Do you ever feel .....

[Peter]

I am glad that you feel that you are able to vent your feelings here. I think that the psychological aspects of being intersex are often ignored, because if people have a difficult enough time understanding what it physically means to be intersex, imagine how much more lost they would be by the psychological aspects of intersex. Maybe, in the coming decades, the situation will improve. It's interesting that the most widely read sustained narrative penned by an intersex author, is that of Herculine Barbin, which dates back to the nineteenth century. How did we loose our voice in the twentieth century? Are all the real stories of intersex lives locked away in the archives of doctors and psychiatrists? How can we survive the catastrophe of the medicalization of both our bodies and our minds?

Peter

[Glenn]

I'd be reluctant to use different "species" because that could be quite literally de-humanizing.
I think the core issue is defining what constitutes a person. As Kailana was including, I think it boils down to two major issues:
1) Others have taken it upon themselves to decide things for us, and as a result have raped us over and over again via the medical institutions. Part of the "reason" is that they don't trust us to make decisions for ourselves, or they need to simplify our status to make us easier to label. Only a small fraction of medical procedures on intersexuals are medically needed.
2) And that leads to the second issue - refusal of people to recognize gender as being more than binary. Most atrocities against us have been done with the kindest of intentions, in order to 'help us fit in', 'look normal', when, in fact, we don't fit in!

[Dianne]

Originally Posted by Glenn

<snip> in order to 'help us fit in', 'look normal', when, in fact, we don't fit in!

That's the basic truth, isn't it. It really isn't about us, it's about them! We upset their nice neat little applecart and they'll do anything to cling to their simplistic definitions.