“Intersex advocates are rejoicing at a paper released by three former US Surgeons General. The surgeon-generals called for an end to forced medical surgeries on young intersex people.
Dr Joycelyn Elders, Dr David Satcher and Dr Richard Carmona were the 15th to 17th Surgeons General respectively.
The three condemned genitoplasty and other procedures, which are often performed on infants with intersex traits.
Intersex advocates, human rights groups and even the World Health Organization recognize ‘corrective surgery’ can cause more harm than good.
The paper comes as a new study revealed people who did not have forced surgery grew up without predicted problems.
The French study found ‘so far no major concerns have been reported from patients and their families’ and ‘with appropriate medical care and psychological support, it is possible to defer genital surgery’.
Happy Intersex Awareness Day!!!! Today I’m talking all about my specific intersex variation - CAIS. Please subscribe to my channel and let me know what you think! xoxy
This article is the only one I’ve read so far out of the ones my partner got from the U of T medical library. It was completely eye-opening and explores the correlation between the medicalization/pathologization of homosexuality, bisexuality and gender variance and the rise of normalizing surgeries in intersex infants.
A very important and relatively short read that I heavily encourage intersex people as well as dyadic LGBT people to read.
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is the INTERSEX flag. Got it? Intersex; It’s not a gender.
It is not the bigender flag.
It is not the bigender flag.
It is NOT the bigender flag.
I’m getting sick and tired of clueless dyadics using stealing our flag and erasing intersex people.
There’s also a few flags that are confused - for some reason - for the intersex flag:
This is the OII flag, and Australian intersex organization/group. Yes, it’s cool that this Intersex group has created their own flag, but it’s not the universal intersex flag.
…Oh, and for some reason, this flag
keeps being used (by dyadics) thinking that it’s the intersex flag. IT’S NOT. It’s “official” name is the Herm********* Flag. Yeaaah, no. Let’s not use this flag, EVER. It’s actually pretty disgusting.
If you’re going to include intersex people in your flag posts, which you fucking should, please at least know what’s the real intersex flag before you go around claiming you’re some kind of ~ally~ or thinking that you are doing us a favour. You’re really not.
Have you just started using CA(F/M)AB? These are terms that are used by the intersex community and I don't believe it's appropriate for trans people to use them for ourselves. We might be designated to one of two genders, but we do not undergo coercive (surgical) assignment as infants. I'd appreciate your thoughts.
the terms were coined by dyadic trans women of colour. they apply to all trans people, because biological sex is a social construct and all non-consensual sex assignment is inherently coercive.
intersex-specific terms for sex assignment include IASAB (intersex assigned sex at birth) and FASAB (forcibly assigned sex at birth), but CASAB is not an intersex-specific term and it was not coined by the intersex community.
I wrote a piece about the discourse between intersex and trans groups, and more specifically the harm done when (dyadic) trans people use intersex lives as leverage for arguments on transphobia. Give it a read + share if you can. - Mod H
We get a lot of questions asking if someone can “self diagnose” as intersex. This is a complicated issue that comes with a complicated answer.
First off, we believe we should eradicate stigmatizing language like “diagnosis” when talking about our bodies because we believe that being intersex should not be pathologized nearly to the extent that it is. We are much more than our intersex traits! I will be using “identify” instead, and “trait” in replacement of “condition”.
Can you identify as intersex without a doctor saying that you are intersex? Let me start of by saying; your doctor will most likely never say that you are “intersex”. That terminology is deemed outdated in the medical community so it is almost always up to the person to self identify as intersex even if they have doctor-confirmed traits that are within the intersex umbrella.
If you have not been to a doctor about what you suspect to be an intersex trait, or do not feel comfortable going to a doctor about it (which is perfectly understandable), can you still identify as intersex? The short answer is yes. No one can stop you from identifying as intersex in reality, but I suggest really reflecting on why you identify as intersex. If you feel that you will find solace and that identifying as intersex matches up with your experiences then do so with caution. Understand that your experience might be much different than someone who has other intersex traits or has gone through forcible surgery and know that no one intersex person can speak on the behalf of our entire community.
I suggest you go to our FAQ page and the page Mod D so graciously put together answering “am I intersex if…” questions that we get.
- Mod H (other mods feel free to edit and add to this as you wish)
Don’t get too excited when you read about legal “third genders” - they are usually based on rigid biological determinism to dictate “gender.” Really appreciate this article for pointing out these contradictions.
