Gender identity was invented twenty years ago
Konstantin Kisin said:
“But we do have gender identity, you know. There's some- No, because people invented it and said this identity now exists. 20 years ago it didn't exist. It's al- No one, no one was talking about it”
The rapid rise in public discussion of gender identity over the past two decades can make it feel like a recent cultural invention, and the argument that something newly named must be newly created is superficially plausible.
The word is newer than the reality. Cultures across the ancient world, from South Asia's hijra communities to the two-spirit people of the Americas to the gala priests of Mesopotamia, recognised and named gender diversity long before any Western clinical framework existed. The term 'gender identity' was formalised in the 1960s by researchers trying to describe something they were already observing in the people in front of them, which is the ordinary way that language works: the phenomenon comes first. What has genuinely changed in the last two decades is visibility, political argument, and the courage of people to say publicly who they have always been. When we treat that visibility as proof of invention rather than proof of safety, we give ourselves permission to deny medical and legal recognition to people whose existence is written into every chapter of human history.
What I said at the time:
“It's always existed. It's always existed. You know, if you have a look, have a look in the history books, and if you want to Google history of it, it's, it's actually very interesting. This has existed for many, many, many, many years. It's just in the last decade it's become very political and, and topical.”
Trans people whose identities are dismissed as a social contagion or cultural fad, reinforcing the idea that they do not deserve legal or medical recognition.