1. Intersex means that a person has both sets of
genitalia.
This is probably one of the most common misconceptions about
intersex. Intersex often has nothing to do with the genitalia of the person,
much less having two sets.
There are intersex people with a penis and a vaginal
opening. However, there are no documented cases of a person being born with
fully developed male and female genitalia. The vast majority of intersex people
have genitalia that look pretty typically male or female with a small minority
having atypical genitalia. In fact, the quaint, pseudo-scientific term‚
“true hermaphrodite” which refers someone with ovarian and testicular tissue can
refer to a person with totally typical male or female genitalia.
2. 1 in 2000 infants is born intersex.
This is one of the most common statistics given. It would be
more accurate to state simply that in hospitals with gender assignment teams, 1
in 2000 infants is born with genitalia that are so atypical that the attending
physician requests the help of the specialists in the team to assign a sex.
Hospitals in Botswana have no gender assignment teams and
most intersex people have typical genitalia. One should be careful to note
that even in the majority of births with atypical genitalia, the doctor does
not request any assistance from a gender assignment team even if one is
available. Therefore, one can readily see that this figure gives the impression
that intersex is very, very rare. It isn’t!
3. When an intersex child is born, they cannot be
left to grow up as is, but rather “something must be done”.
There are very few instances when a child’s intersex
variation poses health risks that require immediate medical attention. Rather,
intersex people, like all people, have health issues. For example, being a
female is not in and of itself a health problem but there are health problems
specific to females.
In the majority of cases where there are no health risks
involved, we have witnessed that it is more beneficial to the intersex child to
be allowed to grow up with their body intact. Preserving their bodies’
integrity allows intersex children to develop their own sense of sex and gender
identity without the risk of irreparable damage to the formation of this
identity.
The child can be raised with a provisional sex assignment of
male or female and left to decide for themselves, as all other humans are given
the right to do, if this sex feels right for them later on, and/or if they wish
to make any cosmetic changes to their body to align it with their sense of
self. Attempting to make these decisions for infants and children, while
perhaps well intentioned, is playing a game of speculation with another
person’s life.
4. Intersex is about homosexuality.
The underlying reasons for pathologizing intersexuality and
suggesting treatments which are often barbaric are most likely a result of
homophobia. However, there is nothing about intersexuality person that would
cause one to state that intersexuality and homosexuality are the same issue or
that they are directly related.
There quite possibly are links but the physiological reasons
are not fully understood at this time. What is important to understand is that
many people with intersex conditions, just as those without them, sometimes
identify as gay or lesbian. Similarly, many intersex adults find the issue of
homosexuality irrelevant to our perception of ourselves. More and more intersex
people are comfortable with an intersex gender identity which we feel is more
accurate in describing how we perceive ourselves.
The socially constructed model of eroticism offered up by
many cultures which divides people into homosexual and heterosexual erases our
identity. Even bisexuality further perpetuates the idea of only two genders by
the use of the prefix “bi‚” which means‚ “both.” There are people who are
primarily attracted to androgynous people, to “masculine ” women or “feminine”
men. And most important of all, what is the opposite sex of an intersex person?
5. Disorders of Sex Development, or DSD, is the preferred
term for intersex.
All members of the Organisation Intersex International – OII
– the largest intersex organization in the world, reject the label Disorders of
Sex Development, or DSD, for the simple reason that we are not disordered, but
different, and we refuse to accept medical language and views which pathologize
us.
The fact that some intersex individuals choose to use this
term to describe themselves, just as some homosexuals view their homosexuality
as a disorder to be cured, does not discount the fact that the label is inaccurate
and stigmatizing to the community as a whole.
6. Intersex is not about gender.
To many intersex people, gender is the main issue. In many
countries around the world, there are no early surgeries to “treat” intersex
bodies. These people’s main issues are often based on not being able to fit
into either gender or growing up with a body incompatible with the gender in
which they were raised.
The very theories used to support mutilating intersex bodies
both surgically and hormonally are based on notions of gender which have been
proven to be unreliable. According to these theories, often espoused by
followers of Dr John Money, gender is not innate to the individual. We have no
proof of this. We do have quite a bit of proof to the contrary.
Intersex is not just about our bodies but also about how we
perceive ourselves within those bodies and gender identity is a crucial part of
everyone’s identity.
To erase the importance of gender to the individual intersex
person is to reduce that person to only the physical aspects of their body,
neglecting the more important part of the equation, their own perception of
that body and themselves, as opposed to how others perceive them.
7. Intersex is part of the transgender movement.
No. Whereas individuals who are intersex might identify as
transgender, the opposite is not true. Most people who are part of the
transgender movement are not intersex.
To include intersex under the umbrella term “transgender”
overlooks our specific needs which often are medical reform, legal issues
concerning which gender we are, health issues specific to intersex bodies and
more importantly, the fact that most intersex people are not trans.
Many intersex people are perfectly happy with being men or
women and more and more of us are quite happy being intergender and find the
notion of trans totally foreign to our identity because we are rejecting binary
sex and binary gender altogether and the prefix “trans,” just like the prefix
“bi‚” mentioned earlier, keeps the binary well intact.
8. The intersex movement is an identity movement like the
LGBT movements.
The Organisation Intersex International campaigns for full
human rights for all people born with intersex variations. However at this
moment many intersex people do not claim “intersex” as an identity.
Our diverse community includes people who identify as
intersex males, intersex females, intersex, males, females, both or neither
male nor female, men, women, herms, or sometimes, also, transgender.
9. Most intersex people were assigned female.
Many intersex differences in infants assigned male are often
overlooked and the parents are simply told there is some work necessary for
proper urination or that a testicle has not descended and so on.
In addition, in many parts of the world intersex people are
assigned male if at all possible because it is deemed more socially desirable
to be male.
When one reads about all the many variations underlying
intersex, one realizes that a person born intersex is just as likely to be
assigned male as female.
10. Intersex is a “condition” which can be cured.
Surgical “normalization” of intersex bodies is an attempt,
like eugenics, to remove differences which some people have decided are
undesirable, and it often creates problems which were previously non-existent.
To view intersex variations as “medical conditions” which
can be cured justifies the barbaric medical practices we are often subjected
to, such as genital surgeries and/or hormones which may be contrary to our own
core identity, and psychological treatments for not wishing to comply.
