http://www.gaysouthflorida.com/week...es/intersex.htm

“Bodies Like Ours”
by Donald Cavanaugh
Each year, in the United States of America, some 2000 babies become victims of surgical mutilations performed with the patriarchal arrogance of modern medical practitioners. Since the mid-1950s when Dr. John Money, a world-famous psychologist, proposed the theory that gender identity is the result of nurture, not nature, the 1 in 2000 live births, in which the child’s sexual organs don’t conform to expected standards, have created potential victims of genital mutilation and unwarranted sexual assignment surgery.

“Basically they started doing these surgeries when they learned how to anesthetize babies without killing them,” said Betsy Driver, co-founder and executive director of Bodies Like Ours (www.bodieslikeours.org). “The attitude was and is that, if the surgeons shape the genitals to conform to the gender that they decide for the child and then reinforce the gender training through the child’s life, theoretically the child will grow up to be that gender. But it doesn’t work that way.”

In fact, Money’s most famous case of gender assignment surgery, Bruce/Brenda Reimer, was a spectacular failure. Born Bruce, the boy’s penis was removed in a botched circumcision. Money proposed that the child be castrated and his body be reconstructed to make him a girl. This was done and the family raised the child as Brenda. After 14 years of growing up girl, the child reverted to his male genetic nature and lived anonymously until a few years ago when he went public and the nature vs. nurture issue once again became a hot topic for discussion.

Intersexed people, like everyone else, arrive on the planet in a wide range of variations. Unfortunately for many of them, they, like everyone else, arrive as natural infants, unable to defend themselves or make decisions about who or what they want to be when they grow up. But that doesn’t stop doctors and parents from taking nature into their own hands and “fixing” the child’s genitals, even to the point of gender reassignment, as in the case of Bruce/Brenda Reimer.

“It’s not a crime if a woman has a big clitoris,” said Driver, who was surgically mutilated herself when she was subjected to a complete clitorectomy at the age of 3 months. “Nor if a man has a small penis, Society thinks ‘a woman shouldn’t be able to penetrate another woman with her clitoris so chop it off.’ Or ‘a man can never be a normal man with a small penis so let’s make him into a girl.’ We talk with rage and passion about genital mutilation in other countries in the world but it happens right here in the United States to five children a day and no one is making laws to stop it.”

A Google search on the words “intersex” and “intersexed” returned some 120,000 pages but that’s misleading according to Driver. “There are basically three intersex organizations in the US today,” she said. “There’s Intersex Society of North America (ISNA – www.isna.org) which is doing medical advocacy; there’s Intersex Initiative (www.ipdx.org) which is doing a lot of activism stuff; and there’s Bodies Like Ours which provides peer support.”

According to Driver, ISNA was founded about 10 years ago by Cheryl Chase, its current director. That event marks the beginning of the intersex movement aimed at helping individuals overcome the silence and shame of having different bodies and being perceived as different by the rest of society. In 2001, ISNA started focusing its energies on medical advocacy to end the genital mutilation of babies. This left a gap in the peer support arena ,so Driver and fellow activist Janet Green (who is no longer affiliated with the group) co-founded Bodies Like Ours to provide a vehicle for people to communicate with one another and to begin the process of coming out.

“The Internet has been very responsible for the growth of the movement,” said Driver. “It certainly helped me. Before I got on the Internet I really thought I was the only person like me in the world.” But don’t get the impression that all the people who connect through Bodies Like Ours or other intersex site are eager to come out. “A lot of us just want to be left alone,” said Driver. “Like LGBT people, intersex people can ‘pass’ and society encourages us to pass and stay in our closets and too often we collude with them.”

Driver asserts that there are many intersex people who identify as heterosexual and enter heterosexual relationships and don’t want to be identified with the LGBT community. She noted that many LGBT organizations have started adding an “I” for intersexed and that has made a number of intersex people uncomfortable.

“The whole reason for coming out,” said Driver, “is to gain visibility for intersex babies so doctors and parents will stop the mutilation of these children’s bodies. When the surgeons look around and only see a few of us they think that everyone else is okay with what they’re doing but in fact, these people are frightened into silence. The more of us who come out and say ‘stop’ the sooner we can hope to end the procedures.”

Although there may be resistance from some in the intersex community to joining forces with LGBT people demanding civil rights and protections, they may well play a significant role in the discussion of the proposed amendment limiting marriage to “one man and one woman.” There are many intersex conditions that fly in the face of simple definition of what is a man and what is a woman.

There’s a condition called Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS). The individuals are born with female appearance; are raised as a female; identify as a female but have XY chromosomes. Will the US prevent these females from marring men because they have male genetics?

Or, as Driver asked “What about a male born with a micro-penis? He’s got XY genetics but surgeons remove his male genitalia and replace them with an artificial vagina. Essentially they have created a lesbian but will deny her the right to marry a woman even though she is genetically a male with a male heterosexual orientation.”

A lesbian, as well as an intersex victim of genital mutilation, Driver well knows the issues of oppression from sexism and heterosexism and concurs that sexual assignment surgery more often results in creation of female genitals than male. She quoted John Gearheart, a nationally recognized surgeon who performs these surgeries as having said at a national conference: “It’s easier to dig a hole than it is to build a pole.”

“A child is given an artificial vagina that has to be kept open by essentially penetrating the child with a dildo and then she doesn’t menstruate. Essentially she’s just a receptacle for a penis. It’s all about penetrative sex. You’re assuming that the person is going to want to have heterosexual penetrative sex. You don’t know that.”

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Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. --Margaret Mitchell

Hi Betsy,



Sorry Betsy, that might be true for you, but I don’t see my vagina only as a receptable for a penis. When you put it that way it is like you say you can’t enjoy sex. My vagina was 4 cm deep and when I was 22 I decided to undergo surgery to make it 8 cm deep. I haven’t use a ‘dildo’ (why use this word? Is ‘dilator’ not strange enough?) for the last 20 years and my vagina is still (very) functional.

This kind of language makes it more difficult to speak to medics and it is not solving any problem.

In about an hour I will go to Lubeck (Germany) to attend a symposium about intersex conditions. Together with other members of the UK, German and Dutch AIS support groups I will meet medics who really want to help us. It’s true, some medics still live in the dark ages, but more and more I see medics who are listening to us.

Groeten, Miriam

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The Truth, The Whole Truth, and Nothing But The Truth.

Hi

I thought that was a good general article and anything that brings up the topic of Intersex is helpful in a way that it makes people think about what is going on with all types of intersex conditions.

I believe that surgery shouldn't be the first thing that is turned to but also each case is different. I liked what I was born with, it truely had a look of its own : ) and it didn't really bother my parents. I was lucky that surgery was done at age five because I do menstrate and wouldn't of been able to do that through what I was born with. Having to wait later than age five or at the very most 8 would of been terrible because I wanted the area all healed and in good working order or way before any menstration at 11.

Granted the surgery that was done does suck. But what I was born with couldn't help me either. The menstration wouldn't of been able to fit down that little hole at the end of the phallus and the area underneath the phallus was completely fused up.

The surgery didn't change who I am but I did need a place to bleed out of : )

I feel that I should apologize that I like heterosexual men. It's not a choice, it's just the way I am : ) I've told heterosexual men how I was born and they have been OK with it. They've been surprised but OK. I'm a female and I'll always have my intersex condition nothing was "fixed" I wasn't broken : ) but truth is that without the surgery and rerouting of my genital area that the menstration wouldn't of been able to come out of my body. As for sexual intercourse. Well it's just so much more than vagina penetration for me. That's awesome but it isn't the only thing.

Surgery on some baby boy to change him into a girl just because he has a small penis is totally wrong.

It's OK that intersex is related with GLBT as long they don't forget that some intersex conditions have a medical part that goes with them that could kill you. If being part of GLBT will help with getting me better medical treatment then thats great. Some of us with Intersex conditions will utilize the alliance and others will not or have the need to. I guess because having something that is for the lack of a better word not really in the mainstream that it's good for some sort of alliance. I had a nurse call ambiguous genitals weird and I never felt so alone when she made that intolerant statement. There was a time that I was shaky about my identity and it was gay men and lesbian women that were really supportive of it's OK that I like being female and like heterosexual men. Even though, I do have female chromosomes, a uterus, two ovaries, and was born with a small but true vagina that was high and on the inside with nothing else. It still doesn't mean anything, Gender is so much more in your head than anywhere else sometimes I felt fake in away, a poser if you will. But learned that I really am OK as myself. Just a female, I'm good. As androgenous ? I try but it's laughable. As passing for a man? I toyed with that but it isn't me but I will support anyone with an Intersex condition or anyone else that was put into the wrong gender by well meaning but misguided medical professionals or feel that they were born in the wrong gender. But as a female that doesn't forget that she has an intersex condition, I rock !

Aimee

Aimee, I agree...you most definitely rock. I think often of you as I do interviews and workshops and try to make clear that IS isn't a queer issue...rather, it affects lots of people and you can't judge sexual orientation based upon an IS condition.

Betsy

__________________
Until you've lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is. --Margaret Mitchell

Dear Betsy,

I might pop- up at one of those workshops as soon as my health improves. I was wondering when you do workshops, if you talk with any future Endocrinologists ?

Aimee

I'm very glad this time they had a link to our site. It is so good to see this site growing. I get worried when members drop off the board. I think you made a big step foward :)
I must ask you though about something:
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Money’s most famous case of gender assignment surgery, Bruce/Brenda Reimer, was a spectacular failure. Born Bruce, the boy’s penis was removed in a botched circumcision. Money proposed that the child be castrated and his body be reconstructed to make him a girl. This was done and the family raised the child as Brenda. After 14 years of growing up girl, the child reverted to his male genetic nature and lived anonymously until a few years ago when he went public and the nature vs. nurture issue once again became a hot topic for discussion.
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This has been talked about many times. I deleted a post that I wrote about this. Athough intersexed activists use if often, I keep thinking to myself......Bruce/Brenda Reimer was not intersexed! That may have a lot to do with why the gender reassignment was a spectacular failure. Intersexed people have a far better chance of reassignment because they are intersexed with elements of both male and female in them to begin with. What if Money had made me his famous Gender assigment case??
The end results would be very diffrent would it not?

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Betsy said:
“What about a male born with a micro-penis? He’s got XY genetics but surgeons remove his male genitalia and replace them with an artificial vagina. Essentially they have created a lesbian but will deny her the right to marry a woman even though she is genetically a male with a male heterosexual orientation.”
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As you know I am XY, a genetic male, and had fully decended gonads but had a flat stump where a penus should have been.
I fell in love with my girlfriend only about a year ago, before that I had a live in boyfriend for nine years. I was very happy in my hetrosexual relationship(s) with men. After joining BLO I decided that I would never give up BLO and the men I dated had to know the truth sooner or later. I found out that men seemed to have more trouble with my intersexuality then woman. Dating men then became a struggle. Not getting dates, but dealing with their homophoia drove me crazy. My point is, I was not made into a lesbian, I choose to be one.
Also as of May in MASS, I will be able to marry Elizabeth. It is very unlikely the supreme court will be over turned. All this civil union stuff is just to get votes in the election.

I very proud of you Betsy, you got to say a lot more in your interview then ever got published in mine and you should be proud of that:D

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You really have to love yourself, to get anything done in this world!

Julanne

Lovely article...

Made my eyes misty, but lovely.

Monica