Intersex Rights - Blog Posts

In regards of the Trump government scraping all trans inclusion in its queer information portion of its websites I have made this thing. Spread the word. Don't let them pretend we never existed.

P.S: Don't like! Reblog! <3

EDIT: Well this got a lot of attention! I got a few users asking to print or repost my art and I am unimaginably grateful to everyone's interest, especially since it's a really simple drawing I made on a whim haha! Anyone who is looking to print these out to hang or hand out or repost on another platform is free to do so, although I ask you to credit me and let people know it's from my Tumblr profile! If anyone wishes to do anything else with my art or post and wants to clarify what I consent to then they can message me privately and I'll explain! <333 all my love to my queer siblings

Reading about how intersex athletes have been treated is so fucking horrible. The countless lies and human rights violations. The discrimination and how it's ruined the lives of so many people is so awful. There has been no apologies from any athletics comptetions or organizations. They have blood on their hands. Just a tw for intersexism and mental health issues and suicide in the next paragraph because it can get pretty heavy.

Annet Negesa, who was a middle distance runner. She was suddenly barred from competing due to her hormones. No one told her why. She was then told she needed to take medication to lower her testosterone, then what she was told was switched. She was lied to about a surgery that she was told was like an injection and would let her compete again. She woke up with scars and had had a gonadectomy. That violation of basic human rights and medical ethics combined with inadequate postsurgical care basically ended her career. She deserves justice. She deserves apologies from the Olympics and everyone single doctor who was involved in it, and compensation and the promise that it should never have happened and will never happen again. She. Needs. Justice.

Pratima Gaonkar needs justice. She was a rising track and field star. After forced sex verificatiom she killed herself. The way media and news treated her after her death was disgusting. She deserves and needs justice. Her family deserves justice.

Santhi Soundarajan had her medals stripped and was treated as an outcast after forced sex verification showed she had androgen insensitivity syndrome. She was treated as an outcast, her gender was mocked. She's spoken out about how much discrimination she's faced, and how badly she's been treated. She now works as a coach, but was barred from competing. She deserves justice.

Caster Semenya deserves justice. Francine Niyonsaba deserves justice. Margaret Wambui deserves justice. Barbra Banda deserves justice. Beatrice Masilingi and Christine Mboma deserve justice.

The racism and intersexism and horrible human rights violations and medical abuse these women have faced for the supposed crime of being intersex and good at a sport is horrible. They deserve justice, but the organizations that perpetuate these atrocities don't seem to care. It's so fucking horrible.

"Am I intersex?"

If you have ever asked this question, we hope this post finds you (and that you check out our intersex guide, which we updated today.)

Do you have high levels of androgens, or high levels of estrogen? That is intersex. (Yes, even if its from PCOS. Yes, even if you are 'female' with hyperestrogenism or hypoandrogenism, or 'male' with hyperandrogenism or hypoestrogenism.)

Do you have low levels of androgens, or low levels of estrogen (not caused by menopause/andropause)? Or does your body not process the hormones it is producing? That is intersex

Do you have chromosomes that differ from XX or XY? Or do your chromosomes "mismatch" your body? That is intersex

Is your urethra in an atypical spot, being lower or higher than expected (hypospadias or epispadias)? Were you born with an extra urethra? Or is your urethra merged with your vaginal canal, anus, or both? That is intersex

Were you born with a curved penis (congenital chordee)? Were you born with a scrotum that is atypical (penoscrotal transposition, shawl scrotum, etc)? Do you have an extra penis? That is intersex

Were you born with genitals that have absent, small, or closed parts? A narrow, incomplete, or absent urethra? A narrow or shallow vagina? An absent vagina? A hymen or tissue that partially or fully blocks the vaginal entry? A vulva that has absent labia on one or both sides? A small or absent clitoris? A micropenis? A congenital hidden/buried penis? A penis born with no foreskin? Undescended testicles (that didn't naturally descend within the first 3-6 months after birth)? Little or no genitalia whatsoever? That is intersex

Do you have ambiguous genitals (that ARENT from surgery or HRT?) Do you have a bifid scrotum? Do you have fused labia? Do you have a large clitoris (yes, even one that developed naturally during puberty)? Do you have a penis and a clitoris at the same time? Or penis with labia? Or a penis where a clitoris "should" be? Or a vaginal canal underneath a penis? That is intersex

Are your reproductive organs atypical? Is your uterus, prostate, gonads, fallopian tubes, vas deferens, or seminal vesicles small or absent? Do you have streak gonads? Do you have extra reproductive traits (extra gonads, extra vas deferens, uterus didelphys, etc)? Do you have both ovarian tissue and testicular tissue present in your body at the same time? Do you have a prostate and a uterus at the same time? That is intersex

Whether you have only ONE of these traits, or MULTIPLE of these traits - the conclusion is the same. Every single trait listed here...is intersex.

And if you used to have these things, but your body was changed (either by yourself, or as a form of medical abuse, such as genital mutilation, reproductive mutilation, hormone abuse, etc)...you are still intersex.

Doctors will very likely not diagnose you as intersex. They may actively deny your intersex status when you call yourself that. But you are intersex if you fall under any of these traits. They will instead likely tell you that you have a "hormone disorder", "urogenital/genital deformity/disorder", "reproductive disorder/deformity", "disorder of sexual development/DSD", or other intersexist work-arounds that they were taught in medical school, or personally came up with.

A study just came out from Harvard about how gender affirming surgeries are more commonly performed on "cisgender men/boys" than transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people.

But these men/boys have gynecomastia which, if they were born with it (and the study doesn't specify), they're not just "cisgender".

They're intersex.

How many times now have intersex people told us perisex (non-intersex) people to stop using the statistics of their surgeries just as trans talking points, while erasing intersex people on the whole?

We have no idea how many of those surgeries were forced, or coerced, onto these intersex people. Either from doctors, parents, or even societal pressure.

Perisex trans people need to do better. We have to be better allies to intersex people than this. It disgusts me just how much we have failed our own community, time and time again.

UPDATE

The study actually specifically excluded intersex people.

"Importantly, all surgical procedures among patients with indications of differences in sex development or patients with other medical indications for surgery (eg, cancer, injury) were excluded..."

I'm happy to see this particular study has taken care to exclude intersex people, since surgeries done on them cannot be compared to transgender surgeries, but please bear in mind that this is still just one study.

The horrible truth is that medical abuse against our intersex siblings is still heavily normalized within the medical industry. From using terms like DSD, to forcing kids and even BABIES into sexual binaries with non or dubiously consensual surgeries or HRT, these horrors that intersex people have to go through are all too normal for them. That's unacceptable.

If you have reblogged this post without this update, I urge you to delete that reblog and reblog this version instead. We can fight for intersex rights and (if you're also perisex) show our solidarity without spreading misinformation.

Seeing the recent bigoted comments by transgender Olympian Hergie Bacyadan, it's past time for the perisex trans community to address the normalized intersexism/interphobia that so many of us spread.

The intersex community is constantly used as a prop by the trans community. The most frequent way you see trans people speak about intersex issues is just to remind transphobes that sex isn't binary, which is meaningless when the trans community still strictly enforces intersexist binaries like AMAB vs AFAB and TME vs TMA and Transfemme vs Transmasc, all categories that many if not most intersex people, trans or cis, cannot fit neatly into. The trans community uses the intersex community to win arguments and than makes next to no effort to make our intersex siblings feel welcome.

When talking about HRT and gender affirming care for minors, the trans community almost never uplifts the voices of the intersex community who are often forced to undergo HRT as children and surgery on their genitalia as actual babies against their will. It is important for HRT and gender affirming care to be available to transgender children, it is just as important to keep these same things that can be life saving for trans children from being forced onto intersex children who do not consent.

I implore all perisex trans people to do some reading into the history of intersex activism, and the sad reality of life for intersex people today when so many governments and health systems are still bigoted against intersex people. Uplift intersex voices, always.

Just a reminder my blog is trans inclusive. It’s bi inclusive. It is pan inclusive. It is intersex inclusive. It is ace/asexual inclusive. It is aro/aromantic inclusive. It is queer inclusive.

I don’t support terfs or exclusionists.

If you came here looking for an ally in your bigotry you came to the wrong blog. Go away. You are not welcome here.

Questioning if you're AIAB is a crazy experience. The thought of my parents having potentially had me get surgery as an infant for the sake of conforming to the "binary" of AGABS, or the possibility of nobody knowing that my body is like this or what's up with it, feels so weird. It makes me question if it's all in my head, but then I look at diagrams, and think about my family history, and think: "It does NOT fucking look right", and have a mini existential crisis for the 100th time.

In regards of the Trump government scraping all trans inclusion in its queer information portion of its websites I have made this thing. Spread the word. Don't let them pretend we never existed.

P.S: Don't like! Reblog! <3

EDIT: Well this got a lot of attention! I got a few users asking to print or repost my art and I am unimaginably grateful to everyone's interest, especially since it's a really simple drawing I made on a whim haha! Anyone who is looking to print these out to hang or hand out or repost on another platform is free to do so, although I ask you to credit me and let people know it's from my Tumblr profile! If anyone wishes to do anything else with my art or post and wants to clarify what I consent to then they can message me privately and I'll explain! <333 all my love to my queer siblings

For some reason I drew it, idk maybe because I was sad(

By the way, I found a good psychologist. Hope we can handle it🙍🏽‍♂️

“Female-assigned intersex kids’ vaginal canal size is also assessed by doctors, to ensure that it’s long enough to fit a penis inside of it. Doctors might surgically construct or re-construct vaginas, which can result in a host of health problems and necessitate multiple, multiple surgeries. This is especially the case since most intersex kids have these surgeries very young, and when their bodies grow into their adult forms, more surgeries are necessary to keep their vagina size in proportion. Non-surgical methods are also used to increase or maintain vaginal length by regularly using medical dildos to stretch the vagina over months and years. (It’s kind of like braces for your vagina, but much, much worse.) Just like there are no standards for how long a clitoris “can” be before it’s classified as a penis, there aren’t absolute standards as to how long a vagina is for it to be of “normal” length. I had a dilation procedure performed for almost every exam I had with intersex doctors from the time I was 8 until I was 16, so that they could check how long my vagina was as I grew. I absolutely hated these procedures. I mean, imagine a man as old as your father or your grandfather, who you don’t know, inserting a medical dildo into you each time you saw him, knowing that you can’t question the doctor’s orders and just accept that you have to undergo these uncomfortable procedures for your health. Imagine a decade or so later, realizing that these procedures did nothing to track your health, and had everything to do with grown men feeling good about the fact that you could fuck some dude someday like a “normal girl”. That all those traumatizing procedures weren’t actually medically relevant at all, and it actually was within my right to refuse those examinations. I didn’t know any of that at the time. I also had no idea that I wouldn’t want to ultimately have the kind of sex they assumed I’d be having, adding yet another layer of this-was-totally-unnecessary/messed-up to my history. Other kids shouldn’t have to go through this. Other adults shouldn’t have revelations some day far into the future that what was happening to them WASN’T okay, and their traumatic feelings ARE valid, and the whole system of how intersex people are conceptualized and “treated” IS entirely fucked. And it’s gotta change. We’ve gotta change it.”

—

—-Claudia at Autostraddle

I just read this article and was reminded once again how invisible the intersex community often is… we need to signal boost this shit to let people know that this kind of “medical treatment” is NOT okay.

(via bossybussy)

Felt straight-up ill reading this. This is the institutionalized rape of children. It’s beyond unconscionable that procedures like this are normalized and considered “treatment”.

(via thaxted)

jfc

(via stammsternenstaub)

Revolting and repugnant.

See why intersex folk don’t like their medical issues being used as a rhetorical gotcha?

(via appropriately-inappropriate)

In regards of the Trump government scraping all trans inclusion in its queer information portion of its websites I have made this thing. Spread the word. Don't let them pretend we never existed.

P.S: Don't like! Reblog! <3

EDIT: Well this got a lot of attention! I got a few users asking to print or repost my art and I am unimaginably grateful to everyone's interest, especially since it's a really simple drawing I made on a whim haha! Anyone who is looking to print these out to hang or hand out or repost on another platform is free to do so, although I ask you to credit me and let people know it's from my Tumblr profile! If anyone wishes to do anything else with my art or post and wants to clarify what I consent to then they can message me privately and I'll explain! <333 all my love to my queer siblings

Pride Flags pt.2

🏳️‍🌈Happy Pride Month!!🏳️‍🌈