X marks the spot for Intersex Alex

[Betsy]

An article from Australia:

http://www.thewest.com.au/20030111/news/perth/tw-news-perth-home-sto84205.html

[Andi]

Interesting. I'm not sure what else to say.

Andi

[Betsy]

I'd say you end up having to do a whole lot of impromptu intersex 101 lessons on the spot with some people who may have a really difficult time understanding...

Betsy

[Kailana]

Id say welldone to Alex.
I have often felt that a third gender should be aloud on Drivers licenses and birth certificates. But then i suppose alot of that belief comes from the feeling that im not exactly male nor am i a female. And I dont propose that a third gender be forced onto anyone. But if asked for it shouldn't be hard to get either. As id love some public recognition that im unique. I would love to have an "X" or an "I" on my drivers license and if people asked me about it. Id just tell them that im intersexed and even go into a small speil about being intersexed and some conditions that cause intersexuality. I Feel that Alex's fight for recognition is a small step in gender awareness and uniqueness and should be acknowledged .
Rudy A. Alaniz

[Betsy]

Hi everyone,

Alex was kind enough to send a copy of the article for inclusion on Bodies Like Ours since the link above had expired. You can read it here: http://www.bodieslikeours.org/recent_news/news_splash.htm

Betsy

[Jules]

I see that as a very good story. The fact that he doesn't want to hide his intersexualism is a very important step in becoming a well funtioning person. The fact that he changed something shows what happends when ideas become a vision, then that vision can be willed into reality.

[QUOTE by BESTY] I would say you would have to do a whole lot of impromptu intersex 101 lessons on the spot.

First off, your right. If you just try and tell five people, four will go "What on earth are are you talking about??" LOL! Remember though that the "avarage" person without a college education would barely muster a C grade if tested on their overall knowlege, and not their speicalty feild.

Second, If you reconized the rights of intersexuls, then you would have to appy the same rights to gays, and transexuals.

Third, How young should we teach people this class intersex 101?

In grade school. How about first grade.

If ideas start at home, and then get shaped in the classroom, you would have the oposite, a whole world full of school children teaching their parents about us. Do you think shaping could go backwards?? Children shapeing adults from their learned baises?

I like the Idea of unteaching bias.:p

[Betsy]

Originally posted by Jules
First off, your right. If you just try and tell five people, four will go "What on earth are are you talking about??" LOL! Remember though that the "avarage" person without a college education would barely muster a C grade if tested on their overall knowlege, and not their speicalty feild.

We have great success with our Tell5!. Most people who learn about IS issues are outraged enough they want to tell five people. Many tell hundreds, or more. We also have some nifty handouts we give to people to help them along. The beauty of it is that you don't need to be an expert, you only need to share the headline and send off to either us or one of the many other sites out there.

The Tell5! concept has significant because it is one for every child that gets mutilated every day in the US alone.

On IS 101 lessons, I was thinking more about going through airport security. I usually use my passport rather than a license because it is easier; I like to think I never know where my trail will take me :p

Originally posted by Jules Second, If you reconized the rights of intersexuls, then you would have to appy the same rights to gays, and transexuals.

I don't understand; why would gay people need their gender as intersex if they were not? Trans people in most areas (not all---there are still some backwards places) can change the gender on their license.

Originally posted by Jules Third, How young should we teach people this class intersex 101?

In grade school. How about first grade.
If ideas start at home, and then get shaped in the classroom, you would have the oposite, a whole world full of school children teaching their parents about us. Do you think shaping could go backwards?? Children shapeing adults from their learned baises?


Works for me :D

Betsy

[Jules]

Hi. I was very excited about the "tell 5" When I look back through the my study of history of civilization, I find a strong tolarance for the gays and intersexed. Most of India today even most of the medical personal don't operate on their intersexed. It is the Western culture, that seems to gave grave issues it. And I must say I'm guilty sometimes of the influance of that culture. The younger you get people talking about sexual diffrences the better chances the better chance your message has of working. It would be this young generation the parent of the future that, in the future would refrain the chioce of operating. When you see your spiritualty as, being born a whole person to start, then having your body changed is very wrong. I can relate to that. I'm sure you will, and I hope you will, get good results with "tell5"


Didn't meen to confuse, I was just saying that the same rights for intersexed should go for gays in regards to seeing their gender as unquie as we do. Should they not want to have it on paper like adentifcation?



:p

[RGMCjim]

I recently went head to head with Vital Records in the state of NY trying to have a transsexual client's birth certificate changed to reflect her change in gender, not just her name. Like 90% of transsexuals she hasn't had genital surgery. I told the official that my client wanted to be able to travel and now you can't even get into Canada 1/2 the time without a passport and soon it may be all the time. Without an accurate birth certificate she can't get a passport. I argued that if her passport says "M" when she is obviously "F" and has an "F" name she would be scrutinized as fraudulent and could even be jailed under suspicion of stolen identity. He countered that if she were strip searched and they found her genitals she'd be in the same position. I asked if Vital Records requires the intersexed to have their genitals surgically altered too. He admitted that the department, and indeed society just falls apart trying to force people into the binary when they don't fit there. Some of us have no more claim to being "male" than to "female" as defined by our society. It's not accurate to put either of those things on an official document, and in addition to being misleading by implying things about our bodies that aren't true it leaves us open to a world of problems.
It's a fantasy to say that surgery and hormones turn the intersexed or transsexual into actual bona fide males or females. It is also untrue that all transsexuals or intersexed have been, will be, or want to be surgically altered. Do we create a third sex? Who says WE ARE CREATING ANYTHING?!!! I didn't create my intersex - my CREATOR made me this way. The fantasy is that there are only 2 sexes - we actually do exsist. There really are people like us.
If my birth certificate were accurate it would read "intersexed man". If my client's were accurate it would read "transgendered woman". You would expect to see a woman or man standing before you but would know that there will be things that make that person different from the normative concept of male/female.

Jim

[uriela]

Jim, I know you have the same kind of troubles. Most of the time I am not asked for identification. I had a troubling incident some years ago when I passed a policeman my driver's license with an "M" marker and a male name. I did get out of a ticket, but he did do a strange dance and was overwrought for some reason or other. I thought it was funny, but it could have been nasty. Now I have a name not even on my birth certificate--the usual ID required for crossing the border. That's bad enough! Would anyone else have to drop their drawers for a simple border crossing? The college nurse said that might be the recourse they would take to decide what washroom I could use. After my name change, the gender marker on my driver's license was good enough. ("Backed by experts", was the
conclusion of the chief of security.)

What is between our legs is NONE OF THEIR BUSINESS! (Unless they think we're packing an ouzi.)

Lemme see....
Birth certificate--Male, one name
Driver's license--Female, different name
Social Security Card--Name as on driver's license
Name change order

That's enough ID to be able to drive a car in Canada, isn't it? Or should a person get letters of reference too?

Of course, it's never enough if you have to deal with a __________!

Don't you just love attention?

Uriela
Transsexual female, pre-op

[RGMCjim]

Uriela,
One of the things on Empire State Pride Agenda's 'to do list'
(New York State GLBT lobbying organization) is to force Vital Records to change the gender on birth certificates of non-op transsexuals. There's no legal reason for them to refuse, they just do it out of an arbitrary policy.
The spill over would help intersexed people like me too. Right now my biggest problem is there is no way to link me to my birth certificate. The birth certificate is the only record I have ever had with that name/gender on it. There was no way I could get a copy myself. I signed a request with that name authorizing my lawyer to get a copy for me. I'm pretty sure the judge will sign the order to change name and gender, but getting vital records to actually do it ..... we'll see. I have visions of being Lambda Legal's next big case.

The thing that is just KILLING me is that my chorus is going to GALA in Montreal next year - thousands of queer voices together for a week. With the hyper security the way it is I won't be able to cross the boarder. My partner is the accompanist and he HAS to go. I'm going to be left behind by all friends and even my partner.

I'm just a lucky, lucky boy.

Jim