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© Intersex Initiative
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March 25, 2004
Dear Editor,
The recent expansion of university non-discrimination policy "put ASU at the forefront of the intersex and transgender equality movement," stated The State Press. However, this apparent conflation of intersex and transgender issues and concerns shows ignorance, not understanding, toward what intersex movement is all about. While it is a welcome gesture, including "intersex" in non-discrimination policies does little to protect the rights of intersex people.
This is because the intolerance of intersex people takes a very different form than that of transgender people: instead of being excluded from opportunities or assaulted on the street, intersex people are routinely surgically and hormonally "corrected" throughout childhood, often resulting in emotional, physical and sexual trauma, in the society's attempt to make them appear "normal," that is, non-intersex. Thus, addressing "discrimination" as a major issue facing intersex people is not only inaccurate, but it also trivialize specific experience of intersex people, which is about erasure rather than rejection.
In order to truly "foster supportive environment" for all students, the university must attend to the specific needs of each marginalized communities, rather than applying the same cookie-cutter solution to every group. In the case of intersex people, it is not the non-discrimination policy that is needed; perhaps some education on campus or curriculum review to address intersex issues would have helped to make it more supportive, but apparently they have not taken place.
I do not oppose non-discrimination policy because I do not see it doing a major harm so long as we are simply expanding protections. However, it simply does little if any to protect intersex people's human rights, while contributing to the perception (to non-intersex people) that ASU is doing something about intersex rights. I hope that in the future the university would actually consult with the intersex movement to see what we want rather than defining what it is and then claim to be at the forefront of it.
Emi Koyama
Director, Intersex Initiative
http://www.intersexinitiative.org/