Quote:
Tell me,in your honest opinion,is the inclusion of xxy under the intersex umbrella,for reasons of a boost to intersex numbers,given that xxy = 1 in 500 of all live births.
I ask,as this is the general consensus of a number of xxy's I have encountered who see themselves as male and will have nothing to do with any mention of intersex
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I didn't include the part of your post regarding reactions in the quote above, but FWIW, the muted reaction has been something both Peter and I have scratched our heads over the past week.
On the XXY inclusion, the 'conditions' included follow the majority of medical professionals. That is, nothing has been added to boost numbers in any way. Many, many medical people sort KS as intersex, and thus we that is the definition we use.
The attitude of, "It's not IS" is actually quite common across many conditions the medical profession sort under the unbrella. I see it all the time with CAH women even though even physicians who exclude many types of genital or chromosome variations always include it.
Much of this also happens to follow the self-identification issues involved. Many, many people don't understand the medical definition of the word itself and believe it has to do with an identity or means someone is transexual, which as we know is incorrect. Taking it a step further, many men with KS do identify as IS and that too is taken into consideration. One of the key people behind the report and was instrumental in seeing it come to fruition was David Cameron, a man with KS. I see it use of the label often split among those who are queer in some way--gay, lesbian, bi, or trans and those who are not. Those who have already dealt in some way with other forms stigma have less of an issue than those who are heterosexual.
To me, it's actually a horrible word because of those misunderstandings but it something that's there and the focus on "sex" which also is misunderstood as a whole. I'd love to see a substitute word but what it is, I don't know.
Betsy