Intersex Awareness Day was last week and it was brought to our attention by a queens college student who stressed it’s importance and why we should take notice of it. Since many of us knew very little on the subject, I felt compelled to research and talk about it. What does it mean to be intersex [otherwise known as hermaphrodite]? Why it’s so important and why  should it be LGBTQI verses LGBTQ?

The Intersex Society of America defines Intersex as :

“….a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.”

A person may be born with the anatomy of both a male and a female. Or a person may have an external female anatomy but an internal male anatomy. Or a person may have an unusually large clitoris or small penis with a scrotum resembling a labia. Also genetically, a person who is considered intersex could have chromosomes of both XX and XY. Whatever the definition, just as there is a spectrum of various sexual identities, there’s also a spectrum of gender and not just male vs. female.

What’s more, surprisingly, individuals could also not know that they’re intersex until they reach puberty, find themselves to be an infertile adult. Some, believe or not, could go through their entire lives without themselves or anyone knowing about their intersex anatomy.

Growing up we learn to associate certain organs and traits of the anatomy with male or female for example, breasts, penises, gonads, scrotum, vagina, clitoris all of which vary in size and shape per individual. These are traits each placed into two categories, one or the other and no room for in between. But who decides these categories? Nature? or Humans themselves? We do. From birth and through every aspect in our life, be it or birth certificate, applying for college, filling out the about me on facebook, we have to make a choice between the two. What seems effortless to us, for many, intersex and  transgender, a broad umbrella word for any person who transgresses societal norms of traditional gender roles and stereotypes which by definition includes many gays, lesbians, feminists,  individuals, this isn’t so easy.

 

However the struggle doesn’t stop here. Often times when parents find that their child is intersex or born with characteristics, they “correct” this “error” and choose a sex for the child–believing that they’re helping the child and making his or her life easier. This, is extremely detrimental move to make and often leaves the child damaged psychologically and emotionally. Imagine if you were placed into a gender and you grew up feeling out of place because you feel you should be something else? Or imagine taking a shower and looking down at your genitalia…wishing it could’ve been  different. It’s not the life of the parent but the life of the child and only they themselves can know what gender they want to be and when they are ready to choose if they want to.

Many intersex, transgender children face the same issues of those in the LGBTQ community and are often bullied, bashed and misunderstood by society, their family and sometimes the LGBT community itself.

Last semester gender neutral bathrooms were brought to the Queens College campus. This gives individuals the option of not having to segregate themselves into bathroom if they choose not to. To quote the Knight News:

These restrooms are single- stalled, with one toilet and sink and come equipped with a lock to ensure privacy. The pictorial label on the outside depicts both the traditional male and female pictures found outside of gender-segregated bathrooms, some being wheelchair accessible.

These bathrooms can be found in single stalled bathrooms in Jefferson Hall, King Hall and Fitzgerald Gymnasium.

 

So what can we do? We could educate others we know at our schools, work and families. The cause for hate is often ignorance. Word of mouth goes a long way. The more others know,  the more tolerant they are of others.

The student that spoke to us,  also mentioned an event on transgender, intersex individuals at QC so I’ll be sure to update this post once I find out. If you are the person who informed us of intersex awareness last week, could you please comment below on the event details? We thank you so much! :]