Note: "Normborm" is a term that is used to describe the sort of people who pontificate about how other people should conform to certain standards. This is not a term aimed generally at men or women but those men and women who claim they have the right to make our lives sheer hell because they were "normal born" and we by comparison were not. Please understand this before reading.
One for the Trekkies:
"It's genetic. Our tolerance for other life forms doesn't extend beyond the two arm, two leg variety. I hate to break it to you, but when you're in your natural state, you're more than our poor old genes can handle."
I heard that when sitting here watching Star Trek Deep Space 9, It was the bar owner called Quark talking to the changeling Odo. I had noticed on a number of occasions when Star Trek DS9 was on TV that Odo and his people called "The Dominion" would often refer to other species as "Solids" or "Monoforms", and they often used that term in pretty much the same way I use "normborns" with a sort of deep-seated suspicion of an oppressive majority who for some reason seemed to be "hostile to difference". The scriptwriter clearly understood something of how a lot of intersex people feel about "normborns" without realizing it. The real life answer to why "normborns" are hostile to intersex people is actually not that far removed from the words of a fictional bar owner. It most probably is genetic.
It is funny how in the TV show, the words "solids" and "monoforms" are uttered in pretty much the same distrusting and angry way the word "normborn" gets uttered by some of us. And it is true that normborns do seem to have some underlying biological motivation to give us a lot of grief all the time. It is not just prejudice either. It runs a lot deeper than that. Something in the normborn mind, just like something in the mind of the fictional bar owner, sparks off this reaction of disgust and fear. What seldom gets mentioned in such fiction is the resentment and anger the target of that disgust and fear can hold towards normborns. In this episode it was, and there was a "happy ending" of sorts.
But in real life it does not work like that. Yes, there are normborns who are rational enough to see beyond the genetically pre-programmed fear reaction, but I am not convinced that the fiction is reflecting the reality of this. My distrust of normborns stems from the horrible things I have had to witness, read about or endure. Take the recent so-called "controversy" about a tennis player called Sarah Gronert. She is just a woman with XY chromosomes. She is a woman who has succeeded in her sport and people simply do not like this, not because of how she may look (She looks like most other female competitors) or how she lives her life. No, the problem seems to be that the normborns do not like this woman winning tennis tournaments because she is a woman with XY chromosomes. This makes her "genetically male" to the fetid mind of the normborn. As such, they claim that she is biologically wrong, somehow an insult to "natural women" and has an "unfair male advantage". This is of course irrational claptrap being peddled to justify what the normborns are really thinking, which stems from the fact that they are biologically pre-programmed with hatred of anything "different".
And this is where I choose to turn the tables. So a woman in sport is found to have XY chromosomes, it does not confer any advantage on her, nor does this fact make her less of a woman. Ah yes! "Less of a woman", that is an interesting phrase. We are supposed to say: "We are no less than any other woman or man" in order to legitimize ourselves to a bit of hostile genetic software in the minds of normborns. And whatever sex we say we are, the normborns will invariably claim we are the opposite. And when we accept that, then the normborns will say we were the first sex again. Why? Because they are pre-programmed genetically to be bloody minded and awkward. I say this because even when there is a mountain of evidence to show that Sarah Gronert or any woman with XY chromosomes is in fact simply a woman with XY chromosomes, the awkward rut monkeys and normborns will appear saying that she is a man (You will notice it is never "intersex", probably "DSD", if we are lucky but never "intersex"). If she decided, "Well OK, then I am a man", it won't be long (After the media frenzy about that) before some normborn somewhere will start saying "This is a woman and this woman is evil and should be banned from sport".
"It's genetic. Our tolerance for other life forms doesn't extend beyond the male or female variety. I hate to break it to you, but when you're in your natural state, you're more than our poor old genes can handle."
I simply substituted two or three words and turned a bit of politically correct fiction to cold fact. But have the normborns ever considered the horrible possibility that some intersex people may have another instinct to draw from, called "self preservation"? I have a biologically pre-programmed and socially re-enforced hatred of normborn bullshit. OK I "pass" as a given sex, but how long will it be before we get star trek style technology and we can point a mobile phone at someone and get their karyotype? (Figure out what chromosomes they have). I would give that in 20 or so years perhaps, one of the mobile phone manufacturers will come up with a new model called "The Happy Slapper 2030" which will be designed specifically for filming some intersex person being beaten up once they are detected. Such are the machinations of normborns.
What society will not do is take the time to explain why chromosomes are not the absolute markers of sex. For example, you find "male DNA" on the allegedly female "X chromosomes". These regions of DNA are called Male Specific Regions and every woman has two copies of them.
Well that sort of spoils the happy slapping party a bit, doesn't it? Well no, because that is more or less common knowledge. You can look up "MSR" on Wikipedia (if James Cantor has not wiped the pages describing them). It does not take a PhD in genetics to figure out the fact that sex differentiation is more complex than chromosomes. But you will also find lots of sport officials, media hacks and harpies and a lot of religious fatalists (in other words, normborns) running around saying, "We want the happy slapper 2030 mobile phone now", because they are not interested in learning the finer points of human biology. (Yes, I did say human biology. This is not fiction; so get a life). All they really want to do is find something "different" and hammer something "different" because after 3.5 billon years of evolution, the genetic retards have yet to shake off the effects of "Bigot DNA".
The bottom line regarding all this stuff about women in sport being "genetically male" is one big fat lie, and it is being repeated so often people fail to believe the obvious physical evidence. I am not being funny but Sarah Gronert does not come across to me as a man, genetic or otherwise, but because the world is fed on the misguided lie that XX and XY chromosomes determine sex, they would believe that grass is purple if someone in the press or medical profession with an agenda told them to. People who rant in the media about Sarah Gronert being a "man" are simply sheep who cannot see reality, just the lies they are fed that play on their herding instincts (Herding instincts being another expression of bigot genes). They will be ready and willing to believe that grass is purple, the world is flat and evolution never happened if they were also given the reward they are biologically predisposed to seek, to inflict pain on another human being.
We may as well be honest here. The reason they have problems with those who attack women like Sarah Gronert, i.e., the reason they have these whipped up "controversies" is so they can find someone to use and abuse. They are genetically programmed that way. The normborn who calls Sarah Gronert a "genetic male" is by the self same logic a genetic sadist, and genetic sheep who has zero intelligence and cannot even see the obvious. Why should they? They are pitiful creatures who are genetically programmed to act like sadistic jerks.
That is a genetic normborn. Sarah is not a genetic normborn, because her sex does not accord with the lie that chromosomes solely determine sex. (Obviously they don't).
And I suspect that being a genetic normborn is not a good thing anyway. But I define genetic normborns as retarded evolutionary mistakes, purely because of the logic these genetic normborns use. (I am defining them by their rules, not mine.) Perhaps they may grow up and realize that calling someone a "genetic anything" is only going to backfire on them if they keep peddling ignorance about "genetic sex".
This article is also available on OII's website: Click here
While browsing a site on the treatment of transgender and intersex patients, I noted the following assertion:
"Newborns with intersex deformities must early on be assigned to one sex or the other."
WHY?
This is surely the biggest error medical caregivers can make.
Many such assumptions have been made in the past, resulting in the unfortunate situation where the wrong gender is chosen and the individual in later life is left truly stuck in the wrong gender, even seeking reassignment. Such cases have been documented in the past. Truly such a tragedy is indeed avoidable, had the victim of such medical arrogance had the opportunity to assert his/her own gender identity from the beginning. I say medical arrogance because these people claim to know what is best - and yet they simply work on outward evidence - and by now it is plainly obvious even to laymen that external genetalia do not a man or woman make.
OII has received a request from Ken Zucker's representatives to remove the information about certain allegations against Zucker. It is important to note that OII never published any false statements or misleading information on the page in question. OII published the fact that the president of OII, Curtis E. Hinkle, reported that OII had been contacted by Noriko Matsuyama making certain allegations against Zucker and in compliance with the law, Curtis E. Hinkle further reported to WPATH and other authorities that it had received the allegations from Ms. Matsuyama. OII felt that WPATH was one of the organisations which should be informed since Ken Zucker is one of their professional members. However, Curtis Hinkle, the founder of OII, has lodged complaints against Ken Zucker concerning many different ethical issues and this is not the main issue of the charges currently underder investigation. We have removed our reference to the allegations made by Noriko Matsuyama against Dr. Zucker.
a) Although it states that Zucker "never treated anyone named Noriko Matsuyama", we do not see how the person whom Zucker allegedly treated in childhood went by that name years ago before transitioning.
b) It is very odd for a first letter to OII to state, "As we have stated many times previously..." since OII has never received any communications from Zucker or his attorneys.
c) The OII Open Letter to WPATH has been online since the early summer of 2008. Zucker and his WPATH colleagues knew about it all that time, but Zucker has not complained to OII about it until now. So why now? It appears that Zucker is trying to inimidate Mr. Curtis Hinkle for making charges against him involving many other issues not related to this particular issue. Zucker waited until after the complaints were filed. As a matter of fact, his legal representatives wrote a letter to Dr. Lynn Conway for linking to that webpage but did not write to Mr. Hinkle until the investigation was under consideration.
This episode of "House" is excellent. It deals with the issues of secrecy and shame which can lead to very serious health problems in intersex patients. I highly recommend this video. - Curtis E. Hinkle, Founder of OII
Harry Benjamin Syndrome of Aotearoa New Zealand has revamped its front page. Visitors to HBS-NZ will notice several changes including the addition of a moderated guest-book. We hope our guests ( and that is what you are) will treat this respectfully.
Otherwise the new home page is designed to reflect the site's associations with OII. The Organization Intersex International will have a new Australian affiliate in the near future. HBS-NZ is repositioning itself to act as a 'feeder' to this new web-site, which will be known as OII Australia.
Currently New Zealand lacks any readily accessible web-based facility specifically for people who fall into the traditionally intersexed categories. HBS-NZ already fields inquiries on these issues. It is now envisaged that IS folk will be better able to get access to OII resources specific to their particular situation by simply following the links from HBS-NZ through to the other OII affiliates.
Once established, OII Australia will fill a vacuum in this region by providing a voice and a focus for IS issues on both sides of the Tasman, leaving HBS-NZ to concentrate on its core issues, whilst working in tandem with its Australian counterpart on those matters that concern us both.
Sarah Gronert, a 22-year-old pro from Germany, finds herself under scrutiny from her opponents and their coaches, who believe that a unique gender issue from birth should make her ineligible for the woman's tour.
Three years ago, those issues almost caused Gronert, ranked No. 619 in the world, to abandon her career. Though she has since returned to competitive tennis, the dialogue that continues to surround her relates not to her ability, but to her biology.
Gronert was born with male and female genitalia. After undergoing surgery, she's now medically certified as a woman. That's not good enough for some, though.
"There is no girl who can hit serves like that, not even Venus Williams," said Schlomo Tzoref, the coach of Julia Glushko, who Gronert recently beat on her way to winning the Raanana tournament in Israel in early March. "When I heard her story, I was in shock. I don't know if it's fair that she can compete or not. She does have an advantage, but if this is what the WTA have decided, they probably know best. If she begins to play continuously, within six months she will be within the Top 50.
"It's tough to piece together the details of Gronert's story. Her story has yet to really reach American shores, so facts have to be parsed together from various foreign language websites. Yet Tzoref isn't the only one who sees the potential for Gronert to climb the ranks of the women's tour, which will surely lead to more conversation -- and infamy -- around the world regarding her standing on the tour.
We do know that, at 19, the harsh words and treatment from peers almost led Gronert to retire. Instead, she underwent surgery to remove the male genitalia and, after a struggle with the WTA that needed a petition and special committee to resolve, was allowed to compete again.
Gronert has appeared in nine tournaments in the last three years, winning two -- the Raanana tournament on March 2 and the German Kaarst tournament on January 19 -- this year. The purse for both titles was $10,000 each. Her competitors feel she had an unfair advantage towards winning those purses which will lead her to continue to rise in the sport unfairly. The longer Gronert competes, the more fevered the conversation grows (her Wikipedia page was deleted due to constant abuse by users).
"This can not be. This is not a woman, it's a man. She does not have the power of a woman and no woman has such a technique," Tzoref said. "She serves like a man. It's very strange.
"Elie Seckbach contributed information and translations to this story.
Hopefully if things are running according to the adaptive plan, Dr Olaf Hiort of "Euro DSD" will have read something of my commentary so far and has chosen to ignore it. What he is probably expecting is for me to start some sort of Andrea James style investigation where I find out various things and document them meticulously on this site. The thing with this is that it does not work when done twice, Andrea James and Lynn Conway did an excellent job in exposing the activities of some less than ethical doctors, but other doctors are of course wise to the same approach being used twice.
The very fact that I am saying this openly will probably give a few people at Euro DSD reason to think that I have somehow forewarned them of what I am up to. I suppose it depends on how you look at this. In this section of the "Euro Dissed" archive, I am simply keeping a diary or blog of what I am doing, in the spirit of open debate. But I suspect that as I work through all this, Dr Hiort will try to intervene because his interest in "Data protection" will fail him a little.
He may even take certain proactive measures to stop me from publishing this little journal, but for me such measures will be useful indicators of what he is doing rather than what he thinks he can do. At the same time I have little doubt as time progresses he will have some of his shit hot experts going through this journal and probably digging where they should not, in order to gain some sort of advantage. And he may if he is really lucky, get to know what he wants, only to find that ultimately it serves me better to allow that.
Perhaps I can start with Dr Hiort's rather odd ego by pointing out a few things he may not want the world to know and has never committed to writing. Euro DSD does sound an awful lot like "Euro Disney" and the logo he uses does bear a striking resemblance to the "Delos Corporation" logo in Michael Crichton’s Westworld, which happens to be a movie he directed about a theme park. Only instead of this theme park being populated by people paid to play various roles, the fictional Westworld was populated by robots in one of three "zones", these being "West World" (of course), Medieval World and Roman world. I rather gain the impression that Dr Hiort has a bit of an interest in theme parks, or should I say, in a sort of "Sandbox society".
I know what you may be thinking. What has science fiction and theme parks got to do with a doctor of medicine setting up a database of intersex health and patient management? Well nothing except for his odd ego and the bit about a "Sandbox Society". Every human being has this habit of representing their ideas by referring them to something they aspire to. You may be thinking that I am indulging in a bit of amateur forensic psychology? Well if that is exactly what you are thinking, you are correct in that this is what I want you to think.
The name and logo are perhaps a little more obvious when you see it in a completely different light. The logo is a sort of threefold yin-yang which I have myself used before now, being intersexed, so it was not peculiar to the Westworld movie, but the recurring theme in Hiort's mission statements, imagery, ideas and his means of going about it are peculiar to the notion of a sandbox society.
And this is what all this truly reveals: the guy is a control freak. For example, most of his data gathering has been "Opt out" rather than "Opt in", his colleagues have often been criticized for sounding a little dictatorial during consultations about the data gathering process. And yes the idea of a "DSD register" does suggest something more disturbing than a simple medical database. Such methods and data collection are synonymous with a sandbox society.
What I hear you ask is, “What is a Sandbox Society?” Well, it would be like a park or village where people are told to keep off the grass and are that they are there to serve the interest of others who are more privileged. Gated communities are perhaps the best present day example of this idea, as are ghettoes. But we don't have to be talking about physical communities with physical walls to be talking about the sort of thing Hiort is talking about. What we are talking about is a social order where someone's place in it is determined so tightly the barriers are more mental than physical. Systems of apartheid are a good analogy; certain people are controlled by where they can go and what they can do.
The symbolism Hiort uses has the strange effect of describing just what those boundaries are. The DSD crowd are often unambiguous about how they regard "Gender variant" people (their term not mine). It is clearly about "Gender variant people" being either excluded from society or used in roles such as prostitution. Perhaps "Euro DSD" and the logo are Freudian slips hinting at themed prostitution being dressed up as something more respectable. Perhaps the very invasive level of proposed surveillance and the coercive approach to controlling people indicate something like that. Either way, Dr. Hiort is doing himself no favors by playing a sort of medical "Big Brother", and especially when a lot of his public image can be construed the way it will inevitably be construed.
What would I find if I gained access to the information he is currently keeping in Scotland? What is going to happen now I have hinted at this possibility? Given that 90% of hacking consists of social engineering of the sort I am using while writing this article, I am sure Dr Hiort is probably taking a little more notice right now. (If he isn't already). Well I am sure that Dr Hiort will be interested to know that now, conspiracy theorists will be running around claiming he wants to set up themed brothels or some other blunt speculation. I am even spelling out the way this is going to happen, without accusing him of anything like that.
If of course the tainted veneer of Dr Hiort's public image is hiding something as strange as that, it will come out, regardless of whether any specific conspiracy theories are true or false. And yes I am as bold as to spell that out as well.
Dr Olaf Hiort has got a problem. He is not being entirely honest about what he is up to, and the levels of security he is purporting to command are not as secure as he thinks. I also know how the information he is gathering without express consent can be misused by a number of people from government agencies to criminals and people with dodgy political agendas. The very second someone like Hiort says "This data is secure", I would say "No it isn't. The very fact that Hiort has this data makes it insecure because it is Hiort who is compiling it. Hiort has an agenda and whatever that agenda is, he’s very guarded about it, so he cannot be trusted!"
Actually you don't need a hacker or spook looking at Hiort's database in order to be worried, you only need one weak link, called Olaf Hiort. Unless he is open and honest about what his real intentions are, the conspiracy theorists will accuse him of running themed brothels or something equally as strange, and the rest of us will say "There is no smoke without fire".
Your move, Olaf! This article is also available on OII's website: Click here
"Transgender Crusader - A professor at the University of Michigan is taking on the psychiatric community's ideas about transgendered people and mental illness," 365Gay News, March 6, 2009.
Eunuchs grow up feeling unloved, disdained, lonely and confused! Even before they gain their senses, they are left on roads to beg, as they have no other means of income to sustain themselves. They get no work, no love and no appreciation.. CJ: Richa Kashyap
EVERY TIME we cross a signal or travel on a public transport, the most scary and disgusting thought that comes to our mind is meeting eunuchs. They are the ugly, dirty, frustrating and annoying creatures that we recognise as either a beggar or a filthy sex-trader. If asked why, we will simply say because they behave so irritatingly. Also, right from childhood, we have assumed them to be someone inferior to us.
Not that they are only assumed to be filthy and outcaste, they are also considered a means of ridicule and sarcasm, a kind of abuse and a cheap available means of gratifying those natural desires. Have we ever thought of them beyond these perceived ‘inherited notions’? Do we ever wonder why do they beg at cross-roads and at signals everyday? Do we ever give a thought to why they are involved in sex rackets? And above all, have we ever thought that they are also ‘human beings’? Perhaps not!
A rendezvous with such a person made me understand, how different their life is behind the extra powdered and glossy faces! Right from birth they are discriminated against. They are outcastes, disowned by their families soon after their birth. Many of them have never known their real identity, never remember seeing their parents and do not even know what region or religion they belong to!
After growing a little older, they are perturbed by the changes that occur in their bodies. Add to this the prejudice of the society around.
They grow up feeling unloved, disdained, lonely and confused! Even before they gain their senses, they are left on roads to beg, as they have no other means of income to sustain themselves. They get no work, no love and no appreciation, as we do, as normal human beings. Their lives actually begin at signals, in the morning, and end at red lights, at night.
It’s not that they never tried to bring a change. Of course they did! Many of them tried to bring a change but an inflexible and staunch society like ours never wishes to change! What else can they be discriminated against? Is there any column meant for a eunuch, in any normal application form? Why should they compromise of being a girl or a guy, if they are actually someone else? And even if they are different, who decided that they are not normal like us? Is sexuality the only parameter of defining normalcy (in our society)? If these questions puzzle us so much, think how frustrated a human being would be if he is born with such confusion in life. In case, we can’t understand them, we have no right to hate them!
By Lanz Christian Bañes/Times-Herald staff writer -- Rocky Michael Bryant Posted: 03/09/2009 01:02:25 AM PDT
Shortly after their new child was born, Sam and Marie Bryant made a fateful decision.
They cut off his penis.
They gave him a feminine name -- Rosland Marie -- put him in dresses and sowed the seeds for his lifelong search for identity.
The boy in the mirror
Rosland Marie Bryant, now legally Rocky Michael Bryant, was born with ambiguous genitalia. In a word, she was intersex, a term now used in lieu of the outdated "hermaphrodite." "When I was a kid, I felt different," Bryant, 45, recalled.
He rebelled against the femininity his mother demanded of him, hating the dresses and hating the stares of the other children.
"I felt out of place, like I do now," he said.
His mother also made him take estrogen pills to encourage his body to become female. Bryant spent much of his time in front of the mirror, examining his face and envying the bodies of her male relatives.
Then, at the age of 10, the revelation came as her reflection stared back at her.
"I'm a boy," he said.
The secret
Marie Bryant took her son's secret to the grave, never telling the truth to the person who she thought of as her daughter.
As the years passed, Bryant struggled as he attempted to bring himself fully into the masculine gender.
"I didn't have anyone to talk to about it," he lamented.
Family -- such as his sister-in-law -- swore Bryant was going to burn in hell for his supposed choice of lesbianism.
Being a man with female genitalia also created unique challenges.
"It's hard to get mates to be with," Bryant said.
Often, lesbians want to be with females who present themselves as women, he explained. When his mother died, the estrogen pills stopped, creating a rush of male hormones that confused Bryant. In 2003, he began receiving testosterone injections.
He cut off his long hair and legally changed his name.
Though it has hard to find support, Bryant found she could seek solace with his sister. However, she died in 2004.
It was at her funeral that her brother Henry finally revealed the family secret that had left Bryant confused for much of his life. Bryant was 40 at the time.
"He really didn't want to tell me," said Bryant, who begged his brother to tell him the truth at long last.
When Henry finally did, Bryant, shocked, had no response but to stare at his brother.
The poet
Bryant now lives in Vallejo with his friend Virginia Sabbagh, 50.
The past few years have not been easy on Bryant, who spends much of his time writing short stories and poetry. He has been published in several books.
He is often stared at in the grocery store or on the street as passers by try to disentangle the masculine from the feminine in him.
"A lot of people think that he's a freak of nature, but that's not what he is," Sabbagh said. Sometimes, he would find the word "dyke" scrawled on his door.
Additionally, Bryant suffered a major injury. The same year his brother told him he was born intersex, he contracted a sinus infection that migrated to his brain.
He was in a coma for a month and still struggles with the slowness the illness left him.
After years of testosterone therapy, Bryant now sports a scruffy patch of facial hair.
His continuing transformation has not come cheap, and full gender re-assignment surgery might be out of reach.
"It doesn't matter what color your skin is, it doesn't matter what you look like or who you choose to be with -- everybody should be treated fair and equal," Sabbagh said.
Contact staff writer Lanz Christian Bañes at (707) 553-6833 or lbanes@thnewsnet.com.
Woman of Love
Woman love Woman of peace Can I hold you in my arms so close? You're the one I'm thinking of You're the one I dream of Do you like being held tight Under the stars at night? Do you like being kissed goodnight? I'd like to know So I could do those things Just right Woman of love With your lips So sweet You make my heartbeat real fast You make desire want more Woman of love Woman of peace You make my heart complete
Euro DSD, an organization set up only recently by one Dr. Olaf Hiort, now seeks to keep tabs on women with XY chromosomes. The most obvious question would be why do this. The answer is actually very simple: Euro Dissed consider XY women to be "Deformed men" and wish to keep tabs on them for reasons that ultimately involve legal and medical definitions of what makes someone male or female.
As a motivation in itself that has some unsettling undercurrents, but Dr Olaf Hiort himself has also in the past come under criticism for allegedly collecting patient data by less than honest means, and also for completely ignoring the concerns of patients when he was found out. All this seems to have happened in German Speaking countries over the past 5 or so years.
Today Dr Hiort seems to think that the support groups and individuals who felt misled by him are not going to notice that he is up to his old tricks again only this time in English speaking countries in Europe. Unfortunately for Dr. Olaf Hiort, many intersex support groups have a multilingual membership and they have noticed what he is up to.
So what is Dr Olaf Hiort really about? Well, it has a lot to do with defining intersex people as "Dysgenic". Why else would he be trying (Constantly) to collect the information he does? (Which has profound legal and medical consequences when the information is misused).
You only have to look at the Euro DSD system of "Work packages" to see what Hiort is really up to. Two of these "Work packages" are exclusively dedicated to studying the characteristics and effects of male hormones. (WP03 and WP04). One of these "Work packages" is about identifying novel genetic markers in XY women (WP02) and one is referred to by a Kellogism "Steroid Metabolomics" (WP05, I assume that this means something to do with the underlying genetics of steroid metabolism). The remaining two (WP01 and WP07) are essentially administrative in nature.
The "Work packages" WP03, WP04 and WP05 seem to be about identifying people as "Dysgenic males" with a clear emphasis on androgenic hormones. Why the male bias one asks? Well the answer to that lies in the title "Euro DSD" and the following "mission statement":
"The aim is to provide as much information as possible about the underlying biological aberration, but also about the possible outcome of given distinct disorders. Long-term outcome studies on the various DSD entities are desperately needed in order to establish a basis for evidence-based medicine regarding sex assignment and conservative and surgical treatment options. Irreversible interventions have to be avoided before an accurate diagnosis can be made. In the past, premature decisions already led to severe disturbances in patients and families (see patient contact groups under Useful links). "
When you read that, you are made to understand, without the slightest shadow of doubt, that Dr Hiort regards most if not all intersex variations as "Abberations" and states that some approach to assign sex (In a punitive manner?) is "Desperately needed". The male bias seems to have emerged from the huge great con trick peddled by Cheryl Chase, alias Bo Laurent, alias Bonnie Sullivan, alias Charlie Sullivan in the 1990's that claimed that Dr John Money assigned all intersex people to the female sex. When that particular con trick was pulled, the Clarke Northwestern clique of "Experts" (Who are obsessed with "Male homosexuality") magically appeared trying to sell research projects that would use intersex people as laboratory rats to find genetic markers for "Male homosexuality". Suddenly those "Work Packages" make very grim sense.
Dr Hiort wants to create a "DSD Register (And the language of that does read like some sexologist proposing a sex offenders register). When you scratch beneath the surface of Euro DSD you are always drawn to the same underlying concept, social eugenics.
I imagine Dr Hiort is not going to be all that happy with my stating that what he is really doing is social cleansing. But then Dr Hiort is someone who is rather used to such accusations which have often been invoked by his less than honest activities. Like others from the "DSD crowd" he has been very underhanded about how he collects patient information, very unsettling when writing about what he wishes to use this information for, and very quiet when confronted about it.
Hi interest in epigenetics is curious to put it mildly. Any geneticist worth their salt will tell you that this is a theoretical framework focusing on how genes are expressed. (This is a long story) but it does lend itself to abuse in pretty much the same way eugenics did.
So I now challenge Olaf Hiort to explain himself, because in all honesty "Euro DSD" looks a lot like Tiergartenstrase 4 and the philosophy behind it does look like social cleansing. Dr Hiort has only himself to blame when patient groups treat him and his colleagues with increasing suspicion. Dr Hiort has a month to start explaining and if he does not, then all his less than ethical activities will be investigated and documented.
This article is available on OII's website: Click here
Hundreds of people armed with rainbow flags and signs denouncing violence and discrimination gathered on the 22nd of February 2009 at the crossroads of Sodeco in Beirut to protest against violence targeting homosexuals and other minority groups in Lebanon. The event, the first of its kind in the Arab world according to the organizers, was staged by the Beirut-based (LGBTIQ) support organization Helem.
Another video in English that is very informative: Click here
Gentilly Girl The thoughts and dreams of a New Orleans Native finally returned home. “Witch by Nature, Bitch by Choice, New Orleanian by Blood”.
Okay, Obama signals that he wishes that embryonic stem cell research can go forward and the religious freaks come out of the woodwork screaming about the “dignity of all Life”.
Where were the “defenders of Human Dignity” back in 1957 when MY person was violated for Societal norms? Did the cross-wearers protest to allow me to live within the constraints of my Nature-given form? Was I even asked if their manipulations to my tiny body was acceptable to what I desired for my life?
The answer is “NO”.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, called the expected announcement “a deadly executive order” and “a slap in the face to Americans who believe in the dignity of all human life”.
I repeat the question: “Where was the dignity for my Being?”.
The answer is- Morwen, you are a Teritology (monster), and since your Being what you are upsets our apple cart, we will remake you to fit our norms. Our Polar viewpoint of Life is violated by the appearance of such a creature as yourself. You had to be “fixed”, made “correct”.
Sorry Tony, your kind should have killed me when you had the chance. I survived, educated myself and then learned the truth about the horrors your predecessors visited upon my body and soul. I spent 13 years of nightmares every night that related to those “corrective” surgeries. Had to live through decades of a conflict of what my soul felt and the systems that fucks like you wish to perpetuate, all for your bat-shit belief system. Yes you motherfucker, I have been through Hell and back, and I ain’t going to stop now.
I want retribution, but I’m willing to accept an apology and the promise that your kind will no longer block our efforts to improve the lives of people afflicted with conditions that destroy their abilities to live a good life. I know this will never come.
My desire is to also witness the death of that filthy belief system that cast me and so many others into a living Hell. Following the “Word of God” did not give you permission to do what you did to me and mine. Many Humans are as Nature made them, and not even your “God” can contradict Nature.
But I digress… now we come to retribution.
Stem cell research is vital in our efforts to heal the living of so many problems- organ regeneration, nerve damage repair… the elimination of many horrible health disorders, and yet mooks like you decry these efforts in order to claim that your kind are defenders of “Human Dignity”. It’s time for your kind to STFU and vanish from the stage of Life. It’s over, and ya’s lost the war. Get over it.
Now you mis-begotten pieces of protoplasm claim to “defend” life. Yea right fuckmooks, it’s past time for you to truly do so.
Respect Nature’s actions. Honor Her possibilities and the healing of hurts that may come. Stop attempting to be “God”.
Even though your kind wears crosses, you have no control of the vertical or the horizontal. Nature is what it is, and you might stymie Her for a time, but there are those of us who will fight you in this. Humankind will always seek ways to heal and create better lives.
Get the Hell out of our way.
I was tortured so that their skewed vision of Humanity would not be troubled.
OII is proud to present a collection of artworks by intersex people from all over the world. The illustration to the right is by Sophia Siedlberg from Salmacis and entitled Daughter.
Dee (former David) Palmer of the band Jethro Tull was born intersex:
"My mother told me something and it became very evident to me once I was able to make comparisons. I was born into what was called the intersex space; there was clear and obvious genital ambiguity. I had to have surgery when I was only a few hours old. I had my last surgery when I was 28 years of age. The only people I was able to make my observations from growing up were my brothers. Once I became aware of the female shape and constitution I knew something was seriously wrong."
On Wikipedia the fact of being intersex is not mentioned, instead the article focuses on Dee Palmers m/f transition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dee_Palmer
Everyday I am faced with the binary world, male and female. Not a day passes that I don't wonder if perhaps it would be easier to pick a side and just be, well one or the other. For now, I skate along the edge of male, and it works well enough. The wonderful USA does not recognize an intersex gender, so its one or the other for documentation no matter how poorly I fit into that category this decade. Because like anyone I change with time. When I was 10 years old, I looked more female than male. When I was 20 years old I was living as a young woman, because it was easier than trying to explain to people that I wasn't female. When I was 30 years old, I was living as a male, because I'd gained weight (my health was also critically challenged) and presenting as a male was easier.
I was reading through brain size and comparative function studies of XXY's and males, and the first aspect that stood out was that XXY individuals are only compared to males. And its not at all surprising (similar to a male to female study of similar origin) that the XXY people have smaller heads, smaller brains, smaller everything than the males do. I suppose its completely lost on the doctors studying this material the results for XXY people and females are remarkably similar.
"Third sex" people of India live in constant ridicule
Naru Narayanan, For The Mirror
Issue date: 3/4/09 Section: Perspectives
*Editor's Note: Naru Narayanan is a student from India who is studying integrated media at Drury for the next three years. Throughout this semester Naru will describe his native culture and share his international perspective with The Mirror.*
Is having a sex essential even when you are not having sex? A set of people are used for taking blessings, but not respected and accepted in the society, isn't it weird? Could you believe that those people are ill-treated and isolated because they don't have a fixed sex? "Hijaras," or eunchs, are the people who are known as third sex people. They are neither male nor female. There are more than half a million Hijaras in India. They are one of the leading suffering communities of India.
There are two kinds of Hijaras: one is born with a physical form of a Hijara, and the other simply feels like another sex. For the second kind, usually, at the age of 6 to 8, a man feels the sexual conflict. He is a male physically, but feels he is a female and behaves like a girl. The Hijaras (both physical and mental ones) leave their families and go in search of similar people because their family and friends are not ready to accept them, and they want to be with their kind of people.
They live together in groups in various parts of the country. Boys who feel they are girls gets his male genital parts chopped off (castrated) and becomes girls completely. This is done without anesthesia by many people as it is their tradition and belief. And others undergo a sex-change operation and gradually become girls. As they are not allowed to mingle with the general population, most of them are not educated and do not have good jobs. The Hijaras take up three kinds of occupations: dancing and singing in ceremonies, begging, and prostitution.
People believe that the Hijaras' blessings or curses are powerful and so invite them for marriages and child birth ceremonies to make blessings.
It is also believed that they possess some magical powers, but the Hijaras deny that. On one side, people call them for making blessings, but on the other hand, people ridicule, mock, and abuse them badly.
Most of the Hijaras beg or become prostitutes for their living. Begging and prostitution is the consequence of the ill-treatment by people, and even then they are not spared.
Some Hijaras say even the policemen harass them and that the policemen use the Hijaras to harass the criminals sexually.
When Hirjaras beg the people move away from them, get scared of them, and make fun of them. Some Hijaras use abusive language to make money, rub their hands on the private parts of the people and also kiss them. Sometimes, they lift their clothes up to make them give money.
I was able to interview a group of Hijaras and I think they are not as bad as they are portrayed.
Scolding and annoying people for making money is bad, but it seems defensive to me. When they are continuously abused by people, for decades, they will have to take up some measures to stop that, and they maybe chose this.
Before my documentary shoot with them, I was informed that they stripped a reporter's clothes, snatched his camera and cash. But they were not at all mean to us. In fact, they were really sweet and co-operative, and they were not ready to take a penny.
I saw many admirable, as well as pitiable, things in them. Just one day with them and I was able to feel the pain and torture they underwent everyday; I was not able to stand it.
When I walked with them on the road, people moved away from us. Some of my own friends laughed at me. We were not allowed to stand anywhere, go to residential areas and so many more restrictions and insults.
In spite of all these experiences, everyday and night, they have solid characters and high goals and principles, and most important of all, they are united.
Every Hijara wants her community to grow, prosper and be accepted in the society. The day to attain their goals is not far. There are many Hijaras who have proved themselves in various fields - education, occupation, social work and even family life.
The greatest thing I admire about them is when one Hijara succeeds, she makes at least four more Hijaras to succeed.
Please keep in mind that Dr. Lynn Conway is being threatened with a lawsuit simply for linking to an article on the website of the Organisation Intersex International. You can watch the video of the interview on our own news service below.
To read the article on OII's website that Lynn Conway linked to, click here
To read the letter from the lawyer for Kenneth Zucker and the CAMH to Dr. Lynn Conway, click here
To read part of the complaint that the president of the Organisation Intersex International filed with the APA Ethics committee against Zucker: Click here
Kind regards, Curtis E. Hinkle Founder of the Organisation Intersex International
"Staying Sane": Lynn Conway interviewed on Logo's 365Gay News regarding Ken Zucker's attempt to suppress her website [Originally aired on February 26, 2009]
On January 30, 2009 Lynn received a letter from Peter M. Jacobsen, an attorney representing Dr. Ken Zucker of CAMH (aka The Clarke Institute) in Toronto, falsely accusing her with libel and threatening her with a lawsuit – in a blatant attempt to disrupt Lynn's postings on the internet and defame Lynn amongst her colleagues.
Lynn called Zucker's bluff by exposing the false accusations in an investigative report on the internet. Chagmion Antoine of Logo/CBS News followed up on the story, in an interview Logo television's 365Gay News on February 26, 2009.
Links to the interview, background on this story and a transcript of the interview follow below.
As part of her University of Michigan website Lynn Conway maintains a news-feed that provides ongoing access to news items of interest to the transgender community.
On January 30, 2009 Lynn received a letter from Peter M. Jacobsen, an attorney representing Dr. Ken Zucker of the “Centre for Addiction and Mental Health” (CAMH, aka The Clarke Institute) at University of Toronto. The letter was also sent to the University of Michigan's Information Technology User Advocate, in an attempt to disrupt Lynn's postings on the internet and defame Lynn amongst her colleagues.
The Jacobsen letter threatened Lynn with a lawsuit for libel, claiming that:
“Your website contains very serious false and defamatory allegations of criminal conduct and sexual abuse by Dr. Zucker. These allegations clearly exceed the limits of free speech and public discourse . . . Please be advised that we have also notified the IT User Advocate at the University of Michigan of this defamatory posting. . . Please confirm receipt of this libel notice immediately and advise us immediately of what steps you have taken to have this defamatory material removed from your website” – Peter M. Jacobsen, representing CAMH and Zucker
However, as anyone could easily determine for themselves, there were no "allegations of criminal conduct and sexual abuse by Dr. Zucker" in Lynn's news-feed, nor were there any such allegations anywhere in Lynn's website.
Zucker's threat of a lawsuit was simply a bluff, as part of a rather foolhardy attempt to suppress Lynn's website - leading to the following sequence of events:
Feb. 26, 2009: Lynn was interviewed by Chagmion Antoine of LOGO/CBS News about Zucker's attempt to suppress her website and her freedom of speech: “Staying Sane”, 365Gay News, Logo Television [Originally aired 26 February 2009]
A transcript of the LOGO interview follows below:
Transcript of interview:
“Staying Sane” 365Gay News, Logo [Originally aired 26 February 2009]
Ross Palombo: A transgender university professor targeted she says for speaking out, and her fight against a prominent psychiatrist may help others keep their sanity. Chagmion Antoine has that story from New York. Chagmion.
Chagmion Antoine: Ross, even though homosexuality was removed from the American Psychiatric Association’s list of mental illnesses back in 1973, people who are transgender are still diagnosed with gender identity disorder today. And one professor at U. Michigan says that’s crazy talk.
Chagmion Antoine (voiceover): Lynn Conway has been fighting for the rights of transgender people ever since her own experience cost her her job in the 1960s. Now she’s a professor emeritus at the University of Michigan, and her website lynnconway.com is a respected resource for trans people all around the world. So why is she being sued for libel by one of the world’s leading researchers on gender identity?
Professor Lynn Conway: This isn’t between Dr. Zucker and Professor Lynn Conway, this is between Dr. Zucker and the entire transgender community.
Chagmion Antoine (voiceover): Dr. Kenneth Zucker, a Toronto-based sexologist, spent his career diagnosing children with gender identity issues as mentally ill. When he was appointed to the APA as an authority on gender identity disorders last year, Conway sounded the alarm.
Professor Lynn Conway: Dr. Zucker and his clinic are the sources of decades of pseudoscience claiming that transgender people, especially transgender children, are mentally disordered and in need of reparative therapy. I seek to expose that.
Chagmion Antoine (voiceover): And she did. Zucker’s appointment to the APA’s committee was protested by trans people around the world.
Chagmion Antoine (voiceover): Zucker fired back with this letter to Conway, threatening to sue. He never followed through. Zucker declined to comment to 365, but Conway says his scare tactics are meant to draw attention from the bigger picture.
Professor Lynn Conway: There are a lot of us out there. A lot of us are actually rather cool people. I think he’d enjoy meeting us all.
Chagmion Antoine: Here’s an interesting fact. Lynn Conway is also a pioneering researcher in computer chip technology. She literally helped write the book. Ross.
To be lesbian, gay, bisexual, a crossdresser, transsexual, transgender or heterosexual is a gift from God. This Sunday the Agape Nation Community is going to study the topic: "Adam, the first human being in the world - Man, woman or hermaphrodite?". The sermon is by pastor Edson. It will deal with what the Bible really teaches about same sex attraction.
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