October 26: Intersex Awareness Day
So, as many of you know (I mean just look at my URL lol) I am Intersex.
But what does that mean?
In the spirit of the upcoming holiday, the 13th annual Intersex Awareness Day (a fortuitous number, since age 13 is a very common age for people to discover hey are intersex!) I thought I would try my hand at making a little informational post.
This will be a bit different from my usual stuff, and perhaps hopefully a little more accessible to people who aren’t familiar with the subject!
What is “intersex”?
Intersex is a personal and political identification that people adopt to empower ourselves in light of having certain medical conditions!
The simplest definition I can give is that intersex people are people whose primary sex characteristics do not fall into the ranges associated with the typical model of male or female!
So it’s people who have “both kinds” of genitals right?
Not really!
Some intersex people do have what are called “ambiguous genitalia,” which can look and even function sexually like “having both,” this is not the only type of intersexuality.
Do not just go around asking people about their genitals. If you have any need to know, the person involved will tell you. Otherwise, let it be.
Okay, so what makes someone intersex then?
Having one of the several dozen conditions referred to collectively as “disorders of sexual development” (also referred to as differences in sexual development, and as intersex variations).
Basically, there are two medical models to be aware of.
The model of the perisex male: male assignment, XY chromosomes, testes, penis, and as an adult, testosterone dominant hormones.
The model of the perisex female: female assignment, XX chromosomes, vagina and vulva, ovaries, and as an adult, estrogen dominant hormones.
If you fall outside these two models in any way, then you can call yourself intersex!
What about transitioning, then? Doesn’t that make you intersex?
Nope! Intersex conditions are in-born. If you are using medical intervention to achieve traits that fall outside the persex male and perisex female ranges, that doesn’t make you intersex.
Intersex variations are congenital and inborn.
That said, there are some rare cases of people whose bodies are “otherwise perisex” but who were forcibly assigned the “opposite” binary gender at birth, usually as a result of medical malpractice or severe genital injury.
These people absolutely have the right to claim the intersex identity as well.
Well, can you be trans and intersex, then?
Absolutely!
Anyone can be trans: it just requires identifying outside of the gender assignment you were given at birth, or, in some cases, adopting the term to make your gender identity understandable to white and/or western people who do not have an analogous gender role in their cultures.
Being intersex doesn’t prevent you from determining that the gender you were assigned doesn’t fit right.
Cool! So you can also be cis and intersex, yeah?
Kind of, but not quite.
Intersex people do not experience protection and prioritization under cisnormativity. As a result, calling intersex people who identify with their assigned gender “cis” is very misleading.
Because of this, a lot of intersex activists suggest the inclusion of the word ipsogender into our vocabularies! Ipso comes from the same chemical and latin roots as cis and trans, but rather than meaning “on the other side” (trans) or “on the same side” (cis), ipso means “in the same place as,” and refers to the fact that an intersex person’s intersex identity has been replaced with the pericis concept of gender assignment.
Pericis???
Pericis simply means people and social forces based on perisex (that is, nonintersex) and cisgender (that is, neither trans or nonbinary) people.
Here’s a brief run down of terms you might see around:
Perisex: someone who is not intersex
Perisexism and/or perinormativity: The normalization, protection and prioritization of perisex people in society.
Dyadic: An alternative term for perisex. It often has severely ableist and racist connotations, so unless you are intersex yourself, be wary of using it.
Dyadism: The normalization, protection and prioritization of dyadic people in society.
Forcibly Assigned Sex At Birth: (FAFAB, FAMAB, FASAB, FAGAB) A gender assignment experience unique to uintersex people, wherein one’s gender was surgically or medically forced on you in infancy or childhood.
Incorrect/Intersex Assigned Gender At Birth: (IAFAB, IAMAB, IASAB, IAGAB). For intersex people whose genders were not forcibly assigned through medical violence.
Assigned Intersex/X at Birth: AIAB, AXAB. In some places, “intersex” and “X” are possible birth assignment. So, there are people out there who were night assigned male or female at birth. They may or may not have subsequently been raised as male/female.
Intergender: The state of being intersex and having a gender identity that is influenced by that fact.
Intersex as gender identity: Many intersex people, such as Kelly Keenan, the second Legally Nonbinary person in America, use “intersex” as their gender identity. In this way, intersex can sometimes be considered a gender identity, even though it is usually separated from other gender identity terminology.
Hermaphrodite: This one is often a sexualizing, dehumanizing slur. However, it is within the reclamation process and has been for a couple of decades now, albeit patchily. Some people identify as being hermaphrodites, in which case, by all means, call them this. But don’t use this word to describe intersex people or organizations unless or until you know that it is a word they use for themselves.
Okay, so this all sounds really medical, why do you keep contextualizing it in terms of queerness, gender, etc?
Well, because it’s both.
Intersex people experience huge amounts of often extremely violent ableism, ranging from the most well known examples (genital mutilation and forced feminization/masculinization) to pervasive but fairly quiet things like “intersex” not being an option on medical forms, and doctors not knowing how to deal with our unique medical needs. In fact, many intersex people go undiagnosed for decades of our lives, to serious personal detriment.
But we also experience vicious social backlash stemming from the same place as other forms of queer antagonism: an absolute inability to perform all facets of gender correctly.
Even if we identify within our assigned gender, even if we are only attracted to cis people of the opposite assignment, even if that attraction is complete and typical and has no divergent aspects such as relationship models or asexuality, we are nevertheless persecuted for not living up to those standards.
Intersex antagonism is a form of ableism, undoubtedly. It is also a form of queer antagonism.
Much like many intersex people, our oppressions are simultaneously neither and both. Our identities are complicated, and so are the ways that we are attacked for having them.
So… intersex people are LGBT+? I heard that intersex people don’t want to be called part of that community?
You heard wrong.
Any intersex organization worth its salt will tell you much the same thing.
A handful of intersex people on tumblr do not get to speak for us all, and we have been active voices in these communities for generations. These spaces are our homes, and you will not evict us from them.
There is a reason that the official acronym in so many districts is LGBTI. There is a reason that the expanded acronym is LGBTQIAP+. The I is for Intersex, and it belongs to us.
We have the same right to be here as anyone else.
What about queer? Are intersex people queer?
If they choose to identify as queer, then yes. Your queer spaces should always be intersex friendly.
What kind of issues do intersex people face?
Primarily, we are hit by medical violence, erasure, and social stigma.
We are often subject to conversion therapies and forced medical procedures. Even in the event that our parents aren’t willing to have our bodies mutilated, that refusal can be used as evidence that they are unfit parents, and we can be removed from our homes and subjected to this violence by state care facilities.
We receive poor medical care, and have high incidents of comorbid conditions that dramatically shorten our lifespans and reduce our quality of life. Even for those of us without severe life threatening complications from our variation s(which is the majority of us), the poor application of medical models we don’t fit leads to being given medications and procedures that can kill or permanently maim us. We often experience side effects to even seemingly innocuous treatments that can create serious complications.
Doctors often focus on making our bodies as normative as possible, instead of focusing on our health and comfort. And as a result, our families and communities often do the same, robbing us of any sense of support or autonomy.
We are often conflated with trans people, and face similar types of interpersonal violence. All the horrific social violence that the gender binary inflicts on other people, it inflicts on us as well.
We are told that we don’t exist, or that we exist only as sexual fantasies. That we are freaks of nature, that we are oddities to be examined and discarded. We are erased, trampled over, and even when someone claims to be looking out for us, they are often using us as a weapon against other queer people. We are isolated from each other. We are subject to all the traumatic psychological effects of that.
This is some heavy stuff. Can wrap this up on a lighter note? How about intersex pride stuff?
Sure thing!
This is the intersex pride flag:
#eye strain
It is a bright yellow field, with a thick purple ring centered on it. Pretty cool, huh? A bit of a divergence from the typical queer flag, but then, ours is a bit of a divergence from the typical queer experience!
The flag is meant to symbolize that we are neither male nor female (through the yellow) and yet that we may also be both male and female (through the purple), but that no matter what, we are whole and complete beings unto ourselves (through the unbroken ring).
It can be a bit hard to look at on computer screens. I promise, the colors are less dramatic in real life!
For digital purposes, you can use just about any shades of yellow and purple that you want, and there are certainly less straining versions out there.
Here’s some fun pride graphics too!
[Image description: Friendly looking bubble text reading Intersex Pride. The e’s in intersex and i in pride are purple, while all over letters are yellow. From The Telegram sticker set “pride”.]
[Image description: a grey scale drawing of an individual with a soft smile and closed eyes. They are wearing a head scarf in yellow, with a purple ring framing their face. Drawing by Danshing-yehet]
[Image description: A drawing of a dragon curled around a heart reading “pride.” The dragon and heart are yellow, with a purple ring on top of them. Design by catalystic rising.]
[Image description: The disney castle logo, all in yellow, with purple flags. Image by notthedisneyyourelookingfor.]
[Image of a Purple-throated Euphonia, a small bird with a yellow breast and forehead, and otherwise dark purple feathers, presented as a possible intersex pride mascot by a dinosaur a day.]
[Image description: an intersex pride ring, by OptiMysitcals]
[Image description: Revolutionary Queer flag, intersex version. A yellow field with two violet chevrons, the upper pastel and the lower a stronger and darker violet. The chevrons are separated by a cream band. Design by Bizexuals.]
We also have our own COTD blog, @intersexcharacteroftheday, and @yourfavegoestoactualpride also accepts and curates intersex submissions, which is very fun!
Those are pretty cool but I still have questions!! Where can I learn more?
Well, my inbox is always open!
Additionally, I really highly recommend the Organisation Intersex International, (here is their US website also), which is by far my favourite of the major intersex organizations.
If you yourself are, or suspect yourself to be, intersex, then there is also the tag #ActuallyIntersex here on tumblr. As with any queer and/or disability tag, please be careful as it can be rife with discourse and with people on both sides of major issues.
I strongly do not recommend the blog actuallyintersex, however, as they have a strong habit of blocking, silencing, and being party to hate tactics against the voices of any intersex person who disagrees with their exclusionary politics.
Anyway, I hope this has been an enlightening experience for you, and I look forward to seeing you all on the 26th of October!
