Many of the specialists being interviewed about Caster Semenya have further stigmatized intersex infants and adults by spreading the unscientific notion that we are disordered by using the term "disorder of sex development" or “DSD”.
There is a reason why genitals are euphemistically referred to as 'private parts'. Most of us would like to keep it that way. And I suspect that an 18-year-old woman, who has only just discovered that she might not be quite as 'female' as she thought, tops that list.
Unfortunately for Caster Semenya, the world has become obsessed with her gender and, by extension, her genitals. However the two are not as neatly packaged together as most of us would like to believe. In fact, the binary notion of gender — male and female — is something of a human construct.
There is a significant number of people who fall somewhere in between and are regarded as intersexed.
There is nothing new about this phenomenon — the term hermaphrodite (now outdated and somewhat offensive) was coined from the Greek god Hermaphroditus who possessed the physical traits of both sexes.
Of course, being intersexed is far more complicated than this. It can involve possessing ambiguous genitalia, sex organs that are not clearly male or female, or the internal genitalia of one sex and the external genitalia of another.
According to Intersex South Africa, our country has an unusually high percentage of intesexed individuals. It is estimated that every one in 50 people has sex organs that are in some way atypical and that one in 500 people are born intersexed (that is roughly 96 000 South Africans!).
Because of the complex nature of intersexuality, some people can go their entire lives without ever realizing that they are, in fact, intersexed. Being intersexed does not mean that you are gay, lesbian or transgendered — it is not about sexual orientation.
So, how does it work?
Intersexed individuals can be divided into four categories:
46 XX Intersex: Individuals with this condition have the chromosomes and ovaries of a woman, but external genitals that appear male. The most common cause of this is a condition called Congenital Adrenal Hypoplasia.
46 XY Intersex: The individual has the chromosomes of a man, but the external genitals are either ambiguous or completely female. Internally, the testes may be normal, malformed or completely absent. A common cause of this condition, Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS) occurs when the receptors to the male hormones (androgen) do not function properly.
True Gonadal Intersex: A person with this condition has both ovarian and testicular tissue. They may have XX chromosomes, XY chromosomes, or both. External genitals may be ambiguous or completely male or female.
Complex or Undetermined Intersex: Conditions which fall under this category do not involve a discrepancy between internal and external genitalia, but there may be a problem with sex hormone levels, overall sexual development or an altered number of sex chromosomes.
Wherever she may fall on the gender spectrum, Caster Semenya deserves more respect than she has been given. She also needs and deserves our compassion. In a country where so many people are faced with the challenge of being intersexed in a world which sees people as either male or female, it is time that we broaden our understanding of gender.
For more information contact Intersex SA on +2721 447 6290 or coordinator@intersex.org.za.
WORLD athletics is in crisis over the gender of Caster Semenya after tests revealed the South African world champion has no womb or ovaries.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is ready to disqualify Semenya from future events and advise her to have immediate surgery because her condition carries grave health risks. They have also not ruled out stripping Semenya of her 800m world championships gold medal.
Tests conducted during the world athletics championships in Berlin last month, where Semenya's gender became the subject of heated debate following her victory in the 800m, revealed evidence she is a hermaphrodite, someone with both male and female sexual characteristics.
Semenya, 18, has three times the amount of testosterone that a "normal'' female would have. According to a source closely involved with the Semenya examinations IAAF testing, which included various scans, has revealed she has internal testes - the male sexual organs which produce testosterone.
Only the certainty of an even more savage backlash from South Africa has made the IAAF hesitant about slapping a ban on Semenya and revoking her gold medal.
South Africa embraced Semenya after the storm of controversy from Berlin, declaring her "our girl''. From the day news broke on August 19 that the IAAF had initiated gender verification tests on Semenya, various factions within South African society and politics have attacked the Monte Carlo based IAAF.
The African National Congress MP and National Assembly sports committee chairman Butana Komphela has already lodged a complaint with the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights, accusing the IAAF of racism and sexism.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source familiar with the IAAF inquiry into the Semenya affair explained the political as well as personal sensitivities involved.
"There certainly is evidence Semenya is a hermaphrodite. But the trouble is the IAAF now have the whole ANC and the whole of South Africa on their backs. Everything is going to have to be done absolutely by the book, no question of a challenge to our findings,'' she told The Daily Telegraph.
"There's all sorts of scans you do. This is why it's complicated. In the past you used to do a gynaecological exam, blood test, chromosome test, whatever. That's why they (the findings) were challenged, because it's not quite so simple.
"So what they do now is they do everything, and then they can say look, not only has she got this, she's got that and the other. The problem for us is to avoid it being an issue now which is very personal: of the organs being a hermaphrodite, of not being a 'real' woman. It's very dramatic.''
The IAAF expects to receive the full set of medical results this week.
When quizzed by South African magazine You on the gender issue, Semenya said: "I see it all as a joke, it doesn't upset me. God made me the way I am and I accept myself. I am who I am and I'm proud of myself. I don't want to talk about the tests - I'm not even thinking about them.''
While the IAAF are treating the Semenya case as a health matter, with her eligibility to compete in women's athletics very much a secondary issue, the same South African politicians who denied AIDS was a problem in their country are now blindly standing behind their new queen of the track.
"Well of course Caster is a totally innocent victim in this whole affair,'' the source explained. "What could she do about it? And the IAAF accepted her entry. So the two parties at fault are the IAAF and especially Athletics SA. The South Africans have got a massive responsibility, but no one seems to be attacking them.
"Basically they (ASA) have known for months, for years, that she's not normal. They could have set in process these kind of tests if they had been more responsible.''
Kulsum Yusuf, TNN 9 September 2009, 10:22 pm IST
RAJKOT: Seven days after a boy was born to a city-based family, doctors have medically proved that the baby is a girl. The baby went through an operation on Wednesday for a sex change. After a sonography, city-based doctor Dr Atul Hirani confirmed that it was a baby girl. The baby had male genital organs but female sexual organs inside the body. The family realized that something was amiss and took the baby to a paediatrician and after various tests. After consultation and discussion with doctors, they were convinced to take a practical decision for the better future of the baby. Had the family chosen to keep the baby as it is, it could have led to psychological and social problems for the baby. The family belongs to middle class strata. A team of doctors lead by Dr Rohit Thakkar and five others, including plastic surgeon Dr Girish Amlani, urologist Dr Sanjay Popat, general surgeon Dr Yogesh Raichura, paediatrician Dr Nayan Kalavadiya and Dr Sukhdev Chandarana, operated upon the seven-day-old baby for genital reconstruction in a three-hour operation. The baby will be able to live a normal life as a female child. Source: Click here
Intersex grown ups
We tend to dismiss the issue of difference by casting it in moral or cultural arguments. I know that many intersex babies in Kenya have operations the moment they are born, here the decisions being made by the parents. As one would imagine, the majority of these babies end up being male. Problems crop up later when the adults want to reverse those decisions by their parents. It is also common knowledge that intersex grown ups who seek operations after making their own decisions invariably find surgeons who ask them to seek the permission of their parents, their adulthood notwithstanding! It is not that as Kenyans we do not know this problem. We do. We seem to refuse to treat it with the humanity it deserves.
We are also a very homophobic nation, although I believe we have not reached the horrific levels of Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe. Do we regard LGBTIQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer) people as human beings who are simply different? Can we on any legal or moral basis argue that gay people should be killed on the basis of their sexual orientation? Should we condone discrimination in whatever form on the basis of sexual orientation? What do we do when our relatives are gay? Do we announce from the rooftops that they are sick and unmitigated sinners? Why should we play God in these matters? The foremost bastions of homophobia in many countries seem to be religious institutions although I am sure they have no problems pocketing the offerings of gay people.
God's role
We need, as a nation, to correct the issue of discrimination. As we discuss a new constitution we may want to discuss these issues of difference and discrimination. Most of the gay groups in East Africa are founded by young people who crave for understanding and respect for their rights to be different. Cursing people who are gay, killing them, discriminating them in jobs, housing and in health will not make them disappear. If we are, indeed, religious we need to accept God’s role in the creation and in the difference and at least discuss the issue. I believe the first place where we should start this discussion is in the family and cultivate understand that can perhaps permeate to the rest of society.
One final word of advice to all Kenyans who want to stand up and be counted in the struggle for equality and rights of the sexual minorities is the realisation that you do not have to be gay to protect gay rights.
I wonder if Semenya was Kenyan we would have flocked the JKIA to welcome her. Her family, relatives and the wilder society in South Africa glorified her victory. May be Semenya’s controversy will keep Kenyans thinking through these broader issues and not the gold medal. Thank you Semenya!
(cabralpinto2009@gmail.com)
To read the complete article: Click here
According to information from Christiane Völling, the surgeon, Prof. Dr. L. has given up and will not appeal the latest judgment after losing for the third time and he has already paid the damages! This is a victory from beginning to end for Christiane and her courageous lawyer, Georg Groth.
The payment [of damages] brought the "Hermtrial" which has been ongoing for over two years to a historic end more quickly than expected: for the first time ever in Germany a surgeon has been held accountable in a civil suit for non-consensual castration of an intersexed person - and the decision was upheld at all levels of the judicial system!
A huge day for all intersex people and all those who support them in their struggle to stop nonconsensual genital surgery and other nonconsensual treatments and those who support the right to self determination and human rights for intersex people.
- Translation, Curtis E. Hinkle, Founder of OII
German
Wie Christiane Völling mitteilt, verzichtet der am 12.8.2009 zum dritten Mal in Folge verurteilte Chirurg Prof. Dr. L. auf eine Berufung und hat das Schmerzensgeld bereits überwiesen! Sieg auf der ganzen Linie für Christiane und ihren couragierten Anwalt Georg Groth!
Mit der erfolgten Zahlung kam der nunmehr über zwei Jahre dauernde Zwitterprozess schneller als erwartet zu einem historischen Ende: Zum allerersten Mal wurde in Deutschland ein Chirurg für eine nicht-eingewilligte Kastration an einem zwischengeschlechtlichen Menschen wenigstens zivilrechtlich belangt – und unterlag definitive durch alle Instanzen!
Ein grosser Tag für alle zwischengeschlechtlichen Menschen und alle UnterstützerInnen in ihrem Kampf um die sofortige Beendigung der genitalen Zwangsoperationen und aller sonstigen nicht-eingewilligten Zwangseingriffe, für Selbstbestimmung und "Menschenrechte auch für Zwitter!"
Sent by Nella from zwischengeschlecht.org
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