THERE are some academics, members of diagnosis groups, and activists who are GLBT and even I for intersex who accuse transgender or transsexual people of claiming to be intersex when they are not. There are also those who accuse some intersex people of being transsexual or transgender and not really intersex.
OII Australia holds that both positions are transphobic.
Consider this…
Very few transsexual people have their DNA inspected as a part of their workup to surgery. A surgeon is unlikely to notice DNA differences while performing surgery.
Most transsexual surgery is conducted on the genitals and breasts… sometimes on the face. Not all intersex is evident in genitals, faces or breasts, so that assumes intersex is about reproductive parts and appearance.
Consider further…
A surgeon is conducting urogenital surgery on a transsexual woman (MtF). The surgeon discovers the remnant of a uterus and one ovary. Does the surgeon continue with ‘reassignment’ surgery, given that the Standards of Care specifically exclude intersex from Gender Identity Dysphoria (GID) as defined in the DSM-IV TR and the current Standards of Care? Or does the surgeon proceed and declare “nothing unusual?”
One observation made to OII Australia was: “It’s usually said that the vast majority of Harry Benjamin Syndrome (HBS) people wish they had some sign of physical intersex, but nothing is ever found.”
This kind of accusation should not be made. It is a baseless assertion and to our minds is defamatory.
We have no knowledge of people who are diagnosed with GID and thought to be transsexual being routinely examined for possible underlying intersexuality. It cannot be said with any certain knowledge how many HBS individuals or transsexuals or transgender people have concurrent well-known intersex differences or even if HBS is a form of intersex.
It cannot be said with any certain knowledge how many people in the general population are intersex. Indeed you, dear reader, may have differences that could be considered intersex and not know it.
Consider again… that the only way we know someone is intersex is as a result of four things:
- Obvious physical differences at the time of birth or later, especially genital differences.
- Difficulties with puberty.
- Difficulties with reproduction.
- Serendipitous discovery – the most common is paternity testing these days. Paternity testing locates people who have never known they have unusual genomes.
It is thought 20% of all XXY people are fertile. How would we know they are XXY if they are fertile? Why would they come to the attention of medicine? How do we know only 20%, why not 50% given most people are not routinely tested for unusual genomes?
Why would these circumstances change for any intersex differences?
There is every likelihood the majority of people with underlying intersex differences are not aware of it and have no need to know. There is every reason to suppose that individuals who present as transsexual are likely to be intersex. Being intersex is a reasonable explanation for the kind of feelings and experiances most transsexual people have.
Intersex is not about genitals or our reproductive parts. Intersex is about congenital, hormonal, genetic and physical differences that can be thought of as being both male and female at once, not entirely male or female, neither male or female, or something else again. Intersex is about sex diversity. It is not possible to tell if a person is intersex by external examination, and it is not always possible to tell if someone is intersex with an internal examination.
There are some scathing things said about HBS people and there are some HBS people who are themselves scathing.
Irrespective of the politics… when physical differences are found in individuals who consider themselves HBS or transsexual and those differences account for the way their mind identifies the sex of their bodies, then there is no logical way to exclude that from being intersex. That is, they have physical differences that could be seen as both male and female at once, not entirely male or female, neither male or female, or something else again.
There are many misapprehensions about intersex. The idea that intersex is an advantage and someone would claim it for sympathy’s sake is an absurdity!
The accusation that transsexuals claim intersex privilege is transphobic, pure and simple.
Transsexuals and transgender people have clear medical pathways and access to appropriate medicine. The surgery is well trialed with predictable outcomes. There is appropriate consensual surgery available. Transsexuals and transgender people have some protection at law and in many places enjoy anti-discrimination and anti-vilification protection and are even included in some human rights legislation.
Intersex people have no rights at law anywhere in the world. We have no protection against discrimination and vilification any where in the world. We are routinely subjected to non-consensual untrialed surgery with unpredictable outcomes. We are as discriminated against, prodded and poked, experimented on, classified and vilified, treated as freaks, as it is possible for any human to be.
The reason some people claim there are intersex activists who are transgender or transsexual is simple: it is seen as an insult.
The claim rests on some basic logic…
- Intersex people get more sympathy because they are born that way and there is nothing they can do about it. So are you saying that transgender or transsexual people are not? So the logic is… Intersex people don’t choose to be intersex but transgender or transsexual people choose to be weirdos and deserve what they get. “Poor old intersex freaks, don’t you feel sorry for them? Bleccccch, awful transsexual weirdos, let’s punch a few out!” This portrayal is not too far from the truth.
- Transsexual or transgender people are somewhat known in the community and there is a good deal of revulsion against them. Calling an intersex person ‘transsexual’ brings that revulsion on to that person. Vilification of both intersex and transsexual people in a single stroke.
So you ponder…
“I wonder if the surgeons see many odd things when they do Sex Affirmation Surgery (SAS aka SRS) on transsexuals?”
Do you think they would tell anyone? They might be liable for breaching the Standards of Care guidelines, they might be liable for removing parts the individual might have wanted to keep, or they might be forced to reveal a darkly held secret about the person on the operating table.
The worst? Medicine might be forced to acknowledge how injurious mistaken birth assignments are and how deeply tragic the consequences.
Final Declaration:
Accusing any person of being transsexual or transgender so as to diminish their standing is transphobic.
Asserting that a transsexual or transgender person’s claim to being intersex is a bid for greater standing is transphobic.
Intersex, in western society and in most other places is not an advantage.
Intersex remains a dark, shameful secret for most, a difference so reviled that desperate attempts to ‘normalise’ us are taken at the earliest opportunity, whether or not the individual concerned consents or understands.
Our bodies are considered so outrageously shameful it is thought we can enjoy no acceptable life without our differences being camouflaged by cosmetic surgery.
Yet despite these efforts we remain… Intersex!
