Blog Spotlight: Full Frontal Activism - Intersexed and Awesome

Full Frontal Activism: Intersexed and Awesome is a blog written by a 25 year old intersex activist who seeks to create awareness about the intersex community, people and issues.

Word of the Gay: "Optimal Gender Policy"

The "optimal gender policy" was advocated by psychologist John Money to raise intersex children as male or female. The premise of the policy was that nurture could override nature. It has largely been discredited and found to be physically and psychologically harmful.

Word of the Gay: "IGM"

"IGM" is an acronym that stands for infant or intersex genital mutilation. This often unnecessary and invasive medical procedure is done on many intersex babies in order to assign them one sex.

Open Forum: (LGBTI) The Intersexual Intersection?

In recent years there has been a growing movement to add intersexuality to the growing LGBT acronymn with some approving and disapproving of such a measure. Intersex refers to a series of medical conditions in which a persons genetic sex (chromosomes) and phenotypic sex (genital appearance) do not match, or are somehow different from the "standard" male or female. Most intersex babies are genitally mutilated and either never find out or discover that doctors changed their birth sex later in life. Some of these individuals identify as male or female, and some elect to transition to the gender they feel more comfortable with while others identify their gender as being intersex and are fully comfortable being in between or neither male nor female.

The contention over whether intersex should be lumped into the broader LGBT spectrum is causing controversy in both camps. There are those who argue that intersex is a medical and biological issue separate from the issues faced by other queer people. There also are those who argue that gay and transgender identity is not simply psychologically based, but also has roots in our biological makeup. Common to all of these identities is that we are neither hetero nor cisnormative and we all have to come to terms with ourselves, whether it be coming out to others or to ourselves about who we really are. We all also face discrimination on the basis that we do not fit the standard mold of gender, sex, and sexuality.

Does the nature versus nurture debate even matter when it comes to who is included in the sexual and gender diversity spectrum? Do you feel there are similarities between some aspects of the intersex and other LGBT communities or are they so far apart that they must be considered separate social and political issues?

Intersex Solidarity Day - 11/08/09

November 8th is Intersex Solidarity Day. In honor of the day please make the commitment to educate yourself about intersexuality and to promote intersex activism to others.

I'd also like to encourage this post to be about what it means to stand in solidarity with the intersex community, whether you are intersex or not, what we can do to be advocates and allies?

Other topics for possible discussion as suggested by the official Intersex Solidarity Day are The life of Herculine Barbin, intersex "normalization" treatments without consent, the violence of the binary sex and gender system, the sexism implicit within the binary construct of sex and gender.

Please sign the Solidarity with the Intersex Community Petition

Gulf War Vet Discusses Being Intersex

National Geographic has put out a documentary featuring Gulf War veteran Rudy Alaniz, who discovered through an MRI that he possessed ovaries and a womb. The short clip below shows the ordeal and results that come from lies and shame perpetrated by the medical establishment.

Open Forum: The Fallout from Caster Semenya

South African track & field star Caster Semenya who won the 800m gold medal in Berlin last month has been the subject of much controversy with people questioning her sex and gender due to her gender expression and speed results. After being forced to undergo a series of tests to determine her actual sex, it has been revealed that she is intersex and has internal testes which are responsible for the output of testosterone.

It is tragic that Semenya was forced into the public spotlight in terms of scrutiny over her identity and had to undergo sex assessment. What is the fallout from this, now that we know that she is intersex, does this help the movement by creating awareness or just further create a sense of hostility towards this minority? The media has already used offensive and biologically impossible terms such as "hermaphrodite" instead of the appropriate term intersex to describe Semenya. How does this news coverage boad for the intersex and gender variant communities?

Photo courtesy of Erik van Leeuwen on Wikimedia Commons.

Word of the Gay: "Hermaphroditism"

"Hermaphroditism" is the fusion of male and female genitalia on an individual. It is biologically impossible for someone to have complete male and female genitalia, rendering the word unfounded and offensive.

Word of the Gay: "Intersex Surgery"

"Intersex Surgery" is a medical procedure to correct so called birth defects of people with ambiguous genitalia by the medical establishment.

Larry King: "What is Intersex?"

CNN's Larry King interviewed standup comic Kathy Griffin and they discussed a variety of topics including those significant to the LGBTQI community. King asked Griffin what that stands for, and Griffin laid out the acronymn for him.

Followed by King's comment asking "what is an intersex?" Kathy Griffin is a comedian, but Larry King is an award winning radio host. How does he not know what intersex is?

Speed up to 8:30 in the video to see the segment in question.



Contact Larry King and let him know that he has an obligation to clarify on air what intersexuality is about for his audience.