Go Germany for Giving Space to Intersex Individuals!

I am giving Germany a shout out this week! They are doing good policy work around supporting intersex individuals at birth. First, let’s shed some light on the intersex population of the world. For those of you who are unfamiliar, the term intersex is a socially constructed category for individuals whose biological sex (internal, external, and/or hormonal) does not fall within the typical male/female categories. Individuals with a wide range of medical diagnoses that lead to these differences are labeled as intersex. If you think about everyone’s biological sex as a continuum, on the far left there are strictly biological females (because I am a left handed female not for political purposes) and on the far right there are strictly biological males. In the middle, there is a huge gray area of variations in biological sex. That gray area has been socially labeled as the intersex area. Typically one cannot identify an intersex individual just by looking at him/her/hir, so they are not an obvious group, which makes it harder to bring awareness to their oppression. They are silenced and considered invisible.

We know that stigma and shame and internalized oppression and fear and forced medical interventions and ridiculousness live in silence. If we never bring awareness and broaden our view of biological sex, then those things can continue. Germany is starting that conversation, and I say good for them. Starting in November, German babies born with, “indeterminate genitalia,” can be given the label of a blank biological sex on their birth certificate, instead of being forced into the arbitrary male or female biological sex categories through involuntary surgery. Forced medical intervention on a baby so young is problematic, because the child is not old enough to voice what sex they feel most comfortable with. The parents and doctors may choose an inappropriate sex, and hormones and genital surgery may need to be changed or reversed. The blank biological sex option is a big freaking deal, because it immediately allows parents and the medical community to wait (or to never) perform any surgery on genitalia that may be outside of the ordinary. AND THAT is very exciting! It also helps us start the conversation about biological sex variation!

So go Germany! Maybe this will help us all recognize the biological sex continuum, bring acceptance, and move forward!

-          Lauren, intersex individual conversation starter and continuer