Translated by Curtis E. Hinkle with permission from the author.
There are scientific claims which maintain that language produces and constructs our world. What this means is that if there is not a word for something, then it does not exist in reality, and by extension, that if people do not identify in a positive manner with the word used to define their sex and sexuality or an aspect of it, they have identity issues.
This study was designed to investigate the impact of medical terminology on perceptions of disease. Specifically, we look at the changing public perceptions of newly medicalized disorders with accompanying newly medicalized terms (e.g. impotence has become erectile dysfunction disorder). Does using “medicalese” to label a recently medicalized disorder lead to a change in the perception of that condition? Undergraduate students (n = 52) rated either the medical or lay label for recently medicalized disorders (such as erectile dysfunction disorder vs. impotence) and established medical conditions (such as a myocardial infarction vs. heart attack) for their perceived seriousness, disease representativeness and prevalence. Students considered the medical label of the recently medicalized disease to be more serious (mean = 4.95 (SE = .27) vs. mean = 3.77 (SE = .24) on a ten point scale), more representative of a disease (mean = 2.47 (SE = .09) vs. mean = 1.83 (SE = .09) on a four point scale), and have lower prevalence (mean = 68 (SE = 12.6) vs. mean = 122 (SE = 18.1) out of 1,000) than the same disease described using common language. A similar pattern was not seen in the established medical conditions, even when controlled for severity. This study demonstrates that the use of medical language in communication can induce bias in perception; a simple switch in terminology results in a disease being perceived as more serious, more likely to be a disease, and more likely to be a rare condition. These findings regarding the conceptualization of disease have implications for many areas, including medical communication with the public, advertising, and public policy.
This Christmas message is about maintaining an oppressive gender system which has enabled him to occupy the supreme position within one of the most powerful male hierarchies on the planet. If he could get LGBT people out of the way, women could be put back into their 'natural' place - the home - to get on with a life fit only for breeding. Why we have to suffer this man's repressed homosexual paranoia and misogyny any more is beyond me. Christmas is about the coming of the Good News, yet this is not the Gospel; it is bad news for LGBT people and for women - so why is the Pope preaching a message of hatred at Christmas that bears no relation to the teachings of Jesus Christ? Why is the Pope seeking to deny a significant group people their humanity, excluding them in the same way he has had them thrown out of convents, monasteries, seminaries and churches?This message of ill-will at Christmas will have negative consequences for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual, transgender and intersex people around the world, both within and beyond the Roman Catholic Church.
Response from Curtis E. Hinkle:
Christianity was a Jewish sect. For quite a while, all early Christians were Jews. Jesus, the original founder of this offshoot of Judaism, was eventually turned into a Deity himself by the Church of Rome.Instead of putting the emphasis on the teachings of Jesus, who was called Rabbi, the Church of Rome deified him and made the churchitself the Rabbi or teacher of this early sect. There are some very serious logical errors in the theology of the Pope who seems to have misread the teachings of Jesus concerning marriage and the two sex system. The teachings of Jesus on this topic are still in the official cannon of the Church of Rome and I think there is an intentional omission of these teachings in this Christmas message from the pope.
Matthew {19:10} His disciples say unto him, If the case of the man be so with [his] wife, it is not good to marry. {19:11} But he said unto them, All [men] cannot receive this saying, save [they] to whom it is given. {19:12} For there are some eunuchs, which were so born from [their] mother’s womb: and there are some eunuchs, which were made eunuchs of men: and there be eunuchs, which have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive [it,] let him receive [it.]
Jesus is referring to eunuchs, intersex people, when he says that some were so born from their mother's womb. So the pope is accurate when he says that Jesus did not change the message of creation. However, that message of creation is not based on a two-sex system, nor is it based on the primacy and superiority of being male or female. Quite the contrary, the message is based on the fact that the Creative Spirit is a composite of all - and the eunuch would therefore be the androgynous human form which other men should try to emulate. So far, the Church of Rome has failed at this miserably and done everything to erase the need for men to become eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. Instead they sexualize people as reproductive instruments who are needed to perpetuate their own material forms to [overpopulate] the earth. We could save the rainforests if we listened to what Jesus said. The problem is not intersex people or transsexuals and Jesus makes this very clear. The problem is the uncontrollable lust that rules many men's heads and which has led us to the situation where the rainforests are in peril.
I suggest the pope reread the message that the Rabbi Jesus taught. He held eunuchs (intersex people) to be of particular merit because of their nature.
It is also very symbolic that the first non-Jew to become a member of this Jewish sect was the Ethiopian eunuch. (See footnote.)
Jesus was not a big advocate of marriage. He simply concedes to the fact that most men will not live up to their high calling of rising above their carnal desires and lets marriage be a default for fulfilling their sexual needs.
Intersex people are missing from this papal message. Why? Because the church of Rome is not willing to deal with the real world that is not based on a two-sex system but which reflects the Father-Mother God, the All in One. The church of Rome is a phallocratic institution and as such, is perpetuating the very slavery to sexualized commodities (in the form of women who become objects for men's use and abuse) and makes intersex people not only invisible but lower than women in this hierarchy.
Footnote
Acts {8:26} And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, Arise, and go toward the south unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. {8:27} And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, {8:28} Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet. {8:29} Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. {8:30} And Philip ran thither to [him,] and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? {8:31} And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. {8:32} The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: {8:33} In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. {8:34} And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? {8:35} Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. {8:36} And as they went on [their] way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, [here is] water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? {8:37} And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. {8:38} And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. {8:39} And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.
Newborns with atypical genitalia are more common than you might think. Should having an intersex condition be considered a medical problem? What role do social factors play in determining gender? In a new book Katrina Karkazis explores the many debates affecting how intersexuality is viewed, treated and experienced.
This morning (23rd December 2008) I woke up to be confronted by a very interesting news item stating that Pope Benedict was speaking against the "ecology of man and woman being undermined by homosexuals and transsexuals". He went on to discuss homosexuality and transsexuality in the context of the environment. It crossed my mind that I myself may have struck a raw nerve when I wrote "Mater Salmacis Solanas" a few weeks before. I was myself responding to a number of newspaper articles discussing Phthalates and talking about how the two sex system (in the biological sense) was not doing so well right now and I suggested that it may well be a part of natural evolution.
One thing I did mention was how moral panic was being whipped up and anyone who does not conform to the two sex system would be scapegoated with the drawing of parallels between the two sex system and the environment.
I will admit to being the one of the very few people who appear to relish the idea of the two sex system facing a demise. Admitted, there were feminists and so on talking about the eradication of men in a half joking manner. But I said what I felt straight out, that the two sex system is probably in trouble and that may not be a bad thing.
'Boy or girl?' tends to be the first question asked when a baby is born. And a cursory look at the genitals usually provides the answer. But it's not that simple, says Zachary I Nataf.
'Whatever I feel, that's the way I am. I was born a girl, and that girl died one day and a boy was born. And the boy was born from that girl in me. I am proud of who I am. A lot of people actually envy us.' Chi-Chi, who lives in a village in the Dominican Republic, is speaking to filmmaker Rolando Sanchez for his 1997 documentary Guevote.
Executive Director Anne Tamar-Mattis of Advocates for Informed Choice (AIC) has written an overview for medical professionals on gender transition as it pertains to intersex people:
That led to a discussion about use of terms like "disorders" and "conditions" to describe these characteristics and traits. I have asked her if I could publish our correspondence on this, excerpts of which are listed below.
Thanks for this article. It's a shame you didn't acknowledge the controversy about repathologizing intersex people by describing their traits as "disorders of sex development" or "DSD." This push by the Accord Alliance and its predecessor ISNA is considered highly problematic to many forward-thinking researchers and people with these traits. See for instance noted intersex researcher Milton Diamond:
Intersex activist Peggy has contacted me about the ongoing problems with posers and fakes in both the transsexual (TS) and intersex (IS) communities. ("Peggy" is the pseudonym of a woman with grade 5 PAIS who grew up as a boy but changed to living as a woman in early adulthood. She has been active in the AIS support group USA.) Both groups occasionally encounter people who self-diagnose as TS or IS because they see these demographic groups as more socially acceptable. Others pose as TS or IS people because of a fixation or fascination with these groups, often of a sexual nature. These troubling trends are exacerbated by two things:
1. medical privacy, which means these self-diagnoses are rarely confirmed by a disinterested party 2. the internet, where some people abuse its anonymity to create a fake persona or fabricated biography
Fixing Sex is the best book I have ever read over the years which deals with the ethical issues which have plagued the intersex community, parents and doctors. One reason is that it is meticulously researched and in the introduction, the author helps the reader understand her methodology and also makes it transparent and easy to grasp for the reader who is not familiar with such research.
The author is also very accurate about the medical aspects of various intersex conditions (something that often was not true with previous books by researchers dealing with the ethical debate, unfortunately.) However, the main reason I feel the book is a success is that is shows respect for ALL stakeholders, something which has thus far not been the case and this will help in the future I hope in such a way that not just the parents and doctors will be able to have a dialog, but actual intersex adults also will be more likely to be included.
She has done something that is very difficult to do. Katrina Karkazis has written a book that both I (an intersex activist) and a medical doctor can read and understand and not be upset about. Now that is a tour de force.
In an attempt at attacking Curtis Hinkle's article about Zucker, Hontas Farmer exploits Hinkle's exposure of Bo Laurent as having multiple, inconsistent identities. It is reassuring when ideological adversaries such as Farmer (who supports the Clarke-Northwestern theories) affirm one's work in this way.
The relevant section in Farmer's blog is attached below:
Oii has provided support for my point about skepticism about claims of being intersexed. Look at this item on Oii's website. Apparently people do fudge about being intersexed. (we have to bear in mind the reports referenced there are media reports. The media has trouble getting things right in the cases of transsexuals OR intersexed people respectively. Those statements may not be totally the responsibility of Bo Laurent.) Dont tase me bro Hontas Farmer | 06/11/08 | 17:00 PM
well it has been reported that . BUT, it has also been reported that homophobic homosexuals have tried convincing themselves that they are transsexuals. I get concerned when they try to convince others. Mr. Hinkle has given solid data. You have given anecdotes...again, put up bro...but this time, you can't go to BBL, because they think transsexuals are homosexual (if not hetero paraphilics) tumbleena (not verified) | 06/11/08 | 18:01 PM
Thanks for spreading the word about Bo Laurent. Although you don't understand intersex, you are certainly helping intersex people by exposing the problem. Curtis E. Hinkle (not verified) | 06/11/08 | 17:13 PM
BO LAURENT? Who in the 7 wonders of this world and in the great galaxies of the universe is this Bo Laurent? Tell me more about him babee....oh, and your pic Mr. Hinkle is cool....Mr. hinkle, u b a hunk in a 1/2 hehehehehehehe tumbleena (not verified) | 06/11/08 | 18:04 PM
oooh Curtis babee....you are a stuf muffin...and that beard (no members of the group, I do NOT mean a woman cover for a gay man) gives you such a baldwin look...tumbleena will do cartwheels 4u at ur request lol tumbleena (not verified) | 06/11/08 | 22:44 PM
Bo Laurent IS Cheryl Chase, or Cheryl Chase IS Bo Laurent. At least Marilyn Volker unlike Bo Laurent finished her degree at The Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality. I never believed in ISNA, and that is not because I think Curtis is cute LOL tumbleena (not verified) | 06/11/08 | 22:39 PM
Ever wonder why don't we find any columns or rights for third gender “intersex” for the people having both male and female sexual characteristics and organs. These intersex people are humans just like us with all the feelings, sentiments, relations and belongings but the treatment of people with this gender is so very disappointing that they can not even take education with others and same is with their professions. We leave them alone to beg on signals and roads or to get involved in weird sexual activities. Intersex people get their gender by birth and should be treated equally but reality tells another story.
Message about the Commission's project on the legal recognition of sex in documents and government records
I have received some enquiries about the sex and gender diversity project, in response to a media report that suggests the Commission is secretly circulating a proposal to make intersex a third category for documents and government records.
This is incorrect.
As you will be aware, the Commission's sex and gender diversity project has been examining the legal recognition of sex in documents and government records. As part of this project, the project created an online blog - called Sex Files - in order to discuss some of the issues to do with legal recognition and to involve the sex and gender diverse community in the development of recommendations. This included posting public some initial proposals for reform on the Sex Files blog. We did this because we wanted those involved in the project to provide valuable feedback. The responses we received help to inform the development of a report on legal recognition in documents and government records. The final report is due to be completed and launched early next year.
As indicated by some of the enquiries, the initial proposals for reform put up on the blog included a suggestion for a category of intersex for legal documents. However, as raised with us on the blog, this is not an acceptable proposal for a variety of reasons. As a result the report will not propose a category of intersex for documents but instead proposes to recommend that people be able to choose between male, female or unspecified.
I hope that this explains how we have tried to respond to people's concerns. I have discussed one of our draft recommendations here, in advance of the report, only because I recognise that the misrepresentation in the media may have caused some distress. The full report, including other recommendations, will not be available until the report is published early next year. If you are on the sex and gender diversity mailing list already, you will receive notice of the report when it is finalised.
Scientists have long been known that a specific hormonal signal from the hypothalamus switches on the system that controls sex hormone production from the ovaries and testis.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission has raised the possibility of the creation of an official intersex status in Australia.
In a discussion paper distributed to trans groups, the federal government’s advisory body on equality issues also argued that people should be able to change their driving licenses and passports without having to undergo gender reassignment treatment.
“The proposal does not go far enough in providing legal status and social spaces by only allowing people to be male, female and intersex,” said Sex and Gender Education Australia spokeswoman Tracie O’Keefe.
Recently, a high-profile article ran in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution detailing the life of Danni Lee Harris, the Atlanta Police Department’s LGBT liaison. The article details Officer Harris’ very public announcement of her newly understood intersex identity, an identity she only learned of during the summer.
Gender assignment can be difficult when a child is born with a disorder of sex development. Obviously, clinicians and parents try to make the decision that is right for the child. Despite the best efforts of caregivers, however, occasionally a child with a DSD will announce a desire to change gender.
When this happens there is a lot physicians can do to help the child and family adjust.
Under modern standards of care for DSD, decisions about gender assignment increasingly take into account available predictions about the child’s gender identity as he or she grows. For some conditions, such as 46,XY complete androgen insensitivity syndrome or 46,XX congenital adrenal hyperplasia, clinicians can predict gender identity development with some confidence. Even so, predictions are not perfect. For example, around 95% of 46,XX children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia raised as girls will grow to identify as female. However, this means that around one in 20 will not.
Other conditions involve much more uncertainty. In cases of partial androgen insensitivity syndrome or gonadal dysgenesis, about 25% of patients will be dissatisfied with the gender assignment, whether raised as boys or girls. When a child with a DSD demonstrates a persistent and clear desire to change gender, current standards call for caregivers to support that wish.
24th world conference in Vienna ILGA pursues its 30 year-long dialogue with the international LGBTI movement
Created in 1978 as IGA, the International Gay Association, the organisation known for the last 22 years as ILGA, the International Lesbian and Gay Association will be known from now on as “ILGA, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association” as voted by LGBTI activists gathered for the association’ s 24th world conference in Vienna, Austria (Nov 3- 6, 2008)
This conference, which coincided with ILGA’s 30th birthday focused on building regional associations of African, Asian, and Latin American activists and on moving away from a traditional binary gender representation.
Since OII was founded in 2003, problems with translation have been a constant issue that we have dealt with. OII’s policy has always been to rely on native speakers who are intersex and members of OII to help us resolve translation problems between different languages that our members speak.
"It is usually assumed that monozygotic twins always share the same genome and that their hereditary endowments are the same. Indeed, twins have long been used in studies that attempt to separate "nature" from "nurture". Gilbert writes.
[But] take the situation of an egg fertilized by a Y-bearing sperm. It has been found that monozygotic twinning is associated with higher than normal amounts of aneuploidy; so it is possible that if twinning were to occur through the failure of the first two blastomeres to adhere to one another, aneuploidy (abnormal Chromosome numbers) might also occur. In that case, the twins would have different chromosome complements. If the aneuploidy were for the X chromosome, one twin might by male (XY or XYY) while the other would be female (XO).
And that's the problem with assumptions! The first assumption Whitehead makes is that HBS is a behaviour. It isn't. Its a variation in foetal sex formation. The second assumption is the usual chestnut, that if one identical twin is is transsexed (HBS), they both need to be before the cause can be attributed to genes.
This proposal has also caused some extreme concern in both Intersexed and Transsexual groups. The fear is that men and women with a minor somatic anomaly will be categorised by others, quite against their will, as "Intersexed", and so denied human rights on that basis.
Given the past treatment of such people by medical and legal authorities, this fear is by no means unreasonable. It needs addressing. Here's what I wrote about the subject on another discussion group, where grave fears and even outrage had been expressed:
Having an official "3rd sex" merely regularises the situation for the tiny, miniscule minority - most notably Alex MacFarlane et al - who have X on their BCs out of their own choice. Or at least, that is the intent.
I think this should be an option for Intersexed people who identify as neither male nor female. It most certainly and emphatically should NOT be a "default' for Intersexed people, most of whom identify as either Male or Female. There is a strong danger here, and we must tread most carefully. It also has some interesting legal ramifications, vis a vis marriage etc. Again, I cannot stress too highly that this must be an exceptional and entirely voluntary SELF-categorisation, not something others put us into. This categorisation is entirely consistent with existing international law, and the ICAO standards for passports. We must be extremely vigilant that the APO and others do not use it as a tool of oppression.
Basically, an intersexed woman is a woman, an intersexed man is a man. Only those intersexed people who are androgenous or neutrius, neither M nor F, would find this categorisation useful to them. They are few, but they exist.
In many cases, Viet Nam's so-called 9X and 8X generation fondness for gender-bending clothing has made it difficult to discern whether the wearer is a girl or boy.Twenty-four-year-old Tran Xuan Thanh, who works in the fashion industry, highlights his hair, uses make-up and wears colourful clothing, despite admonishments from his parents.Thanh says his clothes are trendy and he spends several million dong every month for fashionable threads. "Conventional clothes like a shirt and trousers are too old-fashioned."
Phthalates, or more specifically the commonly manufactured 2-ethyl hexyl phthalate, di isononyl phthalate and di isodecyl phthalate are very interesting. Basically, these particular chemicals are used in the manufacture of plastics and are at the center of an interesting moral panic that breaks out like a festering cancer every now and then.
What is this moral panic all about? The "demise of the real man" or the “demise of sexual reproduction"? The rather ironically named "phthalates" are a family of "gender bender" chemicals that are causing a lowered sperm count in men and affecting every other sexed species on the planet. And intersex people are the most visible sign of this horrendous disaster. I mean, if polar bears are the symbol of the evils of carbon dioxide (without which the planet would be a snowball, sort of like Jupiter's 6th moon Europa.), intersex people like myself, those who have to endure the self same moral panic insisting I am a "feminized male" (This is of course norm born bullshit.) are used to symbolize the horrific decline of the “oh so sacred” rutting man-ape. Yes, the ape that grunts in the jungle and goes on to poison the planet in the first place. Interestingly the "North Pole" and "melting ice cap" in this little tale are the area around the Great Lakes. (That speaks volumes. I promise not to laugh!)
The birth of Tamara Dawson's first child should have been a moment of sheer delight. Instead, she describes the shocking and unusual situation that followed: "They took her away, and I had no idea what was going on. I'd never given birth before, so I was thinking ‘They're taking her away to clean her up.' The doctors and nurses came back and said, ‘We don't know if you had a boy or a girl.' We were stunned. How could you not know?" Dawson's child was born with an unusual and rare condition termed intersex, in which the traditional markers of biological sex (e.g. chromosomes, external genitalia) are neither clearly male nor female. Stanford researcher and medical anthropologist, Katrina Karkazis, interviewed Dawson and others in order to understand how parents, their children, and the medical community cope with intersexuality. Her book, Fixing Sex is the result of meticulous research and in depth interviews with those most closely involved; it aims to help readers understand this unusual condition. I found the book fascinating for other reasons as well - namely how intersex conditions illuminate our taken for granted assumptions about what makes people male or female.
According to our report of the threat to the more testosterone-charged of the species, some of us may live to see the last of the real men. What a good idea, one thinks. Toothpaste tube caps always screwed back on. Garages used for cars, rather than snooker tables. No more women being embarrassed by their partners showing off on the beach. No more men of a certain age sucking in their stomachs at the swimming pool when a pretty new lifeguard wanders by. No more comb-overs. No more dirty socks on the floor. It will be goodbye to road rage, hello consideration.
The soaring number of gender bending chemicals in our food, water and air are triggering an infertility time bomb which could disrupt evolution, scientists are warning.
They say wildlife is being 'feminised' by a host of common man-made pollutants which escape into the environment and mimic the female sex hormone oestrogen.
The chemicals - found in food packaging, cleaning products, plastics, sewage and paint - trigger genital deformities, reduce sperm count and even turn males into females.
Mexico City — Mexico can be intolerant of homosexuality; it can also be quite liberal. Gay-bashing incidents are not uncommon in the countryside, where many Mexicans consider homosexuality a sin. In Mexico City, meanwhile, same-sex domestic partnerships are legally recognized — and often celebrated lavishly in government offices as if they were marriages.
But nowhere are attitudes toward sex and gender quite as elastic as in the far reaches of the southern state of Oaxaca. There, in the indigenous communities around the town of Juchitán, the world is not divided simply into gay and straight. The local Zapotec people have made room for a third category, which they call “muxes” (pronounced MOO-shays) — men who consider themselves women and live in a socially sanctioned netherworld between the two genders.
Along with the male and female gender, Pakistani government should include a third gender “intersex” for the people having both male and female sexual characteristics and organs. Intersex people get their gender by birth and at birth an unambiguous assignment of male or female cannot be made.
Thank you to Officer Darlene Harris for her courage and leadership in coming out as an intersex person and for speaking publicly about her journey of self-discovery.
This issue is personal to me because I have a friend who I went to undergraduate with, Insa Kromminga, who is intersex. Insa had to grapple with the traumatic experience of being forced into a single sex category through surgery and medical treatment as a young child.
So, perhaps it is a blessing that Darlene did not learn until only recently she is intersex, because she was thus able to avoid a medical regime which unconscionably ignores the principle, “first, do no harm,” and which denies consent to the young child being cosmetically and hormonally re-programmed.
Note: Ins A Kromminga is the founder of OII-Germany
Turner is a 50-year-old bachelor with Asperger syndrome, who shows the characteristic symptoms of verbosity and social maladjustment. A born-again Christian, conspiracy theorist and fan of the pseudo science of radionics, he interprets Tiffany's 2002 nude pictorial in Playboy as proof of her open declaration of love for him. He also believes he communes with Tiffany's spirit by putting a bicycle helmet with wires on it on his head.
Kelly McCormick is a 38-year-old from Denver. Self-described as an "intersex hermaphrodite," McCormick has long, dyed-blond hair, but otherwise appears to be a man with breasts and feminine hips. She is currently taking female hormones and wants to make the surgical transition to being a "complete" woman. McCormick, who has substance-abuse problems and dramatic mood swings, lives in a sparsely furnished apartment with walls covered with pictures of Tiffany, smudged from being kissed about the lips. After a bicycle accident, she says, she awoke from a 16-day coma convinced that she was destined to be with the pop star.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's official human rights watchdog wants a third gender called "intersex" to be created for use on official documents like passports and driving licenses, a newspaper report said on Saturday.
The new gender would be another legally recognized option alongside male and female, The Daily Telegraph reported.
THE Federal Government's human rights arm plans to invent a new official status called "intersex" adding it to male and female as a legally recognised gender.
The Human Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission wants people to be able to change their gender on their passports and driving licences even if they do not undergo surgery.
And transgender lobby groups say that even this does not go far enough and are demanding a fourth legal gender called "other" for people who feel like their gender is indefinable or changes from day to day.
SAN FRANCISCO – The Senate Committee on Public Safety will hold an informational hearing on Dec. 11 to look at issues facing lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in California's prison system.
Chaired by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-East Los Angeles, the hearing will focus on the LGBT population in prison and the unique issues LGBT inmates face while incarcerated. Speakers will discuss issues related to prisoner classification systems, harassment and abuse, and access to healthcare.
A media availability will immediately follow the hearing with representatives from Equality California, National Center for Lesbian Rights, Just Detention International, the Transgender, Gender Variant & Intersex Justice Project, and the Transgender Law Center.
The castrato craze was one of the most bizarre phenomena of the European Baroque period. In the middle years of the 16th century eunuchs began to be prized in the courts of Italy for their peculiar vocal power and brilliance. By 1600, Pope Clement VIII could solemnly declare that "the creation of castrati for Church choirs is to be held to the honour of God". A century later the gelded male, whether soprano or alto, dominated the Italian operatic scene. Stars such as Senesino, Caffarelli and Carestini earned huge salaries in the course of glittering international careers, while the legendary Farinelli, by singing the same five arias nightly for 23 years to two schizophrenic kings of Spain, became their éminence grise and, as some believed, unofficial ruler of the Spanish empire.
Apotemnophilia or Body Integrity Identity Disorder (BIID)
In its most extreme form Apotemnophilia is characterized by individuals who experience a strong desire for the removal of healthy limbs. There is also a lesser form of the disorder. With the secondary variety apotemnophiliacs present as 'pretend' amputees, often going to considerable lengths to conceal limbs in attempt to appear as if the appendages had been removed. In BIID jargon the latter group are known as 'wannabes.'
I spent the first half century of my life searching for the reason I was assigned, reared, and living as a man even though I knew I was female. As a child it was utterly confusing, and when coming out to my parents led to threats of incarceration in the state mental hospital, being the smart little kid that I was, I went silent and focused on trying to determine the causes of my misery. I could never imagine, in my wildest dreams or fantasies, ever transitioning and living full-time as myself; I couldn’t even imagine spending even a day in public as a woman. So I focused my attention on an academic future, scouring all the major libraries in the northeast, reading everything I could about gender variant behavior, trying to understand how I became who I was.
As the Atlanta Police Department’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Liaison, Officer Darlene Harris has served as a symbol assuring fair treatment and greater protection since 2005, when she was appointed to this post.
When she disclosed she is intersex in July 2008, Harris garnered attention for her bravery and for drawing focus on the subject of intersex identity and experience.
Her story was first featured in Southern Voice magazine on July 4. The Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper also ran a story about Harris on August 31.
Men with female functions have a congenital dysfunction of the adrenal cortex – the congenital adrenogenital syndrome. The anomaly can be detected during the pre-natal period, when the fetus develops its externalia. As a rule, the children born with the adrenogenital syndrome die at an early age.
Androgynies have been all the rage in the fashion business. It may often be difficult to determine the sex of a model at first sight, but this is something that he or she is very proud of somewhere deep inside. Many of them do their best to hide the secret from the general public. If something transpires about a famous person, the news can always be categorized as a newspaper hoax that does not worth a thing.
The reason I'm mentioning it is because gender issues reared their ugly heads in the pre-match gamesmanship and the whining from the losing team after the match.
One of the tired recurring themes in women's sports is the fear that in order to gain a competitive advantage, men will either dress up as women in order to win individual sports glory, be ordered to do so and be placed on those teams by higher level political (or sports) officials hungry for prestige, or feed their female athletes testosterone as the East Germans did all in the name of garnering international sporting glory and prestige.
In my writings there are two common threads and they are as follows:
I was surgically messed with as a child and I resent it.
During my late childhood and early teens, I was sexually abused as a "novelty".
Now today, even though I have the physical form of a woman, complete with vagina, if I am raped I get no protection. As a child when I was abused I got no protection, because the law in the UK says that as I am an intersexed individual. I am not even allowed to ask for legal protection.
Believe it or not, if I were transsexual I would fare better, not much better, but better all the same. I have had to think a little before writing this. The Gender Recognition Act, let's tell the brutal truth about it, shall we? This was basically the progeny of Press for Change and the UK Government spending hours and hours "discussing" how to allow transsexual people to gain recognition in their post operative sex. Basically they have to provide evidence they have lived for a given period of time in their new sex. This evidence in then reviewed by a board called a "Gender Recognition Panel" and then their name is entered on a "gender register". Whatever those who produced this legislation say, the fact remains that what many transsexual people wanted, full amendment of birth records to reflect their new sex, has not happened. What we have are gender commissars who have the power to give "gender recognition" and little else.
We are proud to announce that the Organisation Intersex International has its website in Chinese thanks to the tremendous efforts of one of our Chinese speaking board members. The site already contains our Official Positions, our mission statement, information on Intersex Solidarity Day, a translation of 10 Misconceptions about Intersexuality, videos and a news service containing articles related to intersex issues.
We also have posters for intersex children in Chinese and are working closely to combine our two sites so that Chinese speaking visitors will feel at home and included when visiting our other language sections.
This is an important step forward for OII because of the large population which speaks Chinese around the world.
If you have friends or acquaintances who speak Chinese, please let them know about out new Chinese website. You will find a link to it on our home page at the top.
For more information about intersex issues in the Chinese speaking community, please contact our board member Hiker who is fluent in English and Chinese.
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