Living With XXY NonProfit 501(c)(3) Charitable Organization
Dear XXY Community,
We became aware of the NPR, The Guardian, and Smithsonian Magazine articles published on August 9th, and August 10th, and were deeply distressed by the inaccuracy of the information shared. Our team is working to professionally address the issue with the news outlets but we wanted to let you know we’ve heard your concerns, and share the steps we’re taking.
As an organization and community we understand men born with Klinefelter Syndrome/47,XXY are genetically male. Gender identity and expression are not solely defined by one’s genetic material. We support our people and how they identify themselves, however, we feel the article made invalid assumptions about the community that are harmful, and counteractive to the work we are trying to do.
The NPR article was a summary of a journal entry published by the European Journal of Archaeology that used a limited data pool of one archeological subject, used new technology to make aDNA (ancient DNA) determinations, and even admitted to their fair share of speculation about who exactly this individual may have been. While peer-reviewed, Living with XXY feels the title of the article was misleading to the actual content of the piece. In relation to Klinefelter Syndrome, we found the sources cited to be outdated and not in line with the best practices of the more advanced Klinefelter Syndrome research available. We cannot make assumptions about this person’s identity, gender presentation, or sexual orientation solely based on this one snapshot we have of their life, which is the way their body was found 1,000 years postmortem.
We hope to work with NPR and the Smithsonian, as well as eventually the researchers to raise positive, productive, and active awareness about Klinefelter Syndrome. We encourage you to continue advocating for the community, and reaching out to NPR, The Guardian, and the Smithsonian Magazine to express your concerns.
Ryan Bregante
President and Founder
NPR Article HERE
Smithsonian Magazine Article HERE
Original research article can be found HERE
