Intersex Information: End Genital Mutilation in the U.S. & Abroad

Every Day, Five Children in the U.S. Have Their Healthy Genitals Mutilated.

Why Include Intersex in V-DAY?
Intersex and the Movement Against Violence Against Women and Children

The notion "genital mutilation" evokes an image of the traditional, ritualistic cutting of young women's bodies in Africa, but its equally ritualistic high-tech version is widely practiced in the U.S. and other Western countries in relative secrecy. Since 1950s, children born with intersex conditions, or physiological anomalies of the reproductive and sexual organs, have been "treated" with "normalizing" surgeries that many survivors say are damaging to their sexual and emotional well-being.

Contrary to the popular myth, intersex people do not have "both sets of genitals"; they simply have body parts that are different from what is considered "normal"--large clitoris, penis with a urethra on its underside, missing vagina, mixed or underdeveloped gonads, etc. Even though it has been practiced for many decades, there is no long-term study that shows that "corrective" surgery is safe, effective, nor necessary.

One of the biggest problems with this "treatment" is that it sets in motion a lifelong pattern of secrecy, isolation, shame, and confusion. Adult intersex people's stories often resemble that of those who survived childhood sexual abuse: trust violation, lack of honest communication, punishment for asking questions or telling the truth, etc. In some cases, intersex people's experiences are exactly like those of child sexual abuse survivors: when they surgically "create" a vagina on a child, the parent--usually the mother--is required to "dilate" the vagina with hard instruments every day for months in order to ensure that the vagina won't close off again.

Even so, many intersex adults report that it was not necessarily the surgery that was most devastating for their self-esteem: for many, it is the repeated exposure to what we call "medical display," or the rampant practice where a child is stripped down to nude and placed on the bed while many doctors, nurses, medical students, and others come in and out of the room, touching and prodding and laughing to each other. Children who experience this get the distinct sense that there is something terribly wrong with who they are and are deeply traumatized.

In the past decade, the movement to challenge these medical abuses of intersex children grew from complete obscurity into an international network of intersex individuals, scholars, supporters, and some sympathetic medical professionals. Still, it is estimated that five children per day continue to undergo the medically unnecessary and irreversible surgeries in the United States. As people who know the most about the devastating impact of childhood sexual traumas, V-DAY and the movement against sexual violence need to work closely with the intersex movement in order to end the ritualistic sexual abuse of children in our own society, not just in other continents.

V-DAY Officially Supports Intersex Activism

In January 2002, V-DAY's national office released a joint press release along with Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) that clarified its position about intersex genital mutilation. Not only did V-DAY publicly endorsed ISNA's mission to end shame, secrecy and unwanted genital surgeries on children born with intersex conditions, it also urged "participants of its College Campaign and Worldwide Campaign to raise the awareness about intersex experiences" and to "consider contributing a portion of their proceeds to Intersex Society of North America.

So, join the movement to end genital mutilation here and abroad--help us spread the word about intersex genital mutilation in your local V-DAY campaigns--and if you do anything to help us, do let us know about it!