A Word In Edgewise: Because I’m Not You, Doesn’t Mean I’m Not Me

Reading Alicia Roth Weigel’s Inverse Cowboy (see the “Books” column in this issue) how little many of us not personally in the “I” category of “LGBTQUA+,” know about “Intersex,” not even how many in the general population are affected. Weigel says they’re statistically, “about as common as redheads–about 2% of the world’s population.” Online sources quote 1.7% – still a lot of folks out of a current 8,045,311,447 at mid-2023.

There are those who insist, “God doesn’t make mistakes!” to the LGBTQ+ segments, as though the subjects of their ire have chosen to fabricate their existence to publicly flaunt it; how then, can so many also confront an intersex individual with hatred and disgust when their makers themselves (of whatever creed) sent those I-infants into the world express? Or, if of a more scientific than deistic bent, do they not realize that codes, even genetic, occasionally have hitches, flaws, breaks offering different–sometimes tragic–outcomes; an hereditary, fatal disease like Tay-Sachs, or, more joyously, a soaring Einstein or Rembrandt? Not a matter of good or evil, not retribution for a parent’s sin, just chemical flukes and genetic roulette.

Once an intersex condition has been diagnosed, the main medical response up until painfully recently has been to persuade parents to allow non-consensual surgery on the child to “normalize” it, not considering the effect on its body or on its future wishes. Of course, some conditions are life-threatening; spina bifida or intestinal blockages, for example, require immediate surgery and the child’s wishes cannot be obtained, and parents must give consent. But in intersex cases, where there would be no medical danger to wait, the child may later know its own mind and express a definite opinion, waiting would be a boon for all concerned.  

In Weigel’s case, the parents were persuaded to have the operation performed at the time. There being no box for “I” on the paperwork, they checked “F” and went ahead. Her internal testes were removed. Later, she learned, they would have naturally produced testosterone, some of which would have been lost through urination, and some converted to estrogen, a hormone needed in any woman’s body. That natural source excised, Weigel will be taking hormone replacements for the rest of her life. So much intersex treatment is still aimed at coverup instead of what’s best for the child, or considering whether the parts being excised or disconnected are actually beneficial for that individual’s growth and development and could–should–be dealt with later.

If one must cling to the “God doesn’t” (or “does”) trope, consider further that if some of those, embarrassing bits had been omitted or over-accentuated, the embryo, fetus, neonate, i.e., your child, might not ever have seen the light of day.

Further education is imperative–but for the non-affected, to understand otherness, not to homogenize those different into something mirroring the beholder. Nature will continue on, ad-libbing varieties of genders, adding an extra chromosome here, and yes, sometimes, a fatal genetic insertion there. Intersex is complicated by the numerous  possible permutations and combinations of X and Y. Infant Weigel drew complete androgen insensitivity syndrome. Nature is a bounteous Mother.

My aim is not to offer a complete handbook on Intersex, but to point out how ill-informed are not only the general public and many physicians, but also those among the Rainbow Acronym (including this writer) are concerning what constitutes “Intersex”, and to realize  the need to learn to embrace another “otherness” as we fellow letters wish to be embraced.