The other main push is setting up various blinded, larger-scale tests. This will require lots of form filling.

If anyone wants to help me hit my final budget target, my crowdfunder is here.

https://x.com/FondOfBeetles/status/2065328378945601931

The crowdfunding site can be found directly by putting
Protecting women’s sport through better sex screening
into a search engine - I just gardened, as this seems well worthwhile.

Thanks for the update. I'll have to remember at the end of the month, I'd certainly like to do my small bit to help EH, if she can roll it out from the UK to Uganda it'll be quite something. 😁

Gardened.

Good for Emma, some gardening being done

That’s brilliant, will support.

If you can't tell if someone's a woman when they say they are, that means they live as female, consider themselves female and are treated as female in every way.

It means they suffer sexual harassment and misogyny, and are probably often hassled about their appearance.

Some of these women will be cis, some trans.

Wanting to test gender- especially outside sports- is creepy as hell. It's control-freakery, misogyny and bullying. Solves nothing, endangers and humiliates women. Which, of course, is the appeal.

She doesn't want to test gender @TransParentlyAnnoyed - there is no test for that beyond feelz.

If you can't tell if someone's a woman when they say they are, that means they live as female, consider themselves female and are treated as female in every way.

And if you can tell that they're not a woman, but they insist they are, then this is a quick way to find out the truth.

Anyway, a man can't "live as female", because he's not. And he shouldn't be "treated as female in every way", particularly in sports or in a medical context.

Wanting to test gender- especially outside sports- is creepy as hell. It's control-freakery, misogyny and bullying. Solves nothing, endangers and humiliates women.

Wanting to keep men out of women's spaces is hardly misogyny. It's allowing them in which endangers and humiliates women.

I thought this was going to be a joke but this is much better! I would hope that it's not used routinely but where there are suspicions and one of those entitled "no one can prove anything" redditers it would be very good to be able to whip out a lateral flow test (or whatever form it takes) and say "actually, yes we can"

There is a testable objective reality called being female. In sport, that matters.

I have no doubt that weird men on the internet will at some point say that they are demanding test results proving that the women they date are female. This will be because they are homophobic and transphobic, but they will I suppose be within their rights. I suppose some weird women will join in on this, given that the only people convicted of sex by deception have in fact been women saying they are men to other women.

It is not, however, intrinsically wrong for specific provision for women to be kept for women, and to have a single test once in a lifetime that shows you are eligible. This test is for women. The outrage I feel at the blatant stealing of limited resources for women by male people is as strong as ever. I’ve donated in the past and will do again.

Noone wants to test your gender. Just the sex.

Transwoman isn't living as female.

This is great work from Emma. My only worry is that if this is used for 10 year olds entering sports contests, there could be a tiny number of kids who find out from this test that they have a DSD. Who will support them?

This is the perfect solution for all those who find the concept of sex difficult to understand and/ or find it impossible to tell if they or others are male or female. Emma has found a simple and cheap solution for them. I’m sure they’ll be very appreciative!

Good job no one’s trying to test gender then isn’t it. It’s for testing sex.

This test will only tell them that there's something that may need further investigation. It can't diagnose anything.

That's not a worry: it's a benefit. Too often such individuals don't get investigated until they're at least sixteen, still with no sign of female puberty, leaving them completely on the back foot when it comes to treatment options.

We can tell that they aren't women. The issue is what to do when they deny it / lie about it.

I think it could be restricted to adults only, no? On a consent basis.

They should be directed to contact their GP.

The key mitigation here lays in the consent process. Children and parents, when consenting to any kind of screening/ testing, should be made aware of the potential for the findings to indicate the existence of a DSD, and if/where this happens, it is advised they seek advice from a physician.

If concerns are held about this outcome being overly destabilising, the child/ parent has the option of getting the testing done via a more medical route before doing the sporting body’s screening. They could also forgo testing all together and, in turn, opt out of inclusion in the sport/pathway.

Yes, this.

No, you can't - which is why women with alopecia, cancer survivors and butch lesbians have been attacked in toilets.

Violent men aren't being convicted of filmed sex crimes. Accosting women going to use private, locked cubicles isn't helping anyone, and isn't activism - it's assault.

We’re not talking about toilets, mate.

It’s clear why you’re attempting this derail though.

People are very good at determining other people's sex. Women are especially good at it, for obvious reasons. The fact that women are occasionally temporarily mistaken for men doesn't affect the fact that men pretending to be women are almost always very obvious.

I note you haven't addressed the actual point which is that if a man attempts to access a female space like a shelter or a sports event and then when challenged, he lies about his sex, there's currently an impasse since there's no document in the UK that is reliable as to sex. This test would provide a cheap and practical way to resolve the issue of whether or not the interloper is in fact male.

The only reason to object to it is if you think men should be able to lie about their sex and violate women's boundaries.

RAPID ONSET WOMEN WITH ALOPECIA, CANCER SURVIVORS AND BUTCH LESBIANS CONCERN

If they have a DSD it is infinitely preferable they know about that before puberty and can be supported.