Intersex Day of Remembrance, also known as Intersex Solidarity Day ......................

Intersex Day of Remembrance, also known as Intersex Solidarity Day, is an international awareness day that aims to draw attention to the issues faced by members of the intersex community. It is observed on November 8, marking the birth anniversary of Herculine Barbin.

Sex characteristics of intersex people to not allow to distinctly identify them as male or female. Herculine Barbin was a French intersex person who lived in the 19th century. She was raised as a female, but was later reassigned as male after an affair with a woman and physical examination. In modern terms, she had male pseudohermaphroditism. 

Herculine changed her name to Abel and left for Paris where he wrote his memoirs. Barbin committed suicide at age 30.

Intersex Day of Remembrance was created to raise awareness of intersex and highlight the challenges faced by intersex people. One of the most important issues is non-consensual interventions to modify the sex anatomy. As of 2015, Malta is the only country that has outlawed them.

While Intersex Day of Remembrance is celebrated more in Europe, Intersex Awareness Day (October 26) is primary marked in English-speaking countries, particularly in North America. In some countries, two weeks between the two events are marked as “14 days of intersex”.

More on Barbin.............

Early life

Most of what we know about Barbin comes from her later memoirs. Herculine Adélaîde Barbin was born in Saint-Jean-d'Angély in France in 1838. She was regarded as a girl and raised as such; her family referred to her as Alexina. Her family was poor but she gained a charity scholarship to study in the school of an Ursuline convent.

According to her account, she had a crush on an aristocratic female friend in school. She regarded herself as unattractive but sometimes slipped into her friend's room at night and was sometimes punished for that. However, her studies were successful and in 1856, at the age of seventeen she was sent to Le Chateau to study to become a teacher. There she fell in love with one of the teachers.

Puberty

Although Barbin was in puberty, she had not begun to menstruate and remained flat chested. The hairs on her upper lip and cheeks were noticeable.

In 1857 Barbin received a position as an assistant teacher in a girls' school. She fell in love with another teacher, Sara, and Barbin demanded that only she should dress her. Her ministrations turned into caresses and they became lovers. Eventually rumors about their affair began to circulate.

Barbin, although sick her whole life, began to suffer excruciating pains. When a doctor examined her, he was shocked and asked that she should be sent away from the school, but she stayed.

Eventually, the devoutly Catholic Barbin confessed to Jean-François-Anne Landriot, the Bishop of La Rochelle. She asked him permission to break the confessional silence in order to send for a doctor to examine her. When Dr. Chesnet did so in 1860, he discovered that even if Barbin had a small vagina, she was bodily masculine and had a very small penis and testicles inside her body. In modern terms, she had "male pseudohermaphroditism".

Reassignment 

A later legal decision declared official that Barbin was male. She left her lover and her job, changed her name to Abel Barbin and was briefly mentioned in the press. She moved to Paris where she lived in poverty and wrote her memoirs, reputedly as a part of therapy. In the memoirs, Barbin would use female pronouns when writing about her life prior to sexual re-designation and male pronouns following the declaration. Nevertheless, she clearly regarded herself as punished, and "disinherited", subject to a "ridiculous inquisition".

Death

In February 1868, the concierge of Barbin's house in rue de l'École-de-Médecine found her dead in her home. She had committed suicide by inhaling gas from her coal gas stove. Her memoirs were found beside her bed.

Memoirs publication

Dr. Regnier reported the death, recovered the memoirs and performed an autopsy. Later he gave the memoirs to Auguste Ambroise Tardieu, who published excerpts as "Histoire et souvenirs d'Alexina B." ("The Story and Memoirs of Alexina B.") in his book Question médico-légale de l'identité dans ses rapport avec les vices de conformation des organes sexuels, contenant les souvenirs et impressions d'un individu dont le sexe avait été méconnu ("Forensics of Identity Involving Deformities of the Sexual Organs, Along With the Memoirs and Impressions of an Individual Whose Sex Was Misidentified") (Paris: J.-B. Ballière et Fils, 1872). The excerpts were translated to English in 1980.

Michel Foucault discovered the memoirs in the 1970s while conducting research at the French Department of Public Hygiene. He had the journals republished as Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth-century French Hermaphrodite. In his edition, Foucault also included a set of medical reports, legal documents, and newspaper articles, as well as a short story adaptation by Oscar Panizza.
Modern commentaries and references

Barbin's memoirs inspired the French film The Mystery of Alexina. and Jeffrey Eugenides in his book Middlesex treats concurrent themes, as does Virginia Woolf in her book, Orlando: A Biography. Judith Butler refers to Foucault's commentary on Barbin at various points in her 1990 Gender Trouble, including her chapter "Foucault, Herculine, and the Politics of Sexual Discontinuity."

Barbin appears as a character in the play A Mouthful of Birds by Caryl Churchill and David Lan. Barbin also appears as a character in the play Hidden: A Gender by Kate Bornstein. Herculine, a full-length play based on the memoirs of Barbin, is by Garrett Heater. Kira Obolensky also wrote a two-act stage adaptation entitled The Adventures of Herculina.

In 2014, a manuscript entitled Dear Herculine by Aaron Apps won the 2014 Sawtooth Poetry Prize from Ahsahta Press

GLMA Calls for End to Nonconsensual Surgeries on Intersex Minors!

As GLMA states on their website: In what is believed to be a first for a US-based health professional association, GLMA recently revised its position statement on care for children with differences of sex development (DSD) to call for delay in any medically unnecessary surgical intervention until the patient can provide consent/assent to the treatment. The revised policy statement is being released to coincide with activities related to the 20th anniversary of Intersex Awareness Day.

GLMA was also among a host of organizations, including the Intersex Campaign for Equality, that signed a joint resolution this past Intersex Awareness Day, October 26th. The resolution reaffirmed the following three demands of the Third International Intersex Forum, in Malta, co-organized by ICE founder and director Hida Viloria:

1) All intersex people have the right to make their own decisions affecting their bodily integrity, physical autonomy, and self-determination.

2) Medically unnecessary treatment, surgeries, and sterilizations of intersex people should not occur without said intersex person’s full informed consent.

3) Intersex people and the families of children born with intersex traits should have access to non-pathologizing psychosocial and peer support.

We thank and commend GLMA for supporting intersex activists and people everywhere in our quest for self-determination and bodily integrity, and for being the first medical association in the United States to do so!

also see:

Jamaican Intersex (ambiguous genitalia) baby case a cause for concern

Despite opposition, EU Parliament votes for LGBTI rights/trans identity depathologization 

Peace & tolerance 

H

Intersex Awareness Day 2016

Intersex Awareness Day takes place on October 26 each year. This year, 2016, marks the 12th anniversary of the first one, or the 12th if you count the very first time it was talked about, in 2003. When it was first started, it was suggested the entire month of October be devoted to talking about intersex; today many recognize it as the period between October 26 and November 8, which is noted as Intersex Solidarity Day.

Twelve years ago, the nascent intersex movement was still trying to find its way in a world where few people knew what intersex was, and fewer people were openly talking about their own intersex status. The Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) was still going strong, and a few diagnosis-specific organizations were starting to turn up on the internet to provide support and information about specific types of intersex to those affected and their families. Two years earlier in 2002, Bodies Like Ours came on line in an effort to reach out to intersex people by providing an online forum and information about intersex that was not focused on specific traits but, rather, the experience and state of intersex – what it means to be born with a body that that doesn’t fit the standard definitions of what it means to be male or female.

For the first time, intersex people and those affected by intersex variations were talking about it, publicly and as a group. Sure, the forums encouraged the use of aliases but real people with real variations of intersex were talking about it, together, in real time. The forums were not hidden behind a wall – anyone with internet access could read the conversations. And read they did – and talk about it they did. Intersex was gradually coming out into the world.

Sometime in mid-2003, Emi Koyoma, who had worked at ISNA and was by then running a website of her own called The Portland Intersex Initiative, or IPDX, and I, Betsy Driver, co-founder of Bodies Like Ours, started to kick around some ideas on how to get more media attention about intersex, and how to get campus organizations to host a speaker or perhaps some other type of informational session about intersex. We decided that we needed to come up with a day to recognize intersex and some of those behind the movement.

It didn’t take us long to come up with October 26. I think it was Emi who came up with the date. It was the anniversary of a 1996 ISNA protest, under the banner of Hermaphrodites with Attitude, and in conjunction with allies from Transexual Menace, in Boston where the American Academy of Pediatrics was holding their annual meeting. We quickly agreed the demonstration would be the day we recognized and set forth to building a website and sending out some press releases.

We framed Intersex Awareness Day as a grassroots effort to raise awareness around intersex. We encouraged other organizations to join in with it. In short, we put it out there in the hopes that different groups and different people would somehow take up the banner and make it into something. That first year, 2003, nothing much came of it. We didn’t even launch the website until less than a month before October 26th.

We did, however, make it into the syndicated News Of The Weird that first year. While that may seem at first to have been an affront, they actually did us a huge favor by printing that little blurb trying to make light of our idea; it gave us incredible exposure since Weird News was a syndicated service and went out to thousands of print outlets. We couldn’t have asked for a better way to get publicity.

Once 2004 came along, word had spread about Intersex Awareness Day. Events were planned throughout the world by different advocates and were taking place in community forums, on campuses, and in community centers.

Does having a Y chromosome make someone a man?

A lot of unintended harm happens when people assume a Y chromosome makes a person a boy or a man and the lack of a Y chromosome makes a person a girl or a woman. For example, one physician educator on our Medical Advisory Board had the challenging experience of trying to calm a 23-year-old patient who had just been told by a resident that she was “really a man” because the resident had diagnosed the patient as having a Y chromosome and complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS).

It is true that in typical male development, the SRY gene on the tip of the Y chromosome helps to send the embryo down the masculine pathway. But more than the SRY is needed for sex determination and differentiation; for example, women with CAIS have the SRY gene but lack androgen receptors. In terms of hormone effects on their bodies (including their brains), women with CAIS have had much less “masculinization” than the average 46,XX woman because their cells do not respond to androgens.

Moreover, the SRY gene can be translocated onto an X chromosome (so that a 46,XX person may develop along a typical masculine pathway), and there are dozens of genes on chromosomes other than the X and the Y that contribute to sexual differentiation. And beyond the genes, a person’s sex development can be significantly influenced by environmental factors (including the maternal uterine environment in which the fetus developed).

So it is simply incorrect to think that you can tell a person’s sex just looking at whether he or she has a Y chromosome.

Want to know more? The following comes from ISNA’s Medical Advisory Board member Dr. Charmian Quigley:

SRY, discovered in 1989, is a small gene located at the tip of the short arm of the Y chromosome. So what does it do? Actually, like all genes, it does nothing except to act as a blueprint for a protein. In this case, the protein of the same name does funky things to DNA, like bending it and unwinding the 2 strands, so that other proteins can get in and attach themselves to other genes that are then turned on. So how did this gene get its reputation (and its name) as the “sex determining” gene?

As is pretty common in the world of genetics, this was because of some errant mice. Researchers in England took a laboratory-made copy of this gene and inserted it artificially into a female (XX) mouse embryo at a very early stage of development. The mouse was “converted” from female to male, so the gene must have been responsible – right? Well, maybe not. A few years later, a similar gene was found on human chromosome 17. When the important part of this gene was inserted into a female mouse embryo, the same thing happened. Voila! A male.

So now we have 2 genes that can turn a female into a male, and one of them is not located on the Y chromosome! How can that be? It turns out that SRY is probably just a facilitator that allows a more critical gene (or genes) to function, by blocking the action of another opposing factor. Can the magic of genetics do the opposite – turn a male into a female? Indeed it can. A gene on the X chromosome (the chromosome one typically associates with “femaleness”) called DAX1 when present in double copy in a male (XY) mouse, turns it into a female.

So now we have genes on the Y that can turn females with XX chromosomes into males and genes on the X that can turn males with XY chromosomes into females… wow! Maleness and femaleness are NOT determined by having an X or a Y, since switching a couple of genes around can turn things upside down.

In fact, there’s a whole lot more to maleness and femaleness than X or Y chromosomes. About 1 in 20,000 men has no Y chromosome, instead having 2 Xs. This means that in the United States there are about 7,500 men without a Y chromosome. The equivalent situation - females who have XY instead of XX chromosomes - can occur for a variety of reasons and overall is similar in frequency.

For these 15,000 or more individuals in the US (and who knows how many worldwide), their chromosomes are irrelevant. It is the total complement of their genes along with their life experiences (physical, mental, social) that makes them who they are (or any of us, for that matter). The last time I counted, there were at least 30 genes that have been found to have important roles in the development of sex in either humans or mice. Of these 30 or so genes 3 are located on the X chromosome, 1 on the Y chromosome and the rest are on other chromosomes, called autosomes (on chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 17, 19).

In light of this, sex should be considered not a product of our chromosomes, but rather, a product of our total genetic makeup, and of the functions of these genes during development.

What is an intersex athlete? Explaining the case of Caster Semenya

 Caster Semenya’s recent form can in part be attributed to the removal of an upper limit for women’s testosterone levels. Photograph: Tiziana Fabi/AFP/Getty Images

A sensitive and complicated issue has arisen many times, with the reversal of an IAAF rule on testosterone levels bringing it to the fore again

The return of Caster Semenya: Olympic favourite and ticking timebomb

The term “intersex” is used to describe variations in sex characteristics in someone who does not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies. In sport the issue centres on verifying the eligibility of an athlete to compete in an event that is limited to a single sex. It is unquestionably a sensitive and complicated issue and one that has arisen many times at the Olympics and other sporting competitions where it has been alleged that male athletes have attempted to compete as women or, in Semenya’s case, that a woman has an intersex condition, which provides an alleged unfair advantage.

Over the years numerous sex or gender tests have been used to verify athletes’ eligibility, ranging from physical examinations to chromosome testing and more recently hormone testing. In the wake of Semenya’s case in 2009, testosterone testing was introduced to identify cases where testosterone levels were elevated above an arbitrary level, termed hyperandrogenism.

In April 2011, the IAAF announced it was adopting new rules and regulations governing the eligibility of females with hyperandrogenism, effectively meaning that there was an upper limit for women athletes’ testosterone levels – set at 10nmol/L – with anyone above it required to take hormones to lower them to more “normal” levels to compete.

That rule was in force until July 2015 and its reversal is among one of the key reasons why Semenya has returned to form in such emphatic fashion. The Indian sprinter Dutee Chand, who was dropped from the 2014 Commonwealth Games at the last minute, successfully appealed to the court of arbitration for sport who ruled that there was insufficient evidence that testosterone increased female athletic performance, suspended the practice of testosterone regulation and challenged the IAAF to present better evidence by July 2017.

Chand’s lawyers insisted she was not to blame for her genetic advantages, that the existing law was discriminatory against women – because men are not screened for high natural testosterone levels – and were able to demonstrate that the threshold set by the IAAF was arbitrary, hence the need to present better evidence within two years. In the meantime, it allows Semenya, Chand and other intersex athletes to compete without needing to take hormones to lower their testosterone levels.

Uncomfortable with Endocrinologist explanation of the case of the intersex infant

In a previous post (Jamaican Intersex (ambiguous genitalia) baby case a cause for concern part 2 ) I mentioned the push by a certain endocrinologist on early surgery of an infant who was featured on CVM TV some time ago. He has been interviewed since and has seemingly steered clear of suggesting surgery on a baby as an option, but I am not comfortable at all.

Here is an excerpt of the article involving the gentleman:

For thousands of years children have been born with what’s called ambiguous genitalia — a condition in which there is incomplete development of the external genitals, and at birth doctors are not able to clearly define a sex. Last week, Dr Leslie Gabay, consultant paediatrician and paediatric endocrinologist, addressed the biology of the condition. This week, he speaks of stigma and social repercussions.


WITH regard to the social repercussions, the sex of a baby is usually the first question friends and family members have after a birth, Dr Gabay said.

“Generally, I recommend that the parents say the infant is undergoing tests to clarify the sex due to incomplete development of the genitals,” he advised.

“If we do this, then there is no stigma. Stigma occurs only when the child goes home with one sex and this is subsequently changed. Hence the importance of early diagnosis.”

Dr Gabay said stigma has to be dealt with by family support, parental education and counselling, where necessary.

He pointed out that it is important to note that the physical development of infants (sex) has nothing to do with the psychological development (gender).

“When we’re looking at the conditions, we’re looking at developmental disorders of sexual maturation. That can give us various issues. When you talk about gender, you talk about how people feel about themselves,” he said. “I may have testes, I may have XY chromosomes, but psychologically I feel like a female. When there’s a disconnection between the physical and the psychological, we call that gender dysphoria where somebody is feeling one way, but has a phenotype that is opposite to how they feel.”

A paediatric endocrinologist looks at what can and can’t be corrected, which is whether your hormones have the capacity to complete your development as a male or female.

“So, for example, we will have an XY male who has testes and is actually making male hormones but he doesn’t have the receptors for them to work on, so he can’t get a complete development into male external genitalia. We sometimes have those same individuals with XY and testes, but their genitals look like females because the testosterone they’re making cannot work to convert the genitals into a male. So there are a number of different medical conditions which all fall under the disorders of sexual maturation, which can give you a disconnect in terms of your chromosomal sex, your gonadal sex and your phenotypic sex,” he said.

He added: “The difference between Caitlyn Jenner’s case, for example, which is a psychological disconnect between the psychology and the physicality of sex, versus when a child has a disorder of development, is vast. So, for example, if you are a boy you have XY, you have testes, you make testosterone but your tissues can’t respond to testosterone — you look like a girl. There’s nothing that I or anybody can do to make you into a boy. So you’re a girl by how you look, except that you won’t have a womb to have babies and therefore you may be able to get some sperm to do IVF, but you’re not going to carry a baby.”

Dr Gabay said most people don’t know what their chromosomes are, so definition of sex is mostly phenotypic — how you look.

“Until you have a baby or get pregnant you don’t know that your ovaries can make eggs, but all along you’re walking through school as a girl. Your chromosomes don’t make you a girl, the fact that you can make eggs or have a womb doesn’t make you a girl,” he said. “When I met you I thought you were a girl and that’s because of how you look. That’s how people walk around looking at individuals. So how we socialise in the world is based on how we look — our phenotype.”

He added that when we want to reproduce and move forward for another generation, that’s when our chromosomes, sperm and ovaries become important.


“I can’t say at six weeks of age how you will feel at five years old. But I can say at six weeks whether your hormones have the capacity to complete your development as a male or complete your development as a female,” he explained.

ENDS

Intersex activists have been advocating to delayed surgery decision making on the pat of impacted individuals with proper engagement in terms of education.

Also see:
Jamaican Intersex (ambiguous genitalia) baby case a cause for concern part 1

Intersex spokesperson speaks in the European Parliament for the first time ever today

In an historical first this afternoon, the European Parliament heard from an intersex person on the rights and needs of intersex people across Europe

Intersex people are born with bodies that do not entirely match the definition of either the male or female gender.

During a public hearing on the situation of fundamental rights in the European Union in 2015, Dan Christian Ghattas, explained the situation of intersex people in Europe.

"It is estimated that around 1 in 200 people are born intersex," Ghattas explained, "and they are usually subjected to surgery and hormone treatment within the first two years of their lives in order to fulfil societal expectations about gender."

"This treatment of infants means that we do not get the opportunity to make choices about our own bodies. Most intersex people experience psychological trauma as a result.

"This is a violation of our right to self-determination, and contravenes the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights.

"We are asking the European Parliament to take an active role in supporting our rights, including a European Parliament own-initiative report on the rights of intersex people and a study on how EU gender equality legislation could be used to protect our rights."

Vice President of the European Parliament's LGBTI Intergroup, Malin Björk, commented: “LGBTIQ people face a constant political battle for the right to exist. Gender norms around how male and female bodies should look lead to a violation of the right to bodily integrity of intersex people."

"This is a form of violence and we have a responsibility to fight against in our struggle for justice. Therefore, the presence of an intersex organisation in the European Parliament in a hearing on fundamental rights is politically important, and something I value and celebrate.”

Ghattas appeared in the Parliament this afternoon with the support of the European United Left / Nordic Green Left (GUE/NGL), the Organisation Intersex International Europe (OII), and the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).

GUE/NGL Press Contact:

Nikki Sullings +32 22 83 27 60 / +32 483 03 55 75

Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20

Related MEPs

Jamaican Intersex (ambiguous genitalia) baby case a cause for concern part 2 #learning moment

See part one HERE

A reminder - What is the difference between a TRANS, transsexual or transgender person & an intersex person? INTERSEX is not a part of transgender because intersex is not about gender. Intersex is about anatomical differences in sex. Also the word ‘hermaphrodite’ is no longer an acceptable term in discussing such issues since 2005. Sadly a sociologist who hosts a show on Nationwide had fun using the term disparagingly. She is the same sociologist who featured in this previous post: Aphrodite’s P.R.I.D.E Jamaica, APJ tackles gender identity, transgender misconceptions & an ignorant sociologist ......

now to pressing matters:

So part two of the series regarding little baby ‘Angel’ and the associated ambiguous genitalia issue garnered several comments on social media where it was shared on CVM TV’s Inspire Jamaica Facebook page. The feature has been growing on the minds of Jamaicans as the stories carried therein as very positive and host Kerlene Brown has certainly grown since her appearance on television several years ago; Miss Brown obviously did some research on the matter as she also raised the issue of the timing of the surgery whether it should occur at puberty or not; my beef is not with the show itself but the decision by the goodly consulting gynaecologist & endocrinologist Dr Gabay to rush to surgery as he suggests when baby ‘Angel’ get to 18 months after the birth. Bear in mind the mother though while seemingly obedient to the suggestion has not said a full yes based on the interview. This entry is in no way questioning the competencies of persons such as Dr Gabay but the principle if not ethics regarding addressing sex and gender specific to ambiguous genitalia.

There seems to be mixed positions on whether to take the early surgery route versus waiting until after puberty. Some experts suggest it maybe too late in some cases as developmental trends may preclude such reassignment surgery or post hormonal treatment courses.

also see: Chilean officials oppose “normalization” surgery for intersex children! 2016 (OII)

The push by intersex activists worldwide but especially in the United States, Australia and Canada have all pushed that early surgery is not the way to go and that issues to do with chromosomal changes can occur even after initial tests may shoe XX as in this case and a uterus but no undescended testicles suggesting male features or the lack thereof. I still suggest that no surgery be done to little ‘Angel’ and allow the baby to develop to puberty (age 18 as our age of majority) and then allow the adult person to make a decision based on more test now that they have matured.

Intersex Issues and the International Classification Of Diseases

The ICD revision and reform process has a key relevance for the intersex movement. Diagnostic categories play a central role in expressing scientific understandings, establishing medical approaches, informing clinical protocols, defining surgical, hormonal and other treatments. Diagnostic categories defining intersex bodies reify differences between stereotypical female and male bodies on the one hand, considered to be healthy, and bodies that vary from female and male standards on the other hand, considered to be “disordered”, Or “abnormal”. Current Classifications therefore contribute to stigma and discrimination against intersex people; they endow appropriateness to medical attempts to “fix” Or “normalize”

Intersex bodies through surgical and hormonal means. They play a direct role in determining how intersex bodies are treated in society at large.

Everywhere in the world, people born with intersex traits are subjected to “normalizing” procedures, including clitoridectomies, labioplasties, vaginoplasties, gonadectomies, hypospadias “repair”, and treatment with steroids or sex hormones.

Many of these procedures are performed during infancy and early childhood when intersex individuals cannot provide their informed consent. Intersex babies, infants, children and adolescents are also subjected to related practices in medical settings, such as continued exposure. In different parts of the world, treatments also include socio--‐legal measures, including a lack of birth certificates; at least in this case according to part 1 of the video the mother explained the process she was told that she could get the changes made at the Registrar General Department, RGD. Most of these treatments have lifelong consequences: they produce sterility, genital insensitivity and impaired sexual function, chronic pain, chronic bleeding, and chronic infections, post--‐surgical depression, and trauma (in many cases associated with the experience of rape), massive internal and external scarring, metabolic imbalances.

These procedures have been internationally denounced as institutionalized forms of genital mutilation.

They reproduce and reinforce the cultural sense of intersex bodies as disordered and shameful; they produce coercive social environments. Such a hint came through loudly when the goodly doctor spoke to the possible embarrassment by the parent(s) and inquisitive family members where lies are told to cover up or deflect the scrutiny. Given what we now know I believe persons can be allowed to mature with the right psycho-social interventions and some medical monitoring but not medicalizations as seen before.

Vaginoplasties are another common feminizing treatment, performed on girls affected by CAH, by complete or partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, or by Mayer Rokitansky Kuster Hauser Syndrome.

Vaginoplasties, as well as other associated genitoplasties, seems to be the recommended course in this specific case and which are also performed to feminize intersex bodies when an infant has been assigned female at birth –for example, in cases of penile agenesis. Early surgical interventions are known to have significant negative consequences:

In children with ambiguous genitalia assigned female, vaginoplasty is commonly performed during the first year of life even though the child will not menstruate for a further 10 or so years and is unlikely to be sexually active until after puberty.

High rates of introital stenosis of up to 100% have been demonstrated as well as frequent requirements for repeated reconstructive surgery in adolescence before tampon use or intercourse. Given that there is no available data to suggest early infant vaginoplasty has a better long-term outcome than a later delayed surgery, vaginoplasty in infancy is, then, chiefly to create a reassuring appearance for parents and clinicians’.

Vaginoplasties usually require regular follow--‐up treatment through dilation, a procedure that has been repeatedly identified as an experience comparable with rape by intersex people forced to undergo it after non--‐consensual interventions, or following interventions where consent was not fully informed. The latter cases are characterized by inadequate or incomplete access to proper information regarding follow up treatment and long--‐lasting consequences.

Dense scarring and the closing of the vagina opening are common complications [in addition to] chronic pain during intercourse, excessive vaginal secretion and total closure of the vagina”, complicated by other factors “including poor communication, inadequate follow--‐up, humiliating encounters with health professionals including medical photography, poor treatment outcome, and inadequate psychological support.

Given the occurrence of long term failures, long--‐term follow up is rare, for example, because pediatric urologists do not follow patients into adulthood, and because patients “have been shown to be reluctant to seek further medical advice despite significant distress”; clinicians acknowledge that such data are necessary “to provide an honest and meaningful account” of results.

Given the limitations of such data, a “common weakness of the existing literature is that most studies have been based on surgeon impressions of outcome, as opposed to patient satisfaction”

Other concerns
Prenatal Treatment

Dexamethasone, a steroid, is used to prevent homosexuality and physical “virilization”in infants with CAH assigned female. This is defended as a means of preventing post--‐natal elective surgical treatments, and is considered to be of greater benefit than established cognitive and physical risks to the children exposed to such treatment. Dexamethasone treatment does not address the more critical issue of salt wasting associated with CAH, an issue which may necessitate urgent medical attention to ensure the health of an infant. Genital variation is seen as a social emergency.

Sterilization

Sterilization is a consequence of treatment rationales related to tumor risk. The fertility of persons with intersex variations is not valued in the same way as that of other persons – and sterilizations may not be viewed as such if a child’s capacity for fertility does not match a gender assignment or reassignment removing a person’s only route to biological parenthood.

I hope some gentile persuasion can be brought to bear on this and a rushed decision is not enter into on the part of the mother for this baby; Dr Gabay did say in the video that the department which he is a part sees on average five to six cases per year.

What isn’t intersex ?

A point from OII Australia with whom I totally support:

INTERSEX is not a sexual orientation. Although nearly all intersex have a sexual orientation, we are no different to other people in this. It is unknown if our intersex influences our sexual orientation and intersex resist efforts by researchers who seek to link the two. We do this because we hold the view that it is a back door way to find the gay gene. We hold the view that this effort is essentially homophobic.

Peace & tolerance

H

Jamaican Intersex (ambiguous genitalia) baby case a cause for concern #learning moment

While I appreciate the highlighting of issues such as this that do get a lot of mainstream ventilation they have a way of misleading the public but showing up the arrears that need addressing.

Firstly Intersex people differ from transgender people as their status is not gender related but instead relates to their biological makeup (genetic, hormonal and physical features) which is neither exclusively male nor exclusively female, but is typical of both at once or not clearly defined as either. These features can manifest themselves in secondary sexual characteristics such as muscle mass, hair distribution, breasts and stature; primary sexual characteristics such as reproductive organs and genitalia; and/or in chromosomal structures and hormones. The term intersex has replaced the term ‘hermaphrodite’ which was used extensively by medical practitioners during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

At Least 30 or 40 Different variations are known to science; 10--‐80% Of cases are idiopathic, with no exact diagnosis.

Some Common intersex variations are diagnosed prenatally, others may be apparent at birth. Some Intersex traits become apparent at puberty, or when trying to conceive, or through random chance. However, most intersex characteristics are not pathological, but express healthy variation amongst human bodies.

Inspire Jamaica a positive feature aired on CVM TV had as its latest subject baby ‘Angel’ and her mother speaking to the issues surrounding ambiguous genitalia and or intersexuality (although the word was not used in the clip not even by the doctor interviewed) and that the mother had bought male clothing and related items only to be instructed by the gynaecologist to wait whilst also asking the Registrar General Department to amend the birth papers and such to female gender.

CMV TV's video on the subject (part 1)

I was a bit disturbed by that and then to be landed with the doctor’s encouragement to the mother go ahead the surgery to effectively select the baby’s gender as opposed to waiting until baby X reached possibly eighteen years of age seeing that is our age of adulthood in law; persons may not want to remain as forced on them by doctor through the mother and may have consequences in later years.

Despite the doctor who respectfully is the expert in this matter had indicated that there were no chromosomes suggesting a male and no descended testicles he thought it best to default the child to female at this early stage owing to the issues to do with gender in the brain versus sex; in other words gender is between the ears male brain versus female brain versus not matching what is between the legs which is why I would have thought the doctor should have waited; there are cases for example here in Jamaica from as early as 2009 where it was even discussed on radio with Emily Crooks and Clyde Williams when they hosted the morning show on Nationwide radio on September 11 2009 with Dr Peta Ann Baker, see a previous post: What if Semenya were a Jamaican? 2009 for Miss Baker's take on the issues then.

During puberty the genitalia can change alongside genes and internal characteristics with many variations of the combinations, with regards to chromozones, gonads etc. which is why the experts should have waited. There is new information as well and the push by intersex activists as well thanks to them for my own enlightenment. The rush to gender reassignment surgery is wrong especially for cosmetic reasons and the fears of the parents; early surgery can cause issues as such persons mature futuristically is problematic. Again I am not an expert in endocrinology by there is enough information out there and that gender is not binary. We should wait until the age of majority in Jamaica legally which is 18 and let them choose while educating them.

We do not do the best for our children in this rigid way. I am waiting to see the part 2 of what the doctor actual recommended in the series and I hope he didn't recommend surgery.

Difficulties presented by the binary gender model and gender stereotypes

Negative attitudes towards trans and intersex people are directly correlated to the importance that a determinate society places on the binary gender model and the level of gender stereotypes, sexism and gender inequalities that exist within it. The binary gender model classifies both sex and gender into two distinct and exclusive forms of masculine and feminine identities. This system is maintained through a cisnormativity system which legitimises and privileges those who are comfortable in the gender belonging to the sex assigned to them at birth through various practices and institutions.

Additionally, this norm systematically disadvantages and marginalizes all persons whose sex, gender identity and gender expression do not meet social expectations. This happens through the enforcement of wide boundaries between the two sexes (and their corresponding genders) to discourage people from crossing them or establishing alternative third sexes or third genders. Gender stereotypes also play a significant role in othering and marginalizing trans and intersex people. In fact, gender stereotypes that favour a particular form of ‘masculinity’ in relation to men and a particular form of ‘femininity’ in relation to women expose many trans and intersex people to institutionalized discrimination.

also see:

More on Intersexuality 2010

Caster Semenya or Buju Banton 2009

Jamaican Inter-phobia, lack of understanding Inter-sexuality 2010

A RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE ON THE CASTER SEMENYA ISSUE
FEMALE MASCULINITY: DISRUPTING STANDARDS OF BEAUTY AND REDEFINING WOMANHOOD

INTERSEXUALITY, AMBIGUOUS GENITALIA & PSYCHO-SOCIAL ISSUES DISCUSSION ON NATIONWIDE RADIO JAMAICA 11.09.09 

more entries from GLBTQ Jamaica Wordpress blog on intersex issues HERE

Peace & tolerance

H

Is the world finally waking up to intersex rights?

“The surgeon’s approach was that I didn’t identify as a woman because I didn’t have a vagina,” says Mauro Cabral. After growing up inArgentina being treated as a girl, he discovered at the age of 14 that he didn’t have any internal female organs. Although he had always felt male, and still does, he was forced to undergo surgery to create a vagina.

“I’m still trying to understand what has happened and how to recover my life,” says Cabral, now an intersex and trans activist and co-director of Gate. “My experience is very similar to those who have suffered torture – when they try to speak, their societies and even families are not prepared to hear what happened.”

Intersex people face discrimination due to biological differences, and can be heterosexual, or same-sex attracted

For about one in 2,000 people binary notions of male and female are particularly problematic. Research has found between 0.05% and 1.7% of the global population (pdf) are born with intersex traits – biological sex characteristics that don’t conform to typical notions of male or female. The upper estimation is around the same number of red haired people, yet intersex people are far less visible.

There are at least 40 intersex variations, ranging from genetic, chromosomal, anatomic and hormonal. In countries with access to western healthcare, it has become common practice to subject intersex children to medical interventions to make their bodies fit into the male/female binary, with damaging results.

Last month a landmark directive on intersex rights was announced by the government of Chile. The ministry of health issued guidance to stop “normalisation” surgeries on intersex children. It is one of two countries in the world that has produced any formal guidelines preventing these medical interventions. The other is Malta, which in April 2015, was the first country to prohibit these surgeries by law.

Known as the “I” in LGBTI, intersex people are often placed under the umbrella of campaigns for gender and sexual orientation rights. But activists are keen to state the difference: they face discrimination due to biological differences, and intersex people can be heterosexual, or same-sex attracted, or might transition, just like anyone else.

Godoy Peña presents a letter to Chilean president Michelle Bachelet calling for a stop to intersex genital mutilation. Photograph: Camilo Godoy

The recent progress in Chile, where there was virtually no intersex movement, is hugely significant. Camilo Godoy Peña, the 26-year-old Chilean human rights defender who was a lead promoter of the new guidance is not intersex himself but has a “love for human rights”. He says that inChile, which was under dictatorship for 17 years, the word “torture” has a lot of power. “When you say that this kind of treatment under the consent of the state could be torture, it’s really big.”

Godoy Peña is encouraging human rights activists all over the world to use the milestone in Chile to call on their own ministries of health to issue guidelines to help intersex people. “It’s the highest standard of human rights,” he says.

Evidence that the standard medical interventions developed in the US in the 1950s – surgery on babies or children, hormone treatment and ensuring children adhere to gender norms – are damaging has fuelled the calls for new approaches to intersex children.

Evidence that the standard medical interventions developed in the US in the 1950s – surgery on babies or children, hormone treatment and ensuring children adhere to gender norms – are damaging has fuelled the calls for new approaches to intersex children.

“In many cases the interventions are the same as female genital mutilation, clitoral reduction or other forms of clitoris cutting – and other interventions on boys as well,” says intersex activist and president of Organisation Intersex International Australia, Morgan Carpenter. “They’re obviously human rights violations. There’s this focus on our genitals, rather than a focus on us as individuals.”

In many African countries, the way of dealing with perceived sexuality ‘abnormalities’ has been through rituals

Julius Kaggwa

In rural or poorer communities where surgeries are not an option, discrimination comes in other brutally violent forms. According to Julius Kaggwa executive director of SIPD Uganda, an organisation that advocates for intersex rights: “In many African countries, the traditional way of dealing with perceived sexuality ‘abnormalities’ has largely been staying silent – and wishing them away through various kinds of traditional rituals, which often meant killing the intersex infants.”

This stigma is prevalent throughout the continent. In rural Malindi, Kenya, 17-year-old Muhadh Ishmael was born with both male and female genitalia. He was brought up as a girl, but always identified as a boy, which his family could not accept. In December last year, a group of men, thought to be hired by his uncle, drugged him and cut off his penis. He died from his injuries.

Kaggwa says that compared to funding the fight against homophobia or the plight of child soldiers in Africa, “complete indifference [is shown] to life-threatening genital mutilations and infanticide that intersex children suffer”.

more HERE

IOC rules transgender athletes can take part in Olympics without surgery

Female-to-male athletes can compete ‘without restriction’, while male-to-female athletes must undergo hormone therapy, according to new guidelines

Source: Guardian

Transgender athletes should be allowed to compete in the Olympics and other international events without undergoing sex reassignment surgery, according to new guidelines adopted by the IOC.

International Olympic Committee medical officials said on Sunday they changed the policy to adapt to current scientific, social and legal attitudes on transgender issues.

Rio 2016: hopes high that Games can reacquaint world with sport’s good side

The guidelines are designed as recommendations – not rules or regulations – for international sports federations and other bodies to follow and should apply for this year’s Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“I don’t think many federations have rules on defining eligibility of transgender individuals,” IOC medical director Dr Richard Budgett said. “This should give them the confidence and stimulus to put these rules in place.”

Under the previous IOC guidelines, approved in 2003, athletes who transitioned from male to female or vice versa were required to have reassignment surgery followed by at least two years of hormone therapy in order to be eligible to compete.

Now, surgery will no longer be required, with female-to-male transgender athletes eligible to take part in men’s competitions “without restriction”.

Meanwhile, male-to-female transgender athletes will need to demonstrate that their testosterone level has been below a certain cutoff point for at least one year before their first competition.

“It is necessary to ensure insofar as possible that trans athletes are not excluded from the opportunity to participate in sporting competition,” the IOC said in a document (pdf) posted on its website that outlines the guidelines. “The overriding sporting objective is and remains the guarantee of fair competition.

“To require surgical anatomical changes as a precondition to participation is not necessary to preserve fair competition and may be inconsistent with developing legislation and notions of human rights,” it added.

The guidelines, first reported by Outsports.com, were approved after a meeting in November 2015 in Lausanne, Switzerland, of Olympic officials and medical experts.

Budgett said there were no plans for the guidelines to be sent for approval by the IOC executive board.

“This is a scientific consensus paper, not a rule or regulation,” he said. “It is the advice of the medical and scientific commission and what we consider the best advice.”

Former IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist, who was among the experts involved in drafting the new guidelines, said the consensus was driven by social and political changes.

“It has become much more of a social issue than in the past,” he told Associated Press. “We had to review and look into this from a new angle. We needed to adapt to the modern legislation around the world. We felt we cannot impose a surgery if that is no longer a legal requirement.

“Those cases are very few, but we had to answer the question,” he added. “It is an adaptation to a human rights issue. This is an important matter. It’s a trend of being more flexible and more liberal.”

Under the new rules, an athlete transitioning to a woman must undergo hormone therapy and demonstrate that the total level of male testosterone in the blood has been below 10 nanomols per litre for at least a year prior to competing.

The previous rule stated that, in addition to reassignment surgery, the athlete required a minimum of two years of hormone treatment. How long it will take the athlete to reach the new cutoff limit will depend on individual cases, Ljungqvist said.

“If you change sex, you will have to have a hormone level below 10 for 12 months,” he said. “That does not mean a one-year guarantee. You don’t go below 10 from day one. It takes quite some time. It can take more than one year or two years.”

The issue gained extra prominence after former Olympic decathlon champion Caitlyn Jenner announced last year that she had transitioned to a woman.

The IOC document also cited the case of hyperandrogenism, or presence of high levels of testosterone in female athletes.

Indian sprinter Dutee Chand was suspended by the IAAF in 2014 due to hyperandrogenism and missed the Commonwealth games and Asian games.

But the court of arbitration for sport (CAS) suspended the rule last year, saying the IAAF had failed to prove that women with naturally high levels of testosterone had a competitive edge. Chand was cleared to compete, and the court gave the IAAF until July 2017 to present new scientific evidence.

The IOC statement urged the IAAF and others to go back to the CAS with arguments in favor of reinstating the rule.

“To avoid discrimination, if not eligible for female competition, the athlete should be eligible to compete in male competition,” the IOC said.

The issue of gender verification gained global attention after South African runner Caster Semenya was ordered to undergo sex tests after winning the 800m world title in 2009. She was eventually cleared to compete by the IAAF and won silver in the 800m at the 2012 London Olympics.

The IOC used to conduct gender verification tests at the Olympics, but those chromosome-based screenings were dropped before the 2000 Sydney Games because they were deemed unscientific and unethical.

Intersex Day of Solidarity 2015

This blog stands in solidarity with the allies I have come to know online and in the blogosphere and recognize today's significance in the struggle and advocacy.

Intersex Solidarity day commemorates the birthday of Hercuine Barbin (Adelaide Herculine Barbin). Herculine Barbin, one of the most famous intersex persons in history, and known as the first person with documented personal writings of being an intersex person. After a medical examination when authorities became involved, Herculine was forced to resign from her job and she was then forced to live as a man. Herculine committed suicide following the events that were thrust upon her. 

Today is a day to acknowledge the intersex people of the past who have paved a path for intersex rights, as we continue to move forward to the future.

Brief biographical note about Adélaïde Herculine Barbin

Adélaïde Herculine Barbin was born November 8, 1838 in Saint-Jean-d’Angély (Charente-Maritime) and officially registered as female. She spent her childhood in an orphanage and later at the Ursilines convent of Chavagne.

Between 1856-1858 Herculine Barbin studied at Oléron’s Normal School and received her degree. At 21 she became a school teacher and met Sara, the youngest daughter of Mrs. Avril, the headmistress of the school. Gradually, the friendship between the two girls turned to love. But, when acting on their feelings for each other, Sara realized that Herculine was not made like most girls. Herculine was forced to resign from her job and after a medical examination required by the authorities who became involved in the matter, she was then forced to live as a man. Herculine became Abel but when he returned to the village, Mrs. Avril refused to let him see Sara. On a cold February day in 1868, Abel Barbin’s dead body was discovered, the victim of an apparent suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning from the small stove in his apartment.

Herculine Barbin, one of the most famous intersex persons in history, makes us question whether we can live as we are with our difference. Her life also forces us to question this world which has created standards which we are obliged to try to meet or otherwise face rejection. The individual can exist only by assimilation into these norms and being like everyone else. She lived a life of absolute fear. The agony of seeing her terrible secret revealed. The terror of having to pay for a mistake that she did not make and of the shame for being who she was.

Suffering, endless suffering. He had to leave everyone he loved to plunge into the cold depths of isolation. Her life is a great story of pure love, fatally destroyed by ignorance and intolerance.

also see:

Intersex Issues in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD)

Intersex Awareness Day 2015

Intersex Individuals & Sex 2011

More on Intersexuality 2010

Caster Semenya or Buju Banton 2009

Jamaican Inter-phobia, lack of understanding Inter-sexuality 2010

A RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE ON THE CASTER SEMENYA ISSUE 

FEMALE MASCULINITY: DISRUPTING STANDARDS OF BEAUTY AND REDEFINING WOMANHOOD 

INTERSEXUALITY, AMBIGUOUS GENITALIA & PSYCHO-SOCIAL ISSUES DISCUSSION ON NATIONWIDE RADIO JAMAICA 11.09.09

In solidarity.

Peace & tolerance

H

Intersex Awareness Day 2015

Intersex Awareness Day is an internationally observed civil awareness day designed to highlight the issues faced by intersex people.

The event marks the first public demonstration by intersex people in North America, on October 26, 1996, outside the venue in Boston where the American Academy of Pediatrics was holding its annual conference. Intersex activists from Intersex Society of North America were Morgan Holmes and Max Beck, alongside allies from Transexual Menace including Riki Wilchins. The group demonstrated carrying a sign saying "Hermaphrodites With Attitude". The commemoration day itself began in 2003.

also see: UN launches Intersex Fact Sheet 2015 and Despite opposition, EU Parliament votes for LGBTI rights/trans identity depathologization in gender equality

Intersex Awareness Day is an international day of grass-roots action to end shame, secrecy and unwanted genital cosmetic surgeries on intersex children. The day also provides an opportunity for reflection and political action. Between October 26 and November 8, intersex organizations try to bring attention to the challenges intersex individuals face, culminating in the Intersex Day of Remembrance on the birthday of Herculine Barbin, also sometimes known as Intersex Solidarity Day.

Notable observances:

On Friday 25 October 2013, the day before Intersex Awareness Day that year, the Australian Senate published a report on an inquiry titled the Involuntary or coerced sterilization of intersex people in Australia. On 11 November 2014, the New South Wales Legislative Council in Australia passed a motion marking Intersex Awareness Day and calling on the State government to "work with the Australian Government to implement the recommendations" of the 2013 Senate committee report.


For Intersex Awareness Day 2014, the Senate of the German Land of Berlin issued a statement calling for self-determination for intersex people. Also in 2014, the Human Rights Commission of Mexico City, Distrito Federal, held a visibility event on intersex issues.

Relationship with LGBT and queer communities


The relationship of Intersex campaigners to lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans, and queer communities, is a little complex. In an Intersex for allies explanatory leaflet, the organisation states that some intersex individuals are same sex attracted, and some are heterosexual, but "LGBTI activism has fought for the rights of people who fall outside of expected binary sex and gender norms. 

Intersex is part of LGBTI because of intersex status and a shared experience of homophobia, not because of sexual orientation or gender identity." An associated guide for service providers comments that not all intersex people identify with the LGBTI "human rights movement.

Important to Remember:

INTERSEX is not a part of transgender because intersex is not about gender. Intersex is about anatomical differences in sex.

Below are some of the differences in the experience of trans and intersex individuals.

Trans:
Self-identified gender does not match apparent sex at birth.
Some human rights protection. In NSW this is limited to “recognized transgender” or people thought to be “transgender” – 36B Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 in Australia.

Can change cardinal documents, but usually requires irreversible surgeries usually involving sterilization and applicants must not be married. (wish we had that)

The right to marry someone of the opposite legal gender.

A full and functional reproductive system.

Physical differences limited to brain anatomy.

Transsexual people have an effective medical protocol that produces a 98% effective outcome with long-term studies and follow-ups.

The right to choose the time of surgery with extensive peer support.

The ability to participate fully and in an informed manner in their surgical and hormonal options.

Transsexual people generally have a strongly defined sense of gender – man or woman.

Can compete in sport up to and including Olympic level through established protocols.

Many effective and extensive organizations worldwide, with some NGOs attracting government funding (e.g. NSW Gender Centre).

also see:

More on Intersexuality from a 2010 post and this one from 2011

also see: IGLHRC Hails Landmark Law in Malta on Gender Identity, Expression and Protections for Intersex Children

Footage from the side event on the human rights of intersex people, organised during the 30th session of the UN Human Rights Council by Advocates for Informed Choice, CIPD, Organisation Intersex International Australia Limited, Oii-Chinese and OII Europe, supported by ILGA and COC Nederland.

download the brochure HERE

I stand in solidarity with my intersex brethren most of whom I have met through this blog and will continue to share any relevant information to raise awareness.

also see:

"Curing Intersex Is Damaging and Common": Great Piece by OII-Australia Member, Morgan Carpenter

Impossible for Intersex People to be Cisgender?

Peace & tolerance

H