INTERSEX NEWS

For more news on Intersex, Visit OII-Austrailia

2010-08-24T14:15:00.000-07:00

Please visit OII-Australia for more up-to-date news on intersex.

Click here

Guidelines recommend shared decision-making between parents, physicians in sex development treatments

2010-08-09T05:21:00.000-07:00

Karkazis K. J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2010;23:789-806.
A shared decision-making process would encourage both parents and physicians to take an active role in determining the most beneficial treatment for patients with disorders of sex development who are considering surgical intervention, researchers suggested.

Complete article: Click here

MichFest Workshop Challenges Womyn-Born-Womyn Policy and Medical Practices: “Disordered or Just Different?”

2010-07-23T08:38:00.001-07:00

I will present a workshop at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival (MichFest) on Friday, August 6th, from 12:30 to 2:30 pm in the Media Tent. This presentation is the same talk entitled “Disordered or Just Different? Myth, Science and Sexuality” that has been well-received at two other venues recently (see previous posts). The title is shortened to “Myth, Science, and Sexuality” to meet the publishing specifications for the 2010 MichFest booklet.

Complete article: Click here

Double sex inmate ‘must pay for sins’

2010-07-18T03:05:00.000-07:00

By JILLO KADIDA
Posted Thursday, July 15 2010 at 22:05

An intersex robbery convict fighting for legal recognition was on Thursday told to “pay for your sins as you were never denied schooling because of your gender.”

A group calling itself Kenya Christian Lawyers Fellowship asked a three-judge bench of the constitutional court to disregard pleas by Richard Muasya to be released from Kamiti because of his unique sex condition.

Dropped out

The group drew the court’s attention to affidavits by Muasya’s relatives that he went to school but dropped out, saying he could not see the board, contrary to claims that he was denied education because of his sex.

The affidavits were sworn by Muasya’s mother and his maternal grandmother, Ms Damaris Siyongo.

According to the affidavits, despite concerted efforts to have Muasya go back to school he refused, opting to fetch water.

Presenting his case in court on Tuesday Muasya, who has both male and female organs, said he was denied an education because of his gender.

He sought to introduce a third gender in the law books when his lawyer, Mr John Chigiti, said his client did not have a birth certificate because his sexuality was not legally recognised. The court will make a ruling on September 29.

Source: Click here

OPPOSITION TO GENITAL DRUGS

2010-07-15T19:27:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from article:

This year New and Nimkam wrote that they believed that prenatal dexamethasone therapy can reduce “behavioral masculinisation” in CAH girls including same-sex attraction and tom-boy type behaviours.

Organisation Intersex International (OII) Australia spokesperson Gina Wilson told Sydney Star Observer they strongly opposed any forced or unconsented normalisation of Intersex children.

“We hold that both surgery on intersex newborns and non-consenting children, forced gendering and the administration of drugs to reinforce gender and gender behaviour whether pre or post natal is essentially homophobic,” Wilson said.

OII Australia recommends any intervention should be left until an intersex child is old enough to express their own wishes regarding treatment.

Wilson said that as far as OII Australia was aware, all hospitals in Australia recommended the early sex assignment of children with intersex conditions to parents and it was possible that dexamethasone was being prescribed to women carrying CAH girls in Australia.

Wilson welcomed Dreger speaking out on the issue but noted that she and some colleagues had pushed for intersex conditions to be renamed “disorders of sex development” for clinical purposes – a term OII Australia feels to be stigmatising.

Complete article: Click here

DiManno: Semenya’s long ordeal over as IAAF clears South African to compete

2010-07-08T15:38:00.000-07:00

By Rosie DiMannoColumnist

JOHANNESBURG

Her voice is deep, in the lowest alto range for a female. Her breasts are non-existent, hips boyishly slim.

Throughout her life, when she looked in the mirror, Caster Semenya saw a girl. She apparently never doubted her gender. Certainly her parents believed they’d raised a daughter — one who, as it turned out, could run like the wind.

The International Association of Athletics Federations was not so sure.

For 11 months the IAAF had left Semenya hanging, ever since the South African athlete crushed the field in the 800-metre final at the world championships in Berlin. Some competitors, astonished by the muscular Semenya’s overwhelming dominance in that race — a two-second margin of victory — and her dramatically improving times, complained that she had to be a he — just look at her.

So the IAAF looked. Medical experts looked. Lawyers looked.

The teenager’s mortification can only be imagined.

On Tuesday, the global track and field authorities who had ordered gender verification testing finally released their verdict, clearing Semenya to resume her career as a girl runner — perhaps as soon as the world junior championships in Moncton, N.B., on July 19.

Yet the statement issued by the IAAF was oddly imprecise, which might very well provoke challenges — at the very least fail to smother disgruntlement — from Semenya’s running opponents.

“The process initiated in 2009 in the case of Caster Semenya has now been completed,” the government body stated tersely. “The IAAF accepts the conclusion of a panel of medical experts that she can compete with immediate effect.”

Her gold medal and race times have been formally recognized and Semenya will receive an undisclosed financial “settlement” for her ordeal.

But nothing was stated flatly about Semenya — rumoured to be a hermaphrodite, meaning she has both male and female sexual organs (though the second set of genitalia could be internal) — being a female, full stop. Medical details will not be released.

“Why should they be out there?” Semenya’s lawyer, Greg Nott, told South African television last night. “Would you like your sex records to be made public?”

For the past three weeks, Semenya has been participating in a training camp in Pretoria, along with the rest of this country’s track team. She had declined interviews but her coach, Michael Seme, described his star as “unfit” physically and merely going through the motions as she waited — and waited — for an outcome to her case, a decision repeatedly deferred by the IAAF. “She can’t do any speed work or prepare to race until we know when she can compete,” Seme told reporters last week.

The waiting, the pending, is now over. Why the process took so long has not been explained. A month ago, South African Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile scrapped a press conference at which it was assumed the medical results would be revealed. That was just one more false start for Semenya, and she’s endured many since last August’s compromised triumph.

The 19-year-old released a statement Tuesday afternoon, expressing her delight at being able to race again. “I am thrilled to enter the global athletic arena once again and look forward to competing with all the disputes behind me.”

But only hours earlier, in a brief phone interview with Associated Press, Semenya had said: “I don’t feel anything.”

What she has clearly felt, all these long months, is embarrassment, as the most intimate details of her being were debated around the world, after news was leaked that the IAAF was scrutinizing her gender. Different sports federations follow different rules about determining sex. The International Olympic Committee no longer requires mandatory gender testing, though it continues to struggle in drafting guidelines to help federations handle “ambiguous” athletes who may have “disorders of sex development,” as some doctors describe the condition.

It has been a humiliating experience for the teen, suddenly famous — and notorious — for what may or may not be between her legs.

What’s not clear, and likely will never be publicized, is whether Semenya underwent any medical procedure or testosterone-suppressing treatment during her long layoff.

Nott insisted Semenya has come through her public trial with honour intact. “Caster’s dignity has been repaired by her own grace and her own strength.”

He conceded not all of Semenya’s competitors will accept this decision. A few, during the past year, have threatened to boycott races if Semenya was allowed to compete as a female.

“It’s up to them if they want to challenge it,” said Nott. “There may be athletes who do not accept her, but there has also been an outpouring of love and support.”

He further claimed that sponsors have come forward with potential endorsement deals for the runner.

“We’re going to see our golden girl in her track shoes and ready to compete.”

Source: Click here

Preventing homosexuality in utero: Could we? Would we? Should we?

2010-07-08T15:28:00.000-07:00

July 2, 2010 | 7:00 am
A workhorse drug that's been around for decades has, in recent weeks, stirred up a biomedical debate that will likely resonate with any parent who's ever asked him or herself: If I could prevent my child from being gay, would I?
Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid that has been widely used in the treatment of arthritis, of intestinal, kidney and thyroid disease, in certain kinds of cancers. It's also been prescribed to — and used by — pregnant women carrying female babies who are at genetic risk of a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia, or CAH.
Children born with the genetic anomaly will need a lifetime of medication to ensure their normal growth, sexual development and reproductive function. But for girls, one manifestation of CAH is evident at birth: her external genitalia will look more masculine than feminine. The resulting person used to be called a hermaphrodite. The preferred term now is intersex, a condition of gender ambiguity that can be caused by a number of different conditions.
Dexamethasone, when administered in utero, appears to correct the development of a female fetus' genitalia. As a result, it relieves parents and child of a difficult decision — to have later corrective surgery, with all of its risks.
That a parent should take it upon him or herself to "correct" a child's ambiguous gender identity is debatable enough. (The Intersex Society of North America maintains that "parents' distress must not be treated by surgery on the child.") What ignites serious controversy is a side effect of prenatal dexamethasone — its ability to feminize, not just the external genitalia of a girl with CAH, but her internal outlook and her behavior. That is significant because among CAH's more subtle effects, according to Mount Sinai Medical Center endocrinologist Dr. Maria I. New, is that women who have it tend to be more masculine in their behavior and interests, including sexual attraction to women. New has been a leading researcher on CAH and, in an earlier practice, is reported to have prescribed dexamethasone. She and a research collaborator, Columbia University psychologist Heino F.L. Meyer-Bahlburg, has investigated at length the "psychosocial" as well as medical issues faced by those with CAH.
In short, dexamethasone seems to hold the promise not only of sparing a child a difficult and risky surgery, it may also redirect a sexual trajectory that will lead to bisexuality or lesbianism.
That, say bioethicists, is going too far. In a recent posting on the Bioethics Forum of the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan bioethics institute based in Garrison, N.Y., Alice Dreger, Ellen K. Feder and Anne Tamar-Mattis warn that treatment of the external manifestations of CAH are debaeable enough in and of themselves: But, in this case, that treatment will make it possible for some parents to take actions motivated -- at least in part -- by a desire to prevent their child from becoming a homosexual.
Dreger, Feder and Tamar-Mattis suggest that in insisting that homosexuality is not a choice but a biologically determined fact of identity, gay and lesbian rights activists may have set themselves up for medical researchers to see sexual orientation as a condition that can be "fixed." They "should be wary of claims that the innateness of homosexuality will lead to liberation," they wrote. Instead, it might "very well lead to new means of pathologization and prevention," write the bioethicists.
Also unclear is whether the use of dexamethasone by pregnant women is safe — or for that matter, effective. Neither has been demonstrated by clinical trials. The prescribing of a drug in treatment of a condition other than that for which the Food and Drug Administration has approved it — called off-label — is very common and legal. But the debatable use of dexamethasone in pregnant women has caused sufficient concern among endocrinologists that the Endocrine Society next month is expected to issue a consensus document warning physicians who prescribe prenatal dexamethasone for CAH that the treatment should be considered experimental. That imposes far greater ethical strictures on physicians: They must seek the approval of an ethics and safety review board and satisfy other conditions designed to protect a patient's rights.
Want to know more about what researchers have learned about the bases of homosexuality, and the ethical debates that result? Here's an article on the subject from the LA Times Health section.
--Melissa Healy
Source: Click here

Junk Science Doc Tries to Cure Lesbianism with Experimental Drug!

2010-07-08T15:25:00.000-07:00

by SheWired Editors | Article Date: 07/01/2010 9:13 PM

File this under Brave New World meets Focus on the Family homophobic prenatal modification scary shit!

Dr. Maria New (let’s call her Dr. Frankenhomophobe), has been administering –without informed consent -- the experimental drug dexamethsone (dex), to pregnant women who might be carrying children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), a condition that has been associated with girls with intersexuality and also tomboyish-ness and lesbianism, according to the Huffington Post.

Despite reports that the drug is not approved for pregnant women, doesn’t cure CAH – although it has been known to reduce some masculine traits associated with CAH – and that it causes birth defects in animal, Dr. Maria New Frankenhomophobe is hawking it as a miracle cure for lesbianism in the womb and for ensuring that girls grow up to submit to sex with men and be fruitful and multiply.

Complete article: Click here

A whole new way of being

2010-06-22T15:30:00.000-07:00

Gender selection a tough topic, author says; fiction title centres on intersex birth
ASHLEY FITZPATRICK
The Telegram

"What happens if it's less than that?"

"When a phallus is less than one point five centimetres, give or take seven hundredths of a centimetre -"

"Seven hundredths?"

"Yes. When it's less than that, we remove the presentation of male aspects and later, during adolescence, we sculpt the female aspects."

"What if it's right in the middle? Right straight, smack dab down the precise centre? One point five centimetres with no seven hundredths."

"Then we make an educated guess. We do endocrinological tests but really, in a newborn, as far as endocrinology goes, we're making a best estimate. Penis size at birth is the primary criterion for assessing a gender."

"Measure her, then."

- A mother and doctor speak about an intersex child, in an excerpt from the novel "Annabel" by Kathleen Winter.

Complete article: Click here

Oh, is that so?

2010-06-21T16:19:00.000-07:00

by Sophia Siedlberg

Alice Dreger managed to strike a rich vein the other day when she reported in the Bioethics Forum that one Dr. Poppas, a baby mutilating surgeon, had been "testing the sensitivity of the reconstructed clitoris of six year old girls with a vibrating stimulator". (Yes he did and yes, he should be banged up in prison for that.)

However, I did notice how Alice Dreger had framed it as "All these little girls" and not as she had previously done: "All these Disorders of Sex Development" or "All these intersex children". Which is interesting, and what is more interesting is how no one really took any notice of the plight of those children when she described them as intersex, etc.

They were still children.

To read the complete article: Click here

We need to talk about IGM…

2010-06-19T09:04:00.000-07:00

June 18, 2010

A couple of days ago, Alice Dreger and Ellen K. Feder jointly posted a brief article (Bad Vibrations) on the Bioethics Forum of the Hastings Center’s website.

The piece picked up on an earlier article, Nerve Sparing Ventral Clitoroplasty: Analysis of Clitoral Sensitivity and Viability – PDF here – published in 2007 by Jennifer Yang (a pediatric urologist), Diane Felsen (a pharmacologist) and Dix P. Poppas, M.D in The Journal of Urology.

Dreger and Feder’s piece focuses attention on Dr Poppas, a pediatric urologist at New York Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Medical College of Cornell University whose “special interest in genital reconstruction [and] surgical aspects of disorders of sexual development” has apparently led him to carry out a program of research on 51 girls aged between 4 months and 24 years old (mean age ± SD 4.6 ± 6.8 years) in which he performed nerve sparing ventral clitoroplasty, which included “followup testing of clitoral viability and sensation after clitoroplasty“.

Read the complete article: Click here

Cornell doctor sliced young girls’ genitals

2010-06-18T06:47:00.000-07:00

Cornell doctor sliced young girls’ genitals; Tested girls as young as six with vibrator, columnist says

By David Edwards

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

A Cornell doctor is performing partial clitoris removal on young girls and then using a vibrator to test their sensation in follow-up tests, a shocking column by syndicated columnist Dan Savage asserted Wednesday.

Dr. Dix P. Poppas has been performing the procedure on girls older than five for several years, according to 2007 paper (PDF) documenting the research. The doctor and patients' parents allegedly believe that the girls' clitorises are too large and create too much sensation.

Complete article: Click here

After Cutting Little Girls' Clitorises, Ivy League Doctor Tests Handiwork With a Vibrator

Cornell University Doctor Engaging In Genital Mutilation Of Young Girls

A Prenatal Treatment Raises Questions of Medical Ethics

Gina Wilson – Discovering One’s Intersex Self.

2010-06-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

Activist’s anger as Malawian’s gender is misreported

2010-06-10T13:34:00.000-07:00

A trans activist has attacked the media for referring to a Malawian put on trial for homosexuality as a man rather than a trans woman.

Paris Lees

9 June 2010

A trans activist has attacked the media for referring to a Malawian put on trial for homosexuality as a man rather than a trans woman.

Transgender activist and writer on sex and sexuality, Jane Fae, says the “gay” Malawian, Tiwonge Chimbalanga has made it clear that she is female. Chimbalanga, 26, dresses in traditional women’s clothes, but media outlets have received mixed messages from the couple’s legal team.

She was one half of a couple put on trial for homosexuality and sentenced to 14 years in prison in Malawi. But the jail term was lifted after intense international pressure including appeals from Barack Obama, Madonna and gay, trans and human rights activists.

Press coverage has so far dismissed the possibility that Chimbalanga has intersex features, but PinkPaper.com has discovered previously overlooked online court documents. According to the Malawi Legal Information Institute’s official website Flony Flank told the High Court that Chimbalanga’s male genitalia: “Did no [sic] look normal.”

In May Chimbalanga told the New York Times: “I have male genitals, but inside I am a complete woman. Maybe I cannot give birth to a child, but I menstruate every month.”

Months earlier, the NYT reported that Tiwonge Chimbalanga is known affectionately as Aunt Tiwo and: “Looked like a man but said he [sic] was a woman.”

Fae believes the media should have paid more attention to these comments and told PinkPaper.com: “If the BBC and Channel 4 were unable to cover issues of sexuality with more intelligence, they should leave it to those who can. It is very clear from reporting of the case that Tiwonge identifies as female. This is not so much a case of anti-gay prejudice, as anti-transgender.”

Y Gavriel Ansara of advocacy group Organisation Intersex International welcomed the lifting of the couple’s sentence but has called for greater accuracy in media coverage saying: “This is a great victory but some important facts are missing about the extent of the injustice. Tiwonge Chimbalanga is not a man.”

Fae believes anti-trans prejudice in the United States is much greater than that in Europe and that the misgendering of Chimbalanga was deliberate.

She said: “Re-positioning the story into an anti-gay framework allowed the US media to feel superior to the Africans, without having to confront their own transphobia. It remains puzzling as to why UK media continue to peddle this wholly false line.”

But this version of events was put in doubt by some comments from human rights activist Peter Tatchell who was closely involved in the efforts to get the couple pardoned.

While the case was continuing, he told PinkPaper.com: “I have got [prison visitors] to ask Tiwonge about his/her gender identity but the answers are unclear.

“Although they have been convicted of homosexuality, I suggest that we do not refer to Steven and Tiwonge as a ‘gay couple’ until these issues are clarified.”

It has even been suggested that the Malawian couple lacked the vocabulary to accurately describe Chimbalanga – a country where trans people are obviously far less open or visible.

Despite this possible explanation for the inaccuracy, Fae insists the misgendering of Tiwonge is a serious offence: “By following the party line that this is all about homophobia, the UK’s national news media are every bit as bad as those they would condemn, parcelling up the oppressed into acceptable and unacceptable minorities.”

PinkPaper.com reported earlier today that the couple has now split up. Tatchell said their relationship was put under huge pressure and they had received death threats as well as a warning from the government that they faced re-arrest if they stayed together.

Source

Church says Alterina’s marriage illegal

2010-06-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 06/07/2010 9:46 AM | Jakarta

The Indonesian Bishops' Council (KWI) has declared the controversial marriage of transgender Alterina Hofan illegal, kompas.com reported on Monday.

KWI secretary Benny Susetyo said the Catholic Church could not accept the marriage and suggested that Alterina should seek medication rather than changing her sex status.

“The Catholic Church bans marriage between people of the same sex,” Benny said, adding that the KWI deemed Alterina had defied her nature.

Alterina has the rare Klinefelter’s syndrome which gives him an extra X chromosome, making him look more effeminate. After years of operations, he documented himself as a man and even married Jane Hadipoespito.

Benny said the health problem could not justify the change in sex status. “Her DNA and genetics prove she is female, therefore she can be medically cured,” the priest said.

He suggested that the state should regulate the issue of same-sex marriage as it could create more social problems in the future.

Jane’s parents denounced the marriage, filing a lawsuit against Alterina for fraud because he had previously declared he was a woman on his identity card. Alterina is facing a seven-year imprisonment for the alleged fraud.

Source

Boy Listed As Girl Is Really a Boy, Doctors, Census Takers Say

2010-06-08T05:09:00.000-07:00

Candra Malik

Boy Listed As Girl Is Really a Boy, Doctors, Census Takers Say

Semarang, Central Java. A 15-year-old who has struggled to be recognized as a boy for years can officially do so now, having undergone intensive examinations at Dr. Karyadi Hospital in Semarang.

The hospital concluded on Thursday that Maemunah, who is listed as a girl in his birth certificate, has the requisite sexual organs to prove he is indeed a boy, and there no longer needs to be any confusion over the matter.

Maemunah’s case became public recently after census takers were confused as to how to list gender of the young resident of Banyumas, Central Java. Maemunah insisted when questioned by census takers that he was a boy, even though he is listed as a girl on the birth certificate.

Dr. Ardy Santosa, a urologist at Karyadi Hospital, confirmed that although official hospital examination results had yet to be released, he could safely conclude that Maemunah, alias Mei Pur nomo, is indeed male.

“We still have to wait for the results of chromosome testing, but I can safely conclude that Mei is male. He has a penis,” Dr. Ardy told the Jakarta Globe.

Maemunah underwent tests at Karyadi Hospital to find out whether he has Klinefelter’s syndrome, which causes male genitalia to develop late.

Klinefelter’s syndrome, according to Indra G Mansur, a University of Indonesia andrologist, is a chromosomal disorder affecting males that causes them to look like females.

Maemunah underwent a series of medical examinations, including ultrasonography and chromosome testing.

“He definitely has a penis and we are also checking his testicular function. We will check the levels of the hormone testosterone to explore whether Mei’s sperm can fertilize ova or not,” Ardy said.

He said preliminary examinations showed that Maemunah suffered from partial androgen insensitivity syndrome. PAIS is a rare inherited condition in which babies biologically intended to be boys fail to show full normal male development because their bodies are unable to respond normally to male hormones, otherwise known as androgens — these are the chemical signals secreted into the blood by the testes, which are responsible for all the physical and psychological features of maleness.

Ardy said Maemunah’s penis was deformed and he needed surgery, which would be difficult because of his age.

“I wish the case had been identified at an earlier stage so the child could be operated on at the age of 1 or 2,” Ardy said.

“If the surgery succeeds and Mei receives full male status, the hospital is willing to provide letters of recommendation so that Mei can get his gender status changed legally in court.”

Dr. Paulus A Gozalli of Margono Soekardjo Hospital in Banyumas said Maemunah could not be categorized as a hermaphrodite.

Source

Groups drawn to intersex convict’s case

2010-06-04T13:50:00.001-07:00

Lawyer John Chigiti at a Nairobi court when he filed an application seeking orders to have medical reports about Richard Muasya tabled in court. PHOTO/ CORRESPONDENT

By JILLO KADIDA
Posted Tuesday, May 25 2010 at 21:00

IN SUMMARY

Lobbyists for and anti-gays join suit aimed at ‘third gender’

Activists for and against gay unions have joined a case filed by an intersex convict seeking the legalisation of a third gender in Kenya.

The Kenya Christian Lawyers Fellowship is opposing the plea while the Gays and Lesbians Trust is for the case.

In the case, Richard Muasya, who was born with both male and female genital organs, but goes about as a man, has sued the government, saying that the laws of the land discriminate against him and others like him.

The robbery convict says the law recognises only two sexes — male and female — which he believes is unfair and discriminatory.

Order release

Muasya also wants the court to order his release from Kamiti maximum prison, a male prison, citing sexual harassment and inhuman treatment. He asked the court to establish a separate jail facility for intersex inmates.

But the Christian lawyers asked the court not to heed Muasya’s prayers.

The group argues that should the court permit the introduction of an indeterminate ‘third gender’, it is likely to open floodgates for the teaching of doctrines of homosexuality and lesbianism.

The group of lawyers doubted the agenda of the gay trust being enjoined as a friend of the case, arguing that it had not proved its legal status and had also failed to demonstrate the interest it is seeking.

As a result of this, the lawyers say, the gay trust may be seeking the recognition of gay rights as an offshoot of the court’s finding in the case.

They also argued that Muasya never presented before court any medical report to show that he either had a uterus or ovaries.

On its part, the gay trust did not suggest that they want to seek gay rights. In its suit papers, the trust merely supported Muasya’s arguments and urged the court to uphold his rights.

But the Attorney-General told Muasya to lobby Parliament to have the law changed.

A three-judge bench will hear his case in July.

Source

Man, 33, seeks puberty

2010-06-02T08:02:00.000-07:00

By Kat English
Producer, BBC One's One life

Lawrence Koomson is a doctor living and working in London. On the face of it, he seems no different from any other young man but Lawrence has a secret.

At 33, he has never been through puberty. He's never had a spot. He's never had an erection. And he's trapped in the body of a 12-year-old boy.

But this all changed in April 2005, when he began treatment to bring on puberty.

"I feel an outsider, different to everyone else," he said before the treatment. "People take going through puberty for granted; it's just something that happens. For me it has just never happened."

Lawrence has Kallmann's syndrome, a rare condition affecting predominantly men, but also women. A small area in the brain called the hypothalamus cannot work properly causing a hormonal imbalance.

For men like Lawrence, this means his body doesn't produce testosterone, which prevents puberty being triggered. Another characteristic of Kallmann's syndrome is an absent sense of smell.

Having Kallmann's syndrome can lead to extreme difficulties, especially during adolescence, when all one's peers are going through puberty. And the consequences of delayed puberty and not becoming sexually mature naturally has a far-reaching impact on sufferers' lives.

Lawrence's doctor and the UK specialist in the field is endocrinologist Professor Pierre Bouloux.

"We've tested Lawrence's blood testosterone levels and the results make for quite interesting reading," he said, before the treatment. "The reference range for men Lawrence's age would be a testosterone level between 9.9 and 27.8.

"Lawrence's level is less than 0.5. In essence he's got the testosterone levels of a one-year-old so we've got quite a lot of catching up to do.

"In terms of penile length we're talking about a resting length of about four centimetres, and for a chap of Lawrence's size that shows that development hasn't occurred as yet."

With treatment, it's hoped Lawrence will grow body hair, his voice will break, he'll develop body muscle and sexual organs and for the first time will experience sexual desire.

36-hour erection

The treatment consists of six implants in the buttock, which release 200 milligrams of testosterone over six months. He will be dependent on implants for the rest of his life.

Professor Bouloux has treated more than 300 patients over the last 15-20 years.

"In extreme situations, I've seen people not being able to handle the testosterone treatment, developing erections lasting hours and hours, and in one case up to 36 hours.

"There's no script for this, we got to see what happens and navigate a safe course to give Lawrence a level which will put him in a normal range."

Lawrence grew up in Ghana and has only recently been living and working in the UK with the result that he's only now having treatment.

"The thought of treatment makes me feel a bit frightened or scared because I don't know what's going to happen. I might have the urge to have sex when I don't want to have sex!

"I feel excited - it's something I've never been through before. I'll grow a beard and I've always wanted to see how I'll be with a beard and you know I'll get more muscle, so I think the ladies are going to love the new me!"

Lawrence received his long awaited implants in April 2005. The next day, he was glued to the mirror watching and waiting for changes. What will happen first? A spot? An erection? Or signs of a beard?

By day three, he experienced a first.

"It happened today. I was so scared I wasn't sure if it was going to or not going to. I had an erection!

"It really woke me up! It lasted 10-15 minutes. I was happy! I wanted to call the doctor but it was too early in the morning."

For the next six months, Lawrence went through puberty.

As the massive implant of testosterone began to take hold of his body, Lawrence started to feel sexual attraction to women for the first time.

He also experienced all the usual teenage distractions - surfing internet chatrooms looking for female company, even mobile phone porn. It was all new territory for him.

"I'm resisting that push into the teenage world," he said. "I have to behave more responsibly, much more responsibly. Not only am I not a teenager. Also, there's the very fact that I'm a medical doctor and I have to behave more responsibly than that."

Novice

Moral conflicts aside, as Lawrence made tentative steps into the scary world of dating, the disappointments started to stack up. Most men make their first advances towards women at an age when it doesn't really matter but at 33 years old, Lawrence found out that the stakes were high.

He shyly arranged his first date over the internet and suggested a trip to the cinema, but baulked when he found out that she wanted to go clubbing.

"She's somebody I've not met, I don't know what she looks like, I don't know what she thinks, and all of sudden it's 'Let's go clubbing.'

"I'm too much of a novice to go into all that. I couldn't allow myself, for me I'm not mature yet to do that - I can't do that, not yet."

But mature enough or not, the opportunity to live a grown man's life was not something Lawrence was going to let slip by.

"I've really missed out on two decades of life and I need to catch up."

Source: Click here

Gina Wilson’s Speech for TEDxSydney 2010

2010-05-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

I have come to speak to you about something you are certain you know about yourself and that you are almost certain you know about everybody else.

I have come to speak to you about your sex.

My name is Gina Wilson and I am intersex.

Intersex people are people with physical differences of sex anatomy. Differences where the person might be seen as having physical features of male and female at the same time, or as having features that are not quite male or not quite female, or having features where the person is neither male or female.

Intersex have genetic, hormonal or congenital differences so that our primary sex anatomy, such as external genitalia and internal reproductive parts, do not fit with conventional ideas of what makes a male or a female. Intersex can also include differences in our secondary sex anatomy. Secondary sex anatomy is things like breasts, hair distribution, bone structure or muscle mass.

Intersex people are not hermaphrodites.

Intersex is not about gender roles, that is, man or woman. Intersex is about your body, the parts that make you more or less male or female.

Intersex is not the same as transgender or transsexual. Intersex is not about transitioning. Intersex is about different anatomies.

There are four ways we come to know we are intersex.

The first is at birth where our bodies are so visibly different our intersex is easily known. Intersex people are often surgically altered at this time to try to make us un-intersex.

The second is during puberty when that happens in unexpected ways or sometimes does not happen at all.

The third way is when we have difficulties reproducing and the reason for those difficulties is our intersex. Intersex does not necessarily mean we are infertile but sometimes does.

The fourth way is by chance.

Sometimes paternity and maternity testing can reveal to someone that they are intersex.

And sometimes people who think they are transsexual can find out they are intersex during the testing procedures transsexuals have to go through.

You probably all assume you are not intersex.

Studies have shown at least 1.7% of the population is intersex. Those figures only indicate individuals who have come to the attention of medicine.

There are no absolutes for male or female – we all exist somewhere between those poles.

Intersex is simply differences around and between the possibility of maleness and femaleness.

Though I was born intersex, that word was not used to describe my differences until quite late in my life. In fact my intersex was a dark secret to me and most of those around me. I, like nearly all intersex people, had a sense of something about myself not being quite right, not really acceptable, something unspeakable.

My intersex has never caused me a moment of grief, illness, unhappiness or regret. Social attitudes to my intersex, on the other hand, have been and continue to be a cause of great sadness for me.

In my everyday life people assume they know why I am different. I am often thought to be transsexual, gay, queer, weird and I am frequently referred to using inappropriate pronouns. There is no shame in being trans, gay or queer. It is simply an outrageous assumption and an assumption that is underpinned by deeply held prejudices.

You might find yourself wondering about my body and what was done to me as a child and as an adult to “fix me up.”

I don’t talk about that to anyone but my partner and my specialist.

I’ll tell you why.

I find it really embarrassing – it is at the top end of unpleasant to speak to an audience about my genitals.

The way I was treated as a child is difficult to work out because records on intersex surgery weren’t kept in those days.

Personal stories, though riveting, have made little difference to intersex lives and intersex rights in the one hundred and fifty years since the first one was told.

We intersex have suffered the indignity of being sideshow freaks and the subject of voyeuristic speculation for hundreds of years. I’m not here to be that kind of exhibit.

I am here to tell you about intersex and that I am proud to be intersex.

Gina is the chairperson of OII Australia an affiliate of Organisation Internationale des Intersexués

Indonesian in transgender wedding 'fraud' trial

2010-05-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

A man has gone on trial in Indonesia accused of falsifying his gender identity in order to marry a woman.

Doctors say Alterina Hofan has the rare condition Klinefelter's syndrome, where a male has an additional X chromosome that makes him look more like a woman.

He says he officially changed his identity papers to show he was a male but his wife's parents have accused him of document fraud.

Mr Hofan is being held in solitary accommodation in a women's prison.

The BBC's Karishma Vaswani in Jakarta says the case has incited public debate over the treatment of transgendered people in Indonesia.

Mr Hofan's mother told the BBC that when he was born, doctors said he was a girl, so he was registered and brought up as such.

But when he was two years old he began to develop male genitalia and had always behaved like a boy, she said.

Mr Hofan has said he always identified himself as a man and as he grew older, he had several operations to reduce the more feminine aspects of his appearance.

He says that in 2006 he successfully applied to have his gender changed on identity documents, officially becoming a man.

In 2008, he married Jane Hadipoespito in the US, but her mother objected to the relationship. She filed a case against him accusing him of falsifying the documents and misleading her daughter.

The case was further complicated after Mr Hofan was arrested. He was sent to a male prison but, after police DNA tests ruled he was a woman, moved to a female detention facility.

The staff at that prison, however, ruled he was a man and could not be accommodated with female prisoners. He has since been detained in private facilities at the female jail.

Mr Hofan's wife, meanwhile, has said she knows about his past and does not want to be separated from him.

"All I want is for my husband to be freed as soon as possible," she told the Jakarta Post last week.

Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights has criticised the authorities for their treatment of Mr Hofan.

"He has the right to say he is a man," Josep Adi Prasetyo told the Jakarta Post.

Source: Click here

Why are US doctors allowing genital mutilation?

2010-05-14T04:16:00.000-07:00

Paediatricians have erred by suggesting that 'nicking' female genitalia should be allowed as a cultural compromise

Lakshmi Anantnarayan

Tuesday 11 May 2010 13.00 BS

At the end of last month, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) issued a revised policy statement on female genital mutilation (FGM) called "ritual genital cutting of female minors," suggesting that the federal and state law in the US should permit paediatricians to offer a ritual "nick" of girls' genitalia as a compromise to appease the cultural needs of their immigrant clients. International women's rights organisations from the US, Africa, and Europe were quick to respond to this outrageous proposition calling on the AAP to retract its 2010 statement and revert back to its much stronger 1998 statement on the subject. The AAP's response, however, has thus far been underwhelming and they continue to justify this latest position on three grounds:

• "Nicking" is a minor procedure equivalent to a pin prick or ear piercing and has no harmful health consequences.

• Offering the "nick" demonstrates cultural sensitivity in serving immigrant populations.

• The "nick" is a "compromise" that could prevent families from performing more severe forms of FGM on their daughters

Complete article: Click here

Gender Confusion Lands Suspect in Women’s Prison

2010-05-04T05:55:00.000-07:00

Alterina Hofan with his wife, Jane Deviyant. He has been arrested for allegedly falsifying his birth certificate, with prosecutors saying he was born a woman. He is being detained at a women’s prison. (JG Photo/Zaky Pawas)

Although Alterina Hofan says he is a man, authorities think otherwise and have detained him at Pondok Bambu Women’s Penitentiary for allegedly falsifying his personal data.

Alter, as the 32-year-old is also known, said he was born a boy but because his male genitalia did not develop properly when he was a baby, his mother decided to registered him as female, even dressing and treating him as a girl. However, he says he grew up thinking he was a boy.

Only when he was in his teens did his penis finally develop, Alter added.

Doctors at Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital in Central Jakarta, Alter said, had diagnosed him as suffering from Klinefelter’s syndrome, a sex chromosome disorder which reduces testicular hormone production and can result in abnormally small testes and underdeveloped genitalia.

Alter was reported to the police by the mother of Jane Deviyant, 23, a deaf girl he had married in Las Vegas in September 2008. The woman’s mother, who was a friend of Alter’s, believed he was a woman, not a man.

Alter said he had always felt he was a boy growing up, adding that when he was in elementary school, he would always ask to wear trousers and not skirts.

Alder said he was physiologically a man and could perform sexually as such. “Just ask my wife,” he said.

But law enforcers beg to differ, arguing that the results of a lab examination had showed that he was a woman.

Sugiyono, assistant for general crimes at the Jakarta prosecutors’ office, said that although Pondok Bambu initially declined to accept Alter because he appeared to be a man, its warden relented after being given an explanation by prosecutors.
“The rejection was because of misinformation,” Sugiono said, “she is really a woman.”

Mother-in-law Maria Grace, who opposed the marriage, reported Alter to the police in October for falsifying personal data on his birth certificate. Alter said it had been unofficially altered by his mother to rectify the initial mistake.

Sugiyono said the indictment had been forwarded to the South Jakarta District Court and a trial was imminent.

Alter said that as a result of his chromosome disorder, he had grown breasts. “My breasts grew but not big,” he said, adding that he had them surgically removed in Canada in 2006.

“Jane knows that I have undergone breast reconstruction,” he said.

The couple was introduced by Grace in Singapore, where Jane was visiting during holidays from her business administration studies in the United States. Despite Grace’s objections, Jane and Alter met in secret and, eventually, also married in secret.

When Jane finished her studies and returned home, however, Grace found out about the marriage and forbade her to contact Alter. In the end, Jane left her mother to join her husband.

Grace had initially reported Alter to the police for allegedly abducting Jane, but the investigation was later dropped because Jane said she had gone with him willingly.

Jane said she could not accept being separated from her husband. Although Alter was not detained during the police investigation, he was taken into custody on Thursday once his indictment was filed with the court.

“If he is detained I want to be detained with him,” Jane said.

“I am really happy. Please, mother and father, do not separate us. I know what I want.”
Source: Click here

Viktor never let himself be brainwashed

2010-04-19T21:17:00.000-07:00

(Translated by Curtis E. Hinkle)

The doctors decided that Victor would be a girl, and at six months old they removed his penis. But Viktor was born a boy, and was never a girl. This evening he is Eias' trump card on the latest "Brainwashing".

- That they could do something like that to a small child. A defenseless little child. I am speechless, Viktor told Dagbladet.

All people experience in their lifetime what it is like to be exposed to injustice. Viktor was exposed to something that is not so easy to wrap your head around: they tried to turn him into a girl. It was not until he was 16 that he was even made aware of it.

This evening is the last program in the series "Brainwashing" in which Viktor is interviewed by Harald Eia. One of the main themes in the series has been that boys and girls are not born the same, and this has led to a rare heated debate.

Harald Eia said this evening that Viktor is an illustration of what the consequences might be if you do not take into account one's innate sense of self.

- Dead at 6 months

- I never felt like a girl. When I was little I played with boy's stuff, and had male friends. Very early I had an imaginary friend, Patric, a male figure who was constantly there for me as a role model. He gave me the motivation to live, said Viktor and added:

- I usually say I died when I was six months old, but the Patric-figure stuck with me as a standard for the man I would once be. And with today's surgery, that has largely come true. I feel like I'm 90 percent back to being a man, and the doctors say I will reach 95 percent. I do not know what the last 5 percent is. Perhaps it is psychological, he said.

Viktor's story is about the injustice done to him, and against thousands of other children around the world. Probably it also says something about innate gender differences.

Viktor into Viktoria

Viktor was born in a country in South America in the middle of the 80's.

- For some reason I was left outside a hospital. There I was found by a nurse, and quite soon it became clear that I was malnourished and that there were complications down there, "says Viktor.

Hospital tests performed showed that Viktor was a boy with testicles intact, but the external genitalia were underdeveloped. Medical practice at the time was that children who were born with unclear sex were operated on and assigned the gender that was the easiest for surgery. The doctors decided to turn Viktor into Viktoria.

The method was based on the work of psychologist John Money. In 1972 he became world famous by claiming to prove that it did not matter what gender children were surgically assigned, because it was society that formed one's gender identity.

If you were a boy, but were operated on and raised with dolls, baby carriages and doll houses, you would become a girl. It was not until 1997 that the truth behind the Money's work was revealed. In the meantime, 15,000 children worldwide have been treated using Money's theories, one of them Viktor.

Isolated

At the orphanage in South America Viktor was left to himself because of his special condition. From the age of one to two, he was more and more isolated. At three, Viktor was adopted in Norway where the treatments continued according to Money's model.

- It must have been terrible for my parents too. They had to keep the truth hidden from me, said Viktor.

When he was 6 years old, he was admitted to the National Hospital for cosmetic surgery, and afterwards he met a doctor and child psychiatrist Trond H. Diseth for the first time. Diseth asked him to draw himself.

- Then I drew a boy with a big penis and explained the story behind the drawing to Diseth: that the penis had to be cut off, and that the boy died. The penis and the boy were buried separately. All the people came to the penis's funeral, but not the boy's, Viktor told Dagbladet.

Viktor has big problems with looking at pictures from his childhood when he was dressed in female clothing. When he approached his teens, he became very depressed and at one point he tried to take his life.

- At home, I had a terrible temper, which led to severe conflicts that could get out of control. Out among people I was an introvert, who did not take part in what the other children did.

When Money was unmasked in 1997, child psychiatrist Diseth had long been critical of his treatment program - and had met a number of people with similar fates to Viktor's.

- Hormone rush

Diseth says in the book "Born that way or become that way," the book about the television series "Brainwashing" that he felt the time was ripe to reevaluate this. He used the story of Viktor / Viktoria in his medical doctorate, and in the course of the year, changed the Norwegian medical profession's treatment program for children with unclear sex.

Diseth and Viktor's parents had decided to wait until he was mature enough to tell him the truth.

- When I was 16 we went to the hospital and slowly but surely Diseth told me my life story. It took almost six years before I fully realized that I was actually a man, says Viktor calmly.

They stopped the treatment, and later Victor was prescribed hormones to return to his original self.

- I'm glad that those who receive treatment currently do not have to go through the hell I've experienced.

Viktor's Backpack

Today Viktor has a job, his own apartment - and feels he has begun to make up for lost time.

- I have friends, family, interests. A friend of mine told me a couple of years ago: "Imagine that you are Viktoria, and meet Viktor." That made me look squarely into myself: just think how I live now. I'm actually incredibly strong. That has become indelibly part of me.

- For it sounds very strange that I should use my experience as something positive. I will probably never totally get over it, but I try to learn to live with it so I can see a little light in my world.

Telling Dagbladet and "Brainwashing" his story this evening is a way to use these experiences in a positive way.

- If this can help others, said Viktor and continues:

- There are others who have experienced difficult things in life. There are many who have a story they carry about. It's like a backpack. There are many different ones and there are many ways we carry them.

Original Norwegian: Click here

I'm not a fake woman, says intersex Jennifer

2010-04-19T06:34:00.000-07:00

Apr 18, 2010 12:00 AM | By Taschica Pillay

A Glenwood woman is fighting for a South African identity document and also to be recognised as a female South African.

Complete article: Click here

1st International Sex and/or Gender Diversity Day: 26 April

2010-04-09T12:36:00.000-07:00

he first International Sex and/or Gender Diversity Day has been declared 26 April and will be an awareness day and celebration of the existence or sex and/or gender diverse people, writes Tracie O’Keefe.

Sex and/or gender diverse people are encouraged to have picnics, tea parties, festivals or gatherings in their part of the world, inviting their family, friends and allies to join them.

We will be visible in all our sex and/or gender variations. It is for all intersex, transexed, transsexual, transgendered, androgynous, without sex and gender identity, cross-dressers, sex and gender fluid, transqueers, genderqueers, etc.

It is a day to have a picnic, tea party, gathering or festival wherever you are. In my 1999 book Sex Gender and Sexuality: 21^st Century Transformations my research calculated that at least 1% of the world’s population is sex and/or gender diverse.

Complete article: Click here

Petition to the International Olympic Committee

2010-04-07T06:36:00.000-07:00

Please sign OII's petition to the International Olympic Committee.

The petition is online at the following link:

http://www.intersexualite.org/IOC-petition.html

A parent’s perspective

2010-04-07T06:23:00.000-07:00

I was recently filling out our 2010-census form and I realized that once again I had to inaccurately settle on gender for one of our children. I wanted or needed to be able to have more choices on the census form. While I don’t personally like the term “neuter”, I applaud Australia’s willingness to alter Norrie May-Welby’s birth certificate to better represent this person’s gender.

When I hear an expectant parent announce the exact sex of their child prior to birth, I cringe. I wonder how can a picture tell the child’s story?

Complete article: Click here

Semenya to compete in June

2010-04-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

JOHANNESBURG - CASTER Semenya, the 800 metres world champion at the centre of a gender verification row, will return to competitive athletics at an international meet in Zaragoza, Spain on June 24, she said on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old South African underwent gender verification tests after she won the women's 800 at the Berlin world championships last August and has not run competitively since.

Athletics South Africa (ASA) has made clear Semenya is not banned from competition but said she must wait for the results of her tests from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) which are not expected until June.

The athlete attempted to run at a meet in Stellenbosch, South Africa on March 30 but was prevented from doing so by ASA.

'I believe the decision to bar me from competing in Stellenbosch last week was unlawful and wrongful,' Semenya said in a statement on Tuesday. 'I have, however, considered the request by ASA that I await the conclusion of the IAAFs' processes by the beginning of June this year before I return to competitive athletics.

'I have also instructed my legal representatives to seek confirmation by the IAAF that it will complete its processes by the beginning of June.. Together with my coach and agent, I have therefore decided that I will return to competitive athletics at the European Athletic Association (EAA) meet to be held on June 24 in Zaragoza, Spain,' Semenya said. Semenya added that, based on medical and legal advice she has received, there were no 'impediments' to her competing in female athletics competitions. -- REUTERS

Source

Pushing Limits - “Intersexuality”

2010-04-03T05:54:00.001-07:00

Hida Viloria, human rights spokesperson for Organisation Intersex International-USA (OII), and Curtis Hinkle, founder of OII, join us to talk about what the intersex and disability movement have in common—and what they don’t.

OII is dedicated to resisting the medical model and non-consensual medical treatment of intersex people. They promote a holistic human rights and person-centered model. They regularly reach across cultural and language barriers to support and improve the lives of Intersex individuals on six continents. Don’t miss this mind-expanding discussion. Eddie Ytuarte and Adrienne Lauby host.

Pushing Limits - “Intersexuality” - April 2, 2010 at 2:30pm

Click to listen (or download)

Disordered terminology

2010-03-27T06:33:00.000-07:00

By Quinn Albaugh and Quinn Albaugh
Published: 5:30 am

Over the past few years, the medical establishment has been moving away from the terms “intersex conditions” or “intersex people” toward “disorders of sex development” (DSD). The aim of this shift, according to the 2006 “consensus statement” in the journal Pediatrics, is to avoid using confusing or pejorative language to describe medical conditions. Another concern is that the term “intersex” might push an identity on people with different sex characteristics that they do not want.

Intersex advocacy organizations do not agree on how to respond to this change. The Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) shut down in 2007 due in part to the development of DSD. In 2008, former associates of ISNA founded a new organization, the Accord Alliance, which now uses the term “disorders of sex development” instead of “intersex.” Other organizations, such as the Organisation Internationale des Intersexes (OII), which has chapters in several countries (including Canada) oppose this terminology.

Complete Article: Click here

Position Statement on Genital Cutting

2010-03-26T08:25:00.000-07:00

Organisation Intersex International

OII

Position Statement on Genital Cutting

Intersex refers to atypical internal and/or external anatomical sexual characteristics, where features usually regarded as male or female may be mixed to some degree. This is a naturally occurring variation in humans. From the late 1950's onwards, starting in the USA, intersex infants and children were increasingly subject to cosmetic surgeries intended to ensure that their genital appearance and internal gonads conformed to that usually expected for their assigned gender. This also tended to entail hormone treatments aimed at conforming them to those associated with being "male" or "female."

From the early 1990’s to the present day, hundreds of intersex adults have come forward to say that they regard these medical practices as being extremely harmful to them, both physically and psychologically. Despite this high level of dissatisfaction, there has been little follow-up of adults who were treated this way as children, so without any clear understanding of outcomes, there is no real evidence upon which to justify this approach. On the contrary, the little evidence there is suggests that physiologically, functional outcome is poor. A study conducted in England of intersex people who electively chose to undergo such surgery as adults revealed that the large majority were dissatisfied; treatments resulted in physical pain and diminished sexual response, and were not able to provide them with the sense of normalcy which they hoped for.

There is no evidence that intersex variations alone will negatively impact the quality of life of the individuals who have them, nor that "normalizing" medical treatments are a solution. What evidence there is suggests the opposite; intersex adults who have not received unnecessary medical intervention have said they feel lucky to have "escaped" such treatments. They lack the psychological trauma from treatments imposed on others, and report satisfaction with their sexual response and their unique physical attributes. Such treatment is often justified from the assumption that intersex children and/or adults will be subjected to discriminatory behaviour because of their bodily differences; however, this is not necessarily correct, because their differences are sometimes only evident when naked, or not evident visually at all. Where differences are visible, this is no different than the situation of people from other minority groups. The solution to such challenges is not to alter the characteristics themselves, but to combat the prejudicial attitudes that stigmatise.

Cosmetic surgery on intersex genitals appears to harm intersex infants, children, and even adults, yet it still persists. As with male circumcision, it is often driven by parental desire to provide their children with bodies that conform to certain beliefs about how genitals should be. Also, the presumption that atypical sex anatomy will result in atypical sexual orientation and/or gender identity, homophobia and a fear of atypical gender presentation are seen by some intersex people as the motivation driving these surgeries. In many societies today, gender expression and sexual orientation are seen as a human right, and this is recognised by the UN. Performing unnecessary surgeries on infants and children in order to influence adult sexual orientation and/or gender identity outcomes should be seen as a human rights abuse. There is no evidence that sexual orientation or gender identity are affected by genital surgery one way or the other.

We seek recognition that all humans have the right to autonomy over their own bodies, including their genitals etc. Because infants and children are too young to assert their autonomy, they should not be subjected to unnecessary surgeries which may irrevocably harm them, and which they may not have chosen as adults. We recognise that cases requiring medical treatment for the maintenance of health or preservation of life should be managed as with any other situation where a child needs treatment. Intersex infants and children should be raised without cosmetic surgery and/or steroidal hormones until they are old enough to decide for themselves whether they wish to undergo these procedures and treatments or not.

We recommend avoidance of genital cutting, where possible, until a child can fully participate in decision making. This would be worked towards through communication between parents of intersex children, the children themselves, intersex adults, support groups, and clinicians who are sensitive to the needs of the child. Counselling should be available for those affected by the situation, to ensure they are fully informed and equipped to make the best decisions. Wider education about intersex as a human variation is also necessary; the cultural anxiety and social pressure that encourage surgery, hormone therapy and physical conformity need to be addressed. Through a process that includes education, communication, and counselling, then public shame will decrease, along with a reduction of cultural anxiety and social pressure, ultimately allowing people the liberty to maintain autonomy over their own bodies.

Online: Click here

‘Nobody’s Slave’, the Story of Elena de Cespedes, an Intersex Woman of the 16th Century, by Agustín Sánchez Vidal

2010-03-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

Elena de Céspedes
translated by Curtis E. Hinkle

Original Spanish article: Click her

AGUSTÍN SÁNCHEZ VIDAL, WRITER

"Elena de Céspedes was a hermaphrodite, and mulatto slave, a character like this is only discovered once in a lifetime"

Agustín Sánchez Vidal came across the true story of a character that any novelist would be inspired by. Elena de Céspedes, who was a hermaphrodite who lived in the sixteenth century, a mulatto persecuted and accused of lesbianism in court

MARÍA R. ARANGUREN - Monday, 8 March 2010 - Updated at 07:34.

BILBAO. AGUSTÍN SÁNCHEZ VIDAL IS A PROFESSOR EMERITUS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZARAGOZA, WHERE HE EARNED HIS DOCTORATE WITH A THESIS ON MIGUEL HERNANDEZ, AND HAS TAUGHT BOTH SPANISH LITERATURE AND FILM AND OTHER AUDIOVISUAL MEDIA. AS A FILM AND TELEVISION WRITER, HE HAS COLLABORATED WITH DIRECTORS SUCH AS CARLOS SAURA.

How did you come across this wonderful story you tell in "Nobody's Slave"?

It was just by chance. In 1998 I was preparing my first novel and I needed to find a trial of the Inquisition in Toledo that happened around 1580. I went to the National Historical Archive in Madrid and then I came across this case which I had not been looking for but which captured my attention. Under the Inquisition process itself, the defendant describes his/her life. When I read it, I thought that one day I would turn it into a novel.

It was just by chance?

Yes, and this is something that happens once in lifetime, because this is a character of such interest that the logical thing would have involved not only a novel but several, or even a movie. It is an even more striking case than the one that immediately comes to mind, the nun Erauso Catherine, who was also a female soldier. However, Elena de Céspedes, was not only a soldier, but also a surgeon and had sex with both men and women.

What else was particular about her life?

The fact that she was a hermaphrodite is a striking fact but there are some additions that make the character more interesting, more confrontational and dramatic. Conflict is the engine of any good story and this is a character who was born a slave. Interestingly, we associate slavery with the Americas, Uncle Tom's Cabin and perhaps even to our own colonies, but not to the Peninsula. Elena de Cespedes was a mulatto, the daughter of African slaves. Even her face was branded with an iron so no one would ever forget whom she belonged to. She also lived in Alhama de Granada, a strategic enclave because it was on the way from Granada to the capital Malaga, and Alhama was a haven where there was a permanent war in which the Moors had to always stay on the lookout. Besides looking Moorish and being a slave, when she gave birth to her first child, her body underwent some very profound changes. She said that when she gave birth to the child she also bore a penis, and it's true. After this event, she begins to have relationships with women.

This is about a woman who constantly fought for her freedom, was that common at the time?

It was not at all common. At that time women were very restricted in their activity. At the end of her life she was accused of lesbianism, and she tried to prove that she had masculine attributes. She did not have a definite identity. There is a part of the book entitled La Frontera (The Boundary or Border) because she lives in Jerez de la Frontera, Arcos de la Frontera, Moron de la Frontera, in cities that contained the name "Border" because they were the places where the borders between the Moors and Christians were stable. But that was not the only reason that I entitled part of the book "La Frontera". It was also because that was also a very important feature of her own identity. How could one determine the boundaries or borders of Elena herself? That seemed a lot harder.

What is documented in the archives exactly?

They are verbatim transcripts of two trials involving several clerks. They are very thorough interrogations that involve up to 200 people. The testimonies give you an incredible amount of detail, some very gory details. The sex of the woman is what will determine the judgment. In order to bring the charges, the sexual nature of them has to make sense and the charges of sodomy or lesbianism were punishable by death at the stake, so she was risking both her life and that of her wife.

How did you construct the style and tone?

For 20 years I was professor of literature and this forced me to read in a systematic way, something only professionals do. When you read systematically, you generally follow a chronological order, so you know what the language of the time is like, you know what the influences are, if they are coming in from Italy or if a strong current from France has taken over. The Protagonist was born in 1545, the year Lazarillo de Tormes was published, a cornerstone of narrative prose which was not just Castilian but also international. It's the kind of reading that people were doing at the time when she grew up. Also, I had the great advantage of verbatim transcripts so I could listen to the characters. My task has been to figure out to what degree the modern reader would have trouble with certain words or constructions. In any case, Lazarillo de Tormes does not need footnotes (for readers to understand the language). The language becomes more complicated later with Guzman and the Buscón de Quevedo.

Did you use other sources?

There is a moment when the protagonist has to move between pimps and whores in the underworld, and there is a great novel that helped me a lot. It is La lozana andaluza by Francisco Delicado. In this work you listen to a prostitute speak crudely about sex and other aspects. There are also three extraordinary authors who wrote about the war with the Moors. Ginés Pérez de Hita, who is said to be inventor of the historical novel, Diego Hurtado de Mendoza and Marcol Carvajal. All three offer very precise details.

Is this a novel about identity?

That's the key. It would have been a mistake to find a case like this and try to exaggerate it and accentuate the most flamboyant in the reader's mind because I would have lost sight of the fact that I was dealing with a person. If I had made that mistake, which I don't think I did, I would have turned Elena de Cespedes into a circus freak. She is a mulatto, lives in an environment of Moors, she is a hermaphrodite, and she likes women, but behind all these circumstances there is a human being who seeks what all people seek. Also, at that time humanism has not yet been extinguished. It is still felt that the fate of a person does not have to be in the hands of the gods, but in one's own hands.

Have you assumed responsibility in recreating this story?

I enjoyed it a lot. Finding something like this is like winning the lottery. What happens is that you can get lazy in having to come up with it all yourself. When you work with a real case, you are already given the whole story. You can become a bit lazy in wanting something like that to hold on to and that is just how it will have to be.

External Links:

OII’s Objections to the APA DSM-V Committee’s Proposals on Intersex

2010-03-20T07:08:00.000-07:00

1.) We believe that the term 'disorder of sex development' (DSD) is not the best way to refer to intersex, intersex people or any medical issues they experience.

2.) When an intersex person rejects an assignment made on their behalf at or near birth, or puberty, we do not regard them as having any sort of identity disorder, or gender incongruence.

3.) When a person prefers to identify as intersex, and does not want to conform to any clear gender, we do not regard them as having any sort of identity disorder, or gender incongruence.

4.) In situations where an individual rejects an earlier assignment made without their consent, we regard this as being due to an erroneous earlier assignment, and thereby any problems arising from that as iatrogenic rather than as a psychological disorder or incongruence. When no consent was sought from an individual, when it becomes possible for that person to exercise their choice to reverse such an error, this cannot be considered a disorder or incongruence.

5.) We see no need to further medicalise and stigmatise intersex people by referring to them as necessarily disordered (DSD), and where mistakes in assignment have been made, we see no value in medicalising and stigmatising them further by applying another form of disorder called 'gender incongruence'.

6.) We ask that the same standards applied in the situation for homosexuality starting with the DSM-II revision be applied to intersex; we request that the DSM-V committee recognise that intersex and all intersex expressions of gender identity are part of normal human variation, and that treatment be confined to those genuine medical issues facing intersex people, and issues they themselves seek medical assistance with.

7.) In the case of children where there is some doubt as to which gender assignment will offer the best outcome, once a decision has been made on their behalf, they should be dealt with in a sensitive and flexible way that will allow them to express their own preferences as they get older, and that should be managed in a way that can most effectively accommodate their own choices and decisions. With an awareness of the potentially disastrous consequences of altering children's genitals surgically prior to an age when they can make informed consent, we call for the minimum of non-essential medical treatment and assignment relating to their gender role, presentation and sex characteristics, until they are in a position to decide upon an appropriate gender (or some other arrangement) for themselves.

8.) To summarise: If an intersex child is assigned a gender without their consent, when they come to exercise their own choice for assignment, this cannot be considered a psychological disorder, or gender incongruence.

Also available on OII's website: Click here

Intersex (HUNGRY BEAST)

2010-03-19T05:49:00.000-07:00

Australia sets precedent by issuing a document stating "sex not specified"

2010-03-17T03:50:00.000-07:00

A Sydney resident has reportedly achieved a world first by successfully petitioning NSW authorities to be officially recognised as a non-gender person.

Norrie May-Welby, 48, received a "Sex Not Specified" status the day before Sydney's Mardi Gras parade after a month-long battle with the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, the Sydney Star Observer reports.

Complete article: Click here

For more information, visit OII-Australia: here

INTERSEX PEOPLE NOT ‘DISORDERED’

2010-03-16T03:17:00.000-07:00

Australia’s peak body for intersex people has labelled revisions to the American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual as a backwards step in the fight for intersex rights.

In re-drafting the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, which is also used as a standard diagnostic tool in Australia, the APA has removed references to ‘gender identity disorders’, and ‘gender identity disorder not otherwise specified’, the term used to ‘diagnose’ intersex people who have rejected the sex they were assigned at birth.

Complete article: Click here

The IOC's unkind cuts

2010-03-16T03:12:00.000-07:00

by Roger Brigham

jocktalkroger@yahoo.com

For all the enlightened, lofty aspirations of the Olympic Games themselves, the leadership of the International Olympic Committee continues to approach delicate gender issues with a sledge hammer and chisel.

After the New York Times reported in January its two-day panel of medical experts recommended that athletes with intersex attributes be allowed to compete only if they undergo medical "corrections" – procedures that intersex activists characterize as barbaric, invasive, and often unnecessary – Organisation Intersex International began an online petition calling on the IOC to, essentially, back off and get a clue.

Complete article: Click here

The Olympics Need to Play Fair With Intersex Athletes

2010-03-14T04:17:00.000-07:00

By Cynthya BrianKate

barbieboy001@yahoo.com

One of my best friends is a butch genderqueer lesbian who competes locally in womens’ sports. Recently she told me “I think it’d be fascinating to find out if I’m at all intersex like you.” I said “not if you know what the Olympics are trying to do to intersex people.” The IOC (International Olympic Committee) isn’t playing fair with intersex athletes. They’re playing gender and appearance police on female athletes, and only female athletes, in a witch-hunt against butch and intersex women. The IOC is using hateful language against intersex women and demanding that female athletes found to be intersex submit to forced hormone treatments or forced surgery akin to female genital mutilation if they want to compete as the women they are. This violates womens’ rights, basic human rights and a 1990s international court ruling in favor of intersex women in sports.

Complete article: Click here

OII's position statement on the use of Dexamethasone during pregnancy

2010-02-17T04:07:00.000-08:00

We, the board members of the Organisation Intersex International, wish to express our support of Drs. Feder, Dreger and Lindemann, for their vigilance and efforts to ensure the safety of intersex infants and their mothers who are currently being prescribed dexamethasone.

We share their concerns about this experimental use of dexamethasone currently underway in the United States.

We would like our friends and allies to read the letter that Drs. Feder, Dreger and Lindemann have signed to request an investigation into this serious matter.

We thank them for their support and await the results of this enquiry, hoping that, whatever the outcome, intersex children and their parents will be granted their inalienable human rights and treated with all the dignity that any child and parent should expect.

For more information:

fetaldex.org

Bioethics Forum - Fetal Cosmetology

Online at: http://www.intersexualite.org/dex.html

Fetal Cosmetology

2010-02-12T11:59:00.000-08:00

HUMAN BODIES
Hilde Lindemann, Ellen K. Feder, and Alice Dreger, 02/08/2010

There’s a common misperception that, now that the Johns Hopkins psychologist John Money is gone, so are all the ethical problems with the way people with genital anomalies are treated. Not so.

You may recall that Money lied about the life of his patient David Reimer (known as “John/Joan”), who as a baby had been sex-changed on Money’s recommendation following a circumcision accident in which a physician burned off most of Reimer’s penis. Despite David’s actual later reversion to a male gender identity, Money used a false version of Reimer’s story to convince clinicians that children with atypical sex could be made into “acceptable” versions of girls or boys if you just did surgery early, did hormone treatments as necessary, and avoided having the patients understand much beyond the party line about their genders.

Complete article:
Bioethics Forum - Fetal Cosmetology

Patient Advocate questions use of Dexamethasone on moms and their unborn babies

2010-02-10T02:18:00.000-08:00

Patient Advocate questions use of Dexamethasone on moms and their unborn babies from Matthew Mikkelsen on Vimeo.

welcome to fetaldex.org

2010-02-10T02:14:00.000-08:00

This site seeks to shed light on the practice by certain U.S. doctors of administering the steroid dexamethasone to pregnant women in an effort to prevent them from giving birth to girls with atypical genitalia. We are generally concerned that this treatment may be unethical in and of itself, but we are more immediately concerned that experiments using this off-label treatment may be occurring without clinicians adequately protecting the rights of their pregnant patients.

To visit the website and for more information: Click here

More resources:

Advocates for Informed Choice Statement on Use of Dexamethasone in Pregnant Women Who May Be Carrying a Fetus Affected with CAH

Click here

The gender police are back again

2010-02-07T13:02:00.000-08:00

Excerpt from article:

"Gender issue" can mean just about anything, which is why the IOC uses the phrase. Scientists at the Florida International University met with the IOC and the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) in conjunction with the 2nd World Conference on Hormonal and Genetic Basis of Sexual Differentiation Disorders. The IOC is most worried about a condition referred to as "Disorders of Sexual Development."

In the eyes of the IOC, and obviously those in the medical world who dream up names for conditions that place people outside conventional sexuality, not being biologically absolutely a man or absolutely a woman is seen as a disorder.

Complete article: Click here

Intersex and Medical Treatment

2010-02-02T05:38:00.001-08:00

People who promote "corrective" surgeries and hormone treatment for intersex children believe intersex children will grow up to be adults who fall short of social norms. However, these beliefs are purely speculation because they have never taken the time to speak with intersex adults like myself who did not undergo surgery, or to do follow-up studies on the children whose bodies they irrevocably changed. Doctors simply decided that these bodies, which nature created, are not desirable. In my personal experience, this couldn't be further from the truth.

Complete article: Click here

Sexual “Disorder” and the Olympics

2010-01-27T16:08:00.000-08:00

Excerpt from article:

by KATHERINE FRANKE

"Sympathy for female athletes who may never be able to physically reach the athletic condition of Semanya should not unreasonably or irrationally simplify the issue of intersexuality in how it is discussed, language used to describe it, and “remedies” offered to mitigate against any unfair results. Labeling a group as having a disorder will inevitably lead to exclusion and discrimination. This is not just an athletic issue, but a civil rights issue, and a gender justice issue. As international attention is currently focused on this issue as one of athletics, the IOC, as well as commentators, must be sensitive to the wider repercussions their treatment of Semanya and other intersex athletes will have on the future treatment of all intersex people."

To read the complete article: Click here

Policy on Intersex people

2010-01-25T23:19:00.000-08:00

Adopted at Socialist Alliance's 7th National Conference, January 2010

Intersex people are people born with physiological differences that may be seen as being both male and female at once, not wholly male or female or as neither male nor female.

Intersex people are subjected to discrimination in employment, in housing, in the provision of medical services, and the provision of government services.

There are no laws preventing discrimination against intersex people.

Intersex children may be subjected to non-consensual surgery so that their bodies conform to dominant ideas of what constitutes a ‘male’ or ‘female’ body. Non-consensual genital surgery is particularly controversial and where there is little debate against prohibitions on female circumcision, similar procedures on intersex people happen with little community comment.

The Socialist Alliance rejects pathologising definitions of intersex such as “disorders of sexual development”. The difficulty for Intersex is not differences in anatomy but rather how those differences are perceived by the community.

Social prejudice against non conforming bodies such as intersex, are the issues that needs attention. Intersex people should not be compelled to change their bodies, their behavior, or themselves to meet mainstream social expectations.

The Socialist Alliance stands for:

All non-consensual surgery on children, where the child is denied the informed and cognizant right to consent or reject) ceasing immediately save for those cases where surgery is life preserving.
Children being able to declare their sex, even if that is none, when they are fully informed and able to understand those concepts.
Any individual having their passport marked with X rather than sex or gender if they so desire.
An affirmative action policy in public housing, work opportunities, education, and the provision of medical and government services.
Education campaigns to be conducted in schools and wider society to debunk the myth of sex and gender binaries, informing individuals about sex and gender diversity, and opposing bigotry because of perceived sex and gender differences.
Intersex athletes like Caster Semenya not being publicly outed. That there are no compulsory sex testing procedures in sport.
Legislation that provides protection against discrimination and vilification and promotes equal opportunities for intersex people.
Access to appropriate medication and surgery when and if required based on the needs of the individual and not on the expectations of diagnostic protocols. This includes the abandonment of the diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” for those intersex who reject their birth assignment.
All people, particularly legislators and medical professionals, acknowledging that sex and gender is more than men and women , male and female.

Source

Why imposing the gender binary on athletes is a violation of human rights

2010-01-22T08:17:00.001-08:00

News that the International Olympic Committee is considering mandatory gender testing and therapies to 'treat' intersex athletes is quickly starting to get some attention.

Andrea James has an excellent article in BoingBoing about Caster Semenya and the apartheid of sex—a term attributed to transhumanist Martine Rothblatt. James correctly points out that Semenya is being subjected to the latest "sex science" in order to fit her into our socially imposed gender binary, so that "the apartheid of sex can be upheld within the sporting tradition."

Indeed, fostering discussions of intersexed persons within the context of social tolerance and inclusion is not where the IOC wants to go. They have a problem on their hands because they are completely unwilling and unable to look beyond fixed male and female roles. Introducing new leagues or classifications that cater to these kinds of athletes would be far too uncomfortable and complicated for them to deal with. Insisting that there are only males and females simplifies things, and coercing these athletes into conforming to a gender-specific role is a seemingly quick and easy fix.

Except for the fact that it may be a human rights violation.

Complete article: Click here

Caster Semenya and the apartheid of sex

2010-01-21T06:12:00.000-08:00

ANDREA JAMES

POSTED AT 2:29 AM JANUARY 21, 2010

SCIENCE • GUESTBLOG

INTERSEX • OLYMPICS • SEX • SPORTS

Xeni asked me to give a brief analysis of her earlier post on the International Olympic Committee's decision regarding sex tests for athletes like South African sprinter Caster Semenya. Caster is one of the millions of people in the world who challenge our simplistic male/female sex binary by their very existence. Most intersex people are unremarkable in appearance; in fact, many people who would be classified as intersex do not even know it. The only time it becomes an issue is when they are subject to our prevailing reproductive ideology, which organizes the world around procreation. People like Caster are so controversial because they challenge many of the most deeply-held beliefs people have about sex. The comments sections in my recent posts here show what a hot-button topic reproduction is, even among techno-progressives, hipsters, and people who are on the leading edge of other critical 21st-century paradigm shifts. Reproduction as well as policing sex and gender boundaries will get increasingly more complex in coming decades, and technology always outpaces ethics. Reproduction issues have major ramifications for other causes near and dear to Boing Boing readers, including privacy, intellectual property, mind/body hacks, and the pathologization of human diversity. Still, it's often considered impolite or too political or too controversial, so it doesn't get discussed enough.

Complete article: Click here

Also recommended: Click here

AP Exclusive: IOC recommends setting up medical centers to handle gender cases

2010-01-20T16:11:00.000-08:00

AP Exclusive: IOC recommends gender-test centers

By STEPHEN WILSON | ASSOCIATED PRESS

The IOC wants rules put into place by sports bodies to determine the eligibility to compete on a "case by case" basis for athletes whose gender is called into question.

The IOC organized a two-day conference with medical specialists in Miami to consider guidelines for handling sex verification cases. The issue gained global attention last year when South African runner Caster Semenya was ordered to undergo gender tests.

The case of Semenya, who won the women's 800 meters at the world championships, was not dealt with directly in the closed meetings Sunday and Monday. But it helped focus the need for clarity on the issue of whether an athlete competes as a man or a woman.

"We did not discuss any particular case," IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist told The Associated Press. "We explored the science of all these matters. We established several important points based on up-to-date science and global expertise. Now we have the scientific basis for going further."

The IOC will consult with lawyers and its own athletes' commission to help establish specific guidelines.

Among the key conclusions was a proposal to set up health centers where experts would diagnose and treat athletes with what are known as "disorders of sex development." Most cases, Ljungqvist said, require treatment such as surgery or hormone therapy.

"We cannot expect sports in every country around the world to have the necessary expertise," Ljungqvist said by telephone. "That's not possible, so we recommend strategically located centers where cases could be referred, if necessary. It's for the experts to decide what to do with each individual case. There is no general treatment. There is no general diagnosis."

The Miami symposium _ attended by about 15 scientists, medical experts and sports federation doctors _ took place amid international scrutiny on Semenya, who was 18 when she won the 800 gold at the championships in Berlin in August. Her dramatic improvement in times and muscular build led the International Association of Athletics Federations to order gender tests.

The IAAF is still reviewing the test results to determine Semenya's future. The IAAF has refused to confirm or deny Australian media reports that the tests indicate Semenya has both male and female sex organs.

Officials from IAAF and FIFA, the world soccer governing body, attended the Miami conference to explain their policies and experiences on gender issues, Ljungqvist said.

While the Semenya controversy has gone on for months, Ljungqvist said the experts in Miami stressed that all cases should be dealt with quickly.

"It is very important to as rapidly as possible establish a diagnosis once you have come across a suspicious case," he said. "It's not something that should be allowed to drag on. If the sport comes across such a case, you have to deal with it in an expeditious manner."

Sports federations should have rules to determine an athlete's eligibility to compete during the gender diagnosis and treatment periods, Ljungqvist said.

"There cannot be a general rule," he said. "The rule needs to allow for a case-by-case evaluation. Each case is unique. They are not many. They are all individual."

The delegates also cited the potential benefit of "pre-participation health examinations" for aspiring athletes. Ljungqvist said some countries, including Italy, require athletes to take medical checks before they are ruled eligible for competition.

"We emphasized that these exams could be a very important and useful tool for identifying athletes with these disorders," he said.

Ljungqvist said more discussions will be needed.

"We have achieved the first step successfully," Ljungqvist said. "There needs to be some legal input. This may require further discussions. Certainly the IOC will take some initiatives to pursue this further."

The IOC used to carry out mandatory gender exams at the Olympics, but they were dropped in 1999 because the screening process _ chromosome testing _ was deemed unscientific and unethical.

The IOC instead uses a special medical panel on site at the Olympics that can intervene, if necessary.

Source

Is the intersex movement radical?

2010-01-19T04:26:00.000-08:00

Today I am going to touch on the controversial world of sexual politics. I wanted to talk about an odd thing I occasionally read about on the web. This is an accusation by social conservatives that the intersex movement is radical. This argument is best summed up on the the Wikipedia entry on "intersexuality":

"social conservatives have claimed that the talk about third sexes represents an ideological agenda to deride gender as a social construct, whereas they believe binary gender (i.e. there is only male and female)is a biological imperative"

Complete article: Click here

Mass. trans couple settles discrimination case

2010-01-16T07:20:00.000-08:00

by Hannah Clay Wareham
Bay Windows
Friday Jan 15, 2010

A housing discrimination case brought by a Massachusetts transgender couple against landlords and a real estate agent of a rental property in Oxford, MA, has recently been settled.

Samantha J. Cornell, a transgender woman, and her spouse Andrea V. Boisseau, who was born with an intersex condition, were awarded $6,000 in damages and attorney’s fees, even though the defendants did not admit any wrongdoing in the spring 2008 incident.

Cornell and Boisseau began the search for a new apartment after their landlord lost his building in foreclosure. They found a rental property in Oxford, MA, and viewed the apartment with a real estate agent. The agent then called them a few days later to inform the couple that the apartment had been rented to a "straight, single male."

A subsequent investigation conducted by the Worcester Fair Housing Project at the Legal Assistance Corporation of Central Massachusetts (LACCM) found evidence that suggested the couple had been illegally discriminated against on the basis of their gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, and disability. These claims were included in the lawsuit brought against the landlords and real estate agent. Cornell and Boisseau also became homeless for a significant period of time after being refused the rental property.

"Advocates are working to amend the state’s anti-discrimination laws to explicitly add gender identity and expression as a protected category, but people should realize that the existing law’s prohibition of sex and disability discrimination may offer protection for transgender individuals," Jane L. Edmonstone, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said.

Massachusetts’ 1989 anti-discrimination law protects lesbian, gay, and bisexual people (and people perceived as such) from discrimination in education, employment, services, credit, places of public accommodation, and housing. The law does not, however, include gender identity or expression.

"We filed this case because we believed what happened to us was discriminatory and based on biased perceptions of our sex," Boisseau said. "We are pleased that the case has resolved and hope it shows that everyone, regardless of gender identity, has a right to equal housing."

Along with the $6,000 settlement, the real estate agent in question has been ordered to undergo fair housing training.

Source

Semenya remains in limbo despite coach's claims

2010-01-14T06:40:00.001-08:00

By Simon Turnbull

Thursday, 14 January 2010

There was a false start to the new year for Caster Semenya yesterday. It began with Michael Seme, coach of the athlete who won the women's 800m title at the World Championships in Berlin last summer, proclaiming, "She's going to run in international events," and speaking of his teenage charge challenging for World Junior Championship, African Championship and Commonwealth Games gold medals in the year that lies ahead.

His words gave the impression in South Africa that Semenya's delicate situation had finally been resolved by the sport's governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations. That, however, is definitively not the case. The athlete from the Limpopo region remains in a state of limbo.

The IAAF has yet to reach a decision on Semenya's future after conducting gender tests on the South African runner, who turned 19 last week. The governing body remains in talks with Semenya and her lawyers, Dewey and LeBoeuf. "All the parties are still in negotiations," Angelo Kakolyris, a spokesman for the law firm, said. "We're optimistic that there's going to be a positive resolution for all parties concerned."

Later in the day, coach Seme backed down from his earlier comments, saying: "Just listen to the lawyers."

"We are still in the same position as before – no official IAAF comment until we have finished the inquiry – and I can't tell you how long the inquiry will take either," said an IAAF spokesman, Nick Davies.

Semenya has never been under any formal suspension. She is free to compete as a woman, pending the IAAF's ruling.

It is unlikely that Semenya would be allowed to take part in an international event until her case had been resolved, although she has been back in training for the past two months and is planning to compete in the upcoming domestic outdoor track season in South Africa. According to Seme, the opening race on her schedule is the first in the series of Yellow Pages meetings in Port Elizabeth on 18 February. "She will run in at least three Yellow Pages races this year," he said.

Semenya's future, however, remains far from clear. The IAAF has yet to comment on claims made in the Australian press in September that tests had found the athlete to be a hermaphrodite, with both female and male characteristics. If that were the case, she might be required to undergo gender realignment surgery before being allowed to compete as a woman.

Source

Intersex Criminal brought to justice

2010-01-12T05:47:00.000-08:00

Drug Lord Discovered To Be Intersex

Monday, January 11, 2010

Posted By Brooke Murphy

On the drug-ravaged streets he’s known as Fat Murphy. Feared by many, the burly suspected drug lord is clean-shaven and wears his second wife’s name tattooed on his arm.

But the man who was banished from a crime-ridden suburb on the Cape Flats by furious residents protesting against alleged drug dealers has now been unmasked – as a hermaphrodite named Hilary.

Complete article: Click here

More information: Click here

Intersexuality and Muslims

2010-01-05T08:53:00.000-08:00

"What is intersex?

Intersex people are people who, as individuals, have genetic, hormonal, and physical features that may be thought to be typical of both male and female at once. That is, we may be thought of as being male with female features, female with male features, or indeed we may have no clearly defined sexual features at all." (Organisation Internationale des Intersexues)

I saw a documentary last night about an intersex child. It was fascinating and made me re-think my position: that there are only two genders, male or female. Is there a third gender? What is Islam's position about intersex?

The child in the documentary was born a "boy." He had a penis, but upon closer examination, he also had a little "vagina" underneath it. Instead of urinating from an opening on the head of the penis, he urinated from an opening at the top of his "vagina." "His" parents refused to consent to the hospital's recommendation that they operate on the child and "fix" the genitalia. Although the parents gave the child a male name and socialized him as a boy, the child grew up showing interest in feminine things and activities. The child also insisted that he was a girl. The documentary permitted the viewer to accompany the family on a beautiful and sensitive journey. It ended before the child entered puberty, and it would be interesting to see a follow up documentary.

The program also said that intersexuality is common in nature.

To read the complete article and comments: Click here

Who is Intersexed? new thoughts for the new year

2009-12-31T06:39:00.001-08:00

Excerpt from article:

"Like all questions involving identity politics, you will get many different answers. I think the best answer is an intersexual is someone born with a condition that makes them not fit into societies catagories of male or female and who chose to take on the label of intersex as a part of their identity and want the community and support that goes with it."

To read the whole article: Click here

HIV experts call for declassification of transgenderism as mental illness

2009-12-31T06:11:00.000-08:00

By Jessica Geen • December 29, 2009 - 14:41

An international meeting of experts on HIV has called for transgenderism to be reclassified as a medical condition, rather than a mental illness.

The second International Experts' Meeting on HIV Prevention for MSM, WSW [men who have sex with men and women who have sex with women] and Transgenders took place in Amsterdam in early November with 130 experts from around the world.

A report, called Moving from Intentions to Action, has now been published and calls for change in how trans people are treated.

It argues that trans people would then escape the stigma of mental illness that is frequently attached to them.

The report said: "Gender identity variance (transgenderism) should be reclassified from its current classification as a mental health disorder in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual and the World Health Organisation’s International Classification Of Diseases (ICD).

"Instead it should be classified as a medical condition. This would provide a diagnostic category in the ICD that would accommodate the needs of those gender identity variant people who require medical care for their condition, but without the stigma attached to mental disorder."

Professor Stephen Whittle, of Manchester Metropolitan University and trans group Press For Change, welcomed the move.

He said: "This is another major contribution to the very important, and crucial debate on whether simply having a gender identity and the desire to express yourself through it can be a mental illness.

"We accept that many trans people need the support of mental health specialists – but not because of their gender identity, but because of the rejection of their gender not just on a personal transphobic level but also institutionally and at the wider structural levels.

"Every one of us has a gender identity and look at any group of people and one can see a vast number of ways ordinary people express their person gender place – how they want others to know them. At their core trans people want nothing more than to have the privilege to do the same."

Medical opinion once held that homosexuality was a mental illness. It was removed from the list of mental disorders by the World Health Organisation in 1990.

Source

Sex and Uncertainty, remixed

2009-12-31T05:07:00.000-08:00

Susannah Cornwall's first book, Sex and Uncertainty in the Body of Christ: Intersex Conditions and Christian Theology (Equinox, 1st May 2010), is now available for pre-order on Amazon or direct from Equinox.

Megan Clay's cover piece is entitled Endless Possibilities. The author states that she loves the way the abstract shapes echo the vast spectrum of morphological and emotional ontology which the book attempts to explore.

Source

Rare gender identity defect hits Gaza families

2009-12-18T06:05:00.000-08:00

By Ivan Watson, CNN

December 17, 2009 -- Updated 1708 GMT (0108 HKT)

Gaza City (CNN) -- Two Palestinian teenagers stroll amid the mounds of rubble left by last year's Israeli military offensive, listening to the tinny beat of a Turkish pop song playing on a cell phone.

Nadir Mohammed Saleh and Ahmed Fayiz Abed Rabo are cousins and next-door neighbors. With their gelled hair, buttoned-down shirts and jeans, they look much like any other 16-year-old Palestinian boy. But looks, Ahmed says, can be deceiving.

"Only my appearance, my haircut and clothing, makes me look like a boy," Ahmed says, gesturing with his hands across his face. "Inside, I am like a female. I am a girl."

Until last summer, both Nadir and Ahmed were -- for all intents and purposes -- girls. They wore female headscarves, attended girls' school and even answered to the female first names Navin and Ola.

Both Nadir and Ahmed were born with a rare birth defect called male pseudohermaphrodism.

Deficiency of the hormone 17-B-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase (17-B-HSD) during pregnancy left their male reproductive organs deformed and buried deep within their abdomens.

At birth, doctors identified Nadir and Ahmed as girls, because they appeared to have female genitalia.

As a result, they spent the first 16 years of their lives dressing and acting like girls. It was a role that grew increasingly difficult to play, as they hit puberty and their bodies began generating testosterone, resulting in facial hair and increasingly masculine features.

"They used to travel by car to girls' school and back," says Nadir's father Mohammed Sadih Ahmed Saleh.

"Because of their facial hair, it was difficult for them to go out into the street. Psychologically they were distressed."

Finally, on June 22, with the support of their families, both Nadir and Ahmed transformed themselves into boys.

"They transferred on the same day," Saleh says. "Clothing, they switched to the other [boys'] school on the same day. They cut their hair on the same day. Both of them helped each other get through this crisis."

There are an unusually high number of male pseudohermaphrodite births in the Gaza neighborhood of Jabalya, where Nadir and Ahmed live.

Dr. Jehad Abudaia, a Canadian-Palestinian pediatrician and urologist practicing in Gaza, says he has diagnosed nearly 80 cases like Nadir's and Ahmed's in the last seven years.

"It is astonishing that we have [so] many cases with this defect, which is very rare all over the world," Abudaia says. He attributes the high frequency of this birth defect to "consanguinity," or in-breeding.

"If you want to go to the root of the problem, this problem runs in families in the genes." Abudaia says. "They want to get married to cousins... they don't go to another family. This is a problem."

In Western, more developed countries, doctors typically identify and then operate to correct disorders of sex differentiation at birth. But in war-torn Gaza, which has a lower standard of medical care, the birth defect can go undetected for years.

"Some of them unfortunately will be discovered late, when they are more than 14 years [old]. When they have been living as a female and they don't have menstruation, then they will go to the gynecologist," Abudaia says.

Abudaia's first advice to patients with the disorder is to immediately adopt male clothing and hair cuts, and then to plan for a sex-change operation.

This unusual ritual has been performed several times in the extended family of Nadir and Ahmed, where sex differentiation is a recurring disorder.

Nadir's 21-year-old brother Midyam and his 32-year-old cousin Ameen Abd Hamed share the same condition of male pseudohermaphrodism. As adolescents, they too underwent the gender identity transformation process the family refers to as "the transfer."

The traumatizing experience is all the more difficult because Gaza is a socially-conservative society, where there is a fair amount of segregation between males and females.

"I sat down with Nadir and explained to him how to adapt to the street, how to sit with the guys and talk to them... because at the beginning his mental state was bad, just like what happened to me," Ameen says.

"We did not understand what to do," says Ahmed, one of the 16-year-olds. "It was a new life for us, as if we were born again."

Though Nadir and Ahmed clearly have the love and support of their family, they say that is not enough. They are appealing to the international community to help them get the expensive and complicated sex-change operations they say they need to live normal lives.

"It's the only obstacle and the source of all the problems," Nadir says.

Until the sex-change operation is completed, Palestinian officials won't change the gender on their identity cards to "male," thus restricting their access to higher education.

In addition, Nadir and Ahmed complain of health problems like kidney infections due to complications resulting from the disfigurement of their genitalia.

"This is 100 percent a humanitarian issue," says Nadir's father, Mohammed. "There are four conditions in the same [extended] family. If we propose conducting the same operation on all four of them, the cost would be $30,000. We don't have $30,000 and there is no advanced medicine in Gaza."

Until then, these troubled Palestinians say their genders and their identities will remain in conflict, much like the land around them.

Source: Click here

CSI Miami Episode ‘Delko for the Defense’ Pathologizes Intersex

2009-12-15T22:16:00.000-08:00

On the evening of Monday 14th December, CSI:Miami series 8, episode 11, Delko for the Defence, was broadcast and it characterized an intersex person as dangerous, evil and a threat to society. That is the very last thing that intersex people need right now.

To read the complete commentary by OII-Australia: Click here

Vinidcated!

2009-12-14T06:37:00.000-08:00

By Sophia Siedlberg

How often have I said that genes in the autosomes have the final say when it comes to sex differentiation? Probably about 500 times on record and at least 20 in my writings.

Well, the publication Cell has some nice, hard laboratory evidence of precisely the mechanism I have been describing. My point is that autosomal regulation of sex differentiation was something I had myself understood quite well in terms of computer models. And while Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge of the National Institute of Medical Research in the UK would not have been aware of my computer models, it is certainly true that the good doctor has confirmed what I have known all along. The dogma XY for a boy and XX for a girl is an old idea that is toast.

Let me quote Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge:

“We take it for granted that we maintain the sex we are born with, including whether we have testes or ovaries. But this work shows that the activity of a single gene, FOXL2, is all that prevents adult ovary cells turning into cells found in testes,”

And the response from the Murdoch Press is:

“The research, published today in the journal Cell, challenges a common perception that gender is determined purely by the X-chromosomes and Y-chromosomes. The gene that was switched off, known as FOXL2, lies on a non-sex chromosome that is shared by males and females.”

I am tempted to gloat given that in a previous article I said to a reporter from the Murdoch Press who asked whether I was genetically male or female that “I am genetically me”. But given that the Murdoch press were showing signs of being nice, I am not going to gloat. I am not in a position to because all the research has shown is that the sort of model I have been describing for years was true after all. But I am not the one who published it in a scientific publication (having been marginalized) and the research I did was purely theory. These people were not even testing my own theory. They just proved it correct as a consequence of their research.

However, I believe it was only a matter of time before some research in a lab proved this autosomal sex regulation model to be correct. The truth is when you look at the human genome up close and personal, that is spend the best part of five years gawking at nucleotide sequence data and constructing a polygenic model, you do end up predicting that the number of genes in the human genome is less that 40,000 before the Human Genome Project figured it out and you do know how sex is regulated by genes not in the 23rd pair of chromosomes.

What I am saying is, I am not some idiot (as the textbooks often claim about intersex people). I am saying I knew prior to both the discoveries I mentioned, and it is documented what those discoveries would be, and it was not down to some mystical power but hard work.

I am also not going to reap any benefits because I was not involved in the research on both occasions. But this is a question of personal integrity; you know the textbook description of intersex people being “mentally retarded”.

But the one thing I will benefit from is knowing that because of this latest discovery by Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge’s team I will be regarded as a human being instead of a monster, not because I was aware of the possibility that such research would incidentally prove me correct, but because the unholy dictatorship of “XX or XY” is over. I can call myself “genetically me”. And even that was in the Times a few weeks before Dr. Robin Lovell-Badge’s work was published, and reported on in the self same newspaper.

So I am going to ask just one thing. Can I be allowed to lead my life with some dignity, and not be dismissed as a mentally deficient monster or a pair of chromosomes that say nothing of who or what I am?

It seems the Murdoch press understand this is what intersex people are saying now. And to me this is perhaps far more important, because finally there is a degree of understanding that people who do not fit the classical biological definitions of what is male or female are not “dangerous” or “evil” or a “threat to society” they are just natural variations of the human genome. Genetically we are us.

Just like my namesake in religious mythology, she didn’t get listened to either but wisdom always gets proven right in the end. Let me just get on with my life is all I and those like me ask.

Source quoted: Click here

Ovaries under constant pressure to be male

2009-12-13T05:09:00.000-08:00

by Gemma Black

Cosmos Online

SYDNEY: Female ovaries spend their entire existence suppressing an innate capacity to become male, according to a new study that overturns existing theories.

The study, published in the journal Cell, could have important implications for understanding sex disorders in humans.

It found that the ovaries of adult female mice could be ‘reprogrammed’ into non-sperm-producing male testes by silencing a single gene, called FOXL2.

Another gene, called SRY and found on the Y chromosome, is responsible for undeveloped foetal gonads becoming male testes, rather than female ovaries. SRY then activates a gene called SOX9, which takes over from there.

Complete article: Click here

IAAF offers to pay for Caster Semenya's gender surgery if she fails verification test

2009-12-13T04:53:00.000-08:00

The International Association of Athletics Federations has offered to pay Caster Semenya's medical expenses should she require gender surgery or other treatment to continue competing as a woman.

By Simon Hart

Published: 10:05PM GMT 11 Dec 2009

The IAAF is still awaiting the final results of the gender verification test carried out on the South African teenager during the World Championships in Berlin in August, though leaked reports have indicated that she is a hermaphrodite with internal testes and has three times the normal level of testosterone for a female.

If that is confirmed by the panel of scientists studying her condition, then the issue for the IAAF will be whether her raised testosterone gives her an unfair advantage over her rivals – a situation that would require remedial treatment if she wishes to race again in women's competitions.

Complete article: Click here

Editorial comments from OII-Australia:

There is no such thing as a human hermaphrodite. Hermaphrodism in humans – having one full set of female organs of reproduction and one full set of male organs of reproduction – is impossible. The application of the word "hermaphrodite" to human beings who are or may be intersex is an attempt to make us out to be fabulous monsters, creatures of ancient Greek myth and legend, deviant freaks and not real human beings. It is a weapon in the armoury of denial, of the refusal to recognize that variations in sex development exist and are so common as to have a prevalence of between 1:60 and 1:100 of the human population. By denying we exist, by pretending we are mythical inventions, the deniers can get away with doing whatever they like to us.
Ms Semenya is not an hermaphrodite. See above.
The word 'gender' means one's innate sense of being male or female, as a result of theorizing unsupported by actual evidence by John Money and second wave feminism since the 1950s. 'Gender' as we know it now is an invention of psychology and not a fact of biology. Sex is biological. Intersex is biological. 'Gender,' now being defined as psychological even though biological science continues to show that one's innate sense of what one's sex is as a function of one's brain sex, cannot be formed or reformed or assigned or reassigned by surgery, which is a manipulation of one's biology or more properly physiology. That is, 'gender surgery' is impossible. How can surgery on a someone's genitals somehow affect their innate sense of their sex? To believe it can is voodoo science at best. And voodoo is exactly what medicine has been practising upon the genitals of intersex newborns since the 1950's.
If the IAAF is so desperately keen to know what Ms Semenya's gender is, why do they not simply ask her if she is a woman or a man?
There is no actual evidence that having internal testes inevitably causes testicular cancer. It appears that, empirically, there may be a possibility of cancer later developing in 3% to 9% of people who have internal testes, although we have yet to find hard evidence for that assumption. By way of comparison, 10% to 12% of women contract breast cancer. Yet, surgeons do not remove all women's breasts as a matter of course. Surgeons in western countries do remove the testes from all AIS, CAIS and PAIS women as a matter of course. Why? It would appear that the authorities simply do not like the idea that some women may have testes.
We find the idea that the IAAF may require Ms Semenya to undergo surgery to remove possible internal testes in order for her to continue competing quite disgusting and completely unjustifiable.

Scientists find single on-off gene that can change gender traits

2009-12-13T04:48:00.000-08:00

Scientists have identified the gene that keeps females female. An international team found that the action of a single gene is all that stops females from developing male physical traits, including testes and facial hair.

When this gene was artificially “switched off” in adult female mice their ovaries began to turn into testes and they started to produce a level of testosterone found in healthy male mice.

The discovery could eventually revolutionise gender reassignment therapy and improve treatments for babies who are born with a mixed gender.

The research, published today in the journal Cell, challenges a common perception that gender is determined purely by the X-chromosomes and Y-chromosomes. The gene that was switched off, known as FOXL2, lies on a non-sex chromosome that is shared by males and females.

Complete article: Click here

Plea for help from Uganda

2009-12-07T17:52:00.000-08:00

Please read the following letter written by Gina Wilson from OII-Australia about intersex children in Uganda and the current homophobic laws and how they affect intersex people there.

Please consider donating to help the children.

Click here