Born Between Two Sexes

Jen Phillips, Associate Editor, Girlfriends Magazine

Reprinted with permission of Girlfriends Magazine. Originally published May, 2003.

This year 2,000 babies--most of them little girls--will undergo invasive surgery to "correct" their sex parts. Jen Phillips lets you know what the nascent intersex movement--led mostly by dykes--is doing about it.

In 1956, and after three days of debate, Cheryl Chase's parents named their newborn Charlie. But at eighteen months, doctors discovered that in addition to what they thought was a small penis with an opening along the bottom, Charlie had a uterus and ovaries. In part because the ovaries were functional, and thus potentially able to produce children, the doctors decided to make Charlie into Cheryl. As part of the procedure, they removed her entire clitoris, leaving her without orgasmic response.(next page>>)

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