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Being different is a role no child wants to play. But is surgically altering a child to make them "normal" the right choice?
Intersex people are born with congenital anomalies of their reproductive systems. This could mean partial development of both sex organs, or lack of others. Essentially, it means genitals that are not quickly or easily identified as one sex or the other. For intersexed children born in Western societies, surgery is almost always the first and only option given to parents.
But a newly formed Portland group, Intersex Initiative Portland, argues that deciding to surgically alter a child to become one identifiable gender or the other is unfair and done without consent. Intersex activists Emi Koyama and Jeanne Sevelius spoke at Oregon State University on Monday about intersex issues as part of OSU's 2003 Queer Pride Week.
"The activists' definition of intersex is different," Koyama said. "It is when the body is considered so abnormal that society has to erase it by any means necessary."
Koyama said being intersex is not about gender, and her group is not interested in forming a third, separate gender. Instead it's about allowing intersex persons to choose themselves whether they want their bodies altered as adults, or choose to remain as they were born.
"There are inherent risks with surgery," said Sevelius. "Repeated surgery is often necessary."
Not only does the surgery sometimes force a person to adopt a gender role they're eventually not comfortable with, it can also eliminate sensitivity or the ability to achieve sexual satisfaction. It also can require years of childhood surgeries and can give children the impression that there is something wrong with them.
"When an intersex child is born, it's treated as an emergency," Sevelius said. "It's corrected right away."
That is done mainly to help parents create a gender assignment, that is, whether they're going to raise their child as a girl or a boy. But Sevelius argued that gender assignment can be done by chromosomal and hormonal tests, as well as prominent physical indicators, and that any physical corrections, if done, can be done at a much later time.
Both the surgeries and the physical therapy done after corrective surgeries can subject some children to feelings similar to sexual abuse, Koyama said, even though that is not the intent of caregivers and parents. It also teaches children that their sexuality is something hidden, forbidden and wrong.
"It teaches children to combine a loving relationship with physical violation," she said.
Before the 1950s in Western countries, surgery was not done on intersex individuals. Koyama has interacted with intersex adults born before that time, who have lived successful, unaltered lives. She said in other countries, reaction to intersex children ranges from reverence to murder, and that there's really no model to follow. Instead, tolerance and personal choice should be emphasized.
"Intersex kids get the message that they're not normal. We should be giving parents as much information as possible, psychological, social and peer support," Sevelius said. "We're advocating for preliminary (nonsurgical) gender assignment, but parents that have intersex children must be aware of the possibility that they may decide later that they're a different gender."
For more information on Intersex Initiative Portland, see www.ipdx.org.