People seek tribe membership. When "gay" was an insult, gay's banded together to embrace the term and convert it to a designation, that was in the end, embraced. I think that gender designation means little. What is the difference between men and women? The shape of our genitals? Ridiculous. People are alike. Men and women, and those around the world. That is the amazing thing that I have concluded is the truth.
Respectfully, the testes may have been removed when you were young due to increased risk of testicular cancer when they are undescended.
I doubt that Trump is even aware that intersex individuals exist, or what they go through as children when they are assigned a gender before they can give their own consent.
No doubt your parents and doctors did what they thought was best for you, but that doesn't change the fact that you and millions of others didn't get to make that choice.
I hear anger beneath your words. I hope you are taking good care of yourself mentally and physically to deal with this.
Mr. Trump won't win in the long run. He is a bump in the road; an important and scary one, but nonetheless he will be a footnote in history because there are millions who care about people like you.
3
I'm sorry adults decided to make irreversible, life-altering, now distressing modifications to the author's body before she reached the age of consent.
But one of the reasons many of us parent are alarmed by transgenderism is because grownups are using it to make irreversible changes with lifelong implications to the bodies of children who do not conform to rigid sex-role stereotypes long before the kids can consent.
Pre-pubescent children used get wide latitude re toys, dress & behavior. Boys could wear tutus & like sparkles, & while some might've called them "girly boys," they were still seen as male. Girls could have short hair & play rough & tumble, & while we were often called "tomboys," we were still seen as girls.
But today, we're told "feminine" boys & "masculine" girls are really transgender. What's more, a growing number of trans activists, physicians, teachers, the MSM like the NYT & parents say the only acceptable path for these children is to socially & medically transition them to the opposite sex - & ASAP because if they go through natural puberty they'll end up with the secondary sex characteristics of the "wrong sex." So GNC kids as young as 10 are being put on puberty-blocking drugs. Once they're on those drugs, they almost always go on to cross-sex hormones, & then to surgery, like Jazz Jennings & Jessie Green of TV fame.
But puberty blockers render these kids sterile AND inhibit their cognitive development. Some call it child-abuse. Me too.
7
Stop with the propaganda, almost daily, on this topic. Title IX enabled women to play sports. This draft (which is just a draft and I've no idea how the NYTimes continues to obtain drafts) is about stopping men that feel like a woman get on a woman's team. Even men that feel like they are a woman have men's physics - different muscles, etc. That is a fact and that is the fact that Obama ignored when he changed the intent from protecting women's rights to receive school dollars and facilities to play sports. Before Title IX, few schools had any organized team sports for women, spare the few elite high schools that supported field hockey. I'm sick and tired of the partial truths in the NYTimes to sell their agenda of divisiveness and tear down any semblance of order for something women fought to hard for, for legal immigration, for common sense. No one that I know cares if you are transgender, it won't stop you from getting a job or going to the bathroom. I do hope something stops men from joining women's school teams as well as going into a locker room shower with women after the game.
6
The most repulsive thing about Trumps transgender policy is that I believe that Trump has no personal animosity torwards transgender people (unlike say how he feels about immigrants or African Americans) which is what makes this policy so craven in addition to being immoral and generally reprehensible.
14
Whether the author likes it or not, there are documented psychological problems with children who are born with ambiguous genitalia. One can argue that this stems from society's peer pressure of wanting to categorize kids from an early age into a binary choice of male or female. But the fact remains that kids young enough to be in nursery school will ostracize such a child, which leads to the psychological trauma.
So she wanted to consent to the decisions being made for her? At what age? Like a newborn consenting to surgery for a life threatening condition like a congenital heart defect? Like it or not, her parents and medical experts did the best job acting as her surrogate decision maker. She skips over the fact that undescended testicles almost always leads to cancer. They're removed in males if the condition is somehow missed, otherwise surgery may be attempted to lower them. The alternative to removal for the author would have been such a lowering procedure. A bit awkward to have a pair of balls without a penis. Medical consensus holds that these children are best raised as females as it's too late for hormone supplementation to produce a functional male.
The author neglects to tell us what options she would have ostensibly chosen, or what exactly about her present condition she's unhappy with. Sometimes there are no perfect solutions and the parents and medical team are attempting an optimal result based on accumulated knowledge and experience. So sorry for that.
4
The author of this piece seems to be outraged that she never got to make the choice to be female. But virtually none of us chose our gender. It never even occurred to me that that's something I should get upset about.
22
@Samuel Russell: You didn't have unnecessary surgery to 'create' your sex identity. She's outraged her body was forced into a category rather than being seen as acceptable as it was. It's understandable.
30
@Samuel Russell,
If you aren't upset then you are falling behind.
Catch up! The outrage is addictive.
There is nothing in this world that cannot be made into a personal affront. Get angry!
7
@Samuel Russell Aren't you lucky? And just because it wasn't an issue for you, you complain that it was an issue for a person whose parents and doctors made a decision for her rather than allowing her to make such a decision for herself (or himself) or to live with both sets of organs?
13
The longer I live, the more I wonder why we are so intolerant of others. Sexuality, gender, gender dysphoria, binary, non-binary and other labels that often confuse me. None of this really matters. It's fairly easy to mind our own business and just let people be who they are. Why do we care? Why do we hurt each other? These are angry times and we can all do better, especially if we take a long hard look at ourselves. I guess it's just easier looking and condemning others. People should not have to fight to be themselves, but they do. We need to start looking more closely at people who inflict pain and demand that they explain why they are the way they are.
10
But equality for one group can't be obtained by trampling on another or by imposing a non-existent equivalency. Reality is that being a biologically male woman is not the same as being a biologically female woman and there are certain areas where biology is going to get on the way to "one size fits all". Like it or not, female women have different life experiences, have a different biology, different needs and need to be protected from things that male women do not. I am all for support and openness and equal rights but do not erase me, or ignore my needs or re-label me or remove protections created for me in order to accommodate what sometimes just can't be accommodated. That is what it feels like these days.
4
Alicia, perhaps you are just confused? Trump's broadside leaves you right where you have made yourself.
1
2% of the world population (est. 7.6B) would fall between the %age of the global population of Bangladesh (2.16%) and Russia (1.92%) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_popu...
Does this rise to the level of a Humanitarian crisis? I think it does.
2
This beautifully written article just reinforces to me that we now have an administration that makes public policy not from a position of knowledge, but of ignorance. I sincerely doubt Mr. Trump has ever heard the term "intersex". Thank you Alicia for educating us all.
3
Alicia Roth-Weigel, you say "One day, maybe soon, they will give up the game of trying to erase us." If you think that's true, you are being naive. They won't stop until we stop them.
3
Intersex and transgender issues are confusing to the other 98% (even for those of us who want to offer acceptance and support), so I humbly thank you for this piece.
Some here have commented that the hard right GOPers want to control other people’s bodies/ genitalia. This is one way their obsessions manifest but I think that characterization misses the point. They want to be free to look down on others, as a justification for taking power over them. They define themselves as the “ideal” and want to exercise their “rights” to put themselves above those they deem “not ideal” in the social hierarchy. They cannot understand a worldview that flattens the hierarchy and claims all people have equal value. I just point this out because I think a lot of fellow liberal minded people get distracted by the million acts of GOP-style stupidity and cruelty instead of pointing out that their overall worldview is patently and consistently anti-American.
7
@PieceDeResistance, I agree. And that sounds kind of...Aryan, doesn't it?
Thank you for bravely getting out in front. Fight the power, sister! Or brother. Or whomever you get to choose to be.
2
Where does it leave you?? VOTE DEMOCRAT! And be tolerant of the fact that Dems don't put your issue, which applies to a tiny % of the electorate, at the top of their priority list. In the long term, or even the intermediate term, do you rationally believe that throwing away your vote on a left-left candidate so as to insure continued Republican domination actually helps your cause?? If you and yours can't figure this out, then you collaborate in insuring the perpetuation of a dark fate.
5
Please keep focusing on how us average white conservative folks who “cling” to an “outmoded” notion that people are generally male or female. We are just too ignorant and intellectually inflexible to understand that gender is “fluid” and anyone can “self-identify” a gender of the the day - or maybe self-identify as genderless. Male and female - what a concept.
This silliness is almost as helpful to conservatives as the Liberal Democrats’ racist misandrist claim that all white men are privileged sex-offenders filled with hate and fear. Yep, that makes folks all warm and fuzzy toward Democratic candidates.
God bless the New York Times.
3
I suspect Trump has no intention of actually doing anything about this. Transgender issues are strongly opposed by the foaming-at-the-mouth segment of the Republican base. After the midterms, this may all be conveniently forgotten.
"These surgeries are irreversible, lead to physical and emotional scarring..." Which is why Johns Hopkins no longer performs gender reassignment surgery. People suffering from gender dysphoria, a psychological condition, should not be treated with surgeries that remove healthy organs.
4
@David Ricardo
There is a huge difference between an informed adult choosing to under go gender reassignment surgery and doing surgery on a baby to attempt to fit them into a binary Male/female category. The authors point is about doing surgery on babies too young to understand much less consent. They should be allowed to make up their own minds when they are old enough.
The article is not talking about removing the option of gender reassignment for consenting adults. I'm sure there is no one who has chosen to have gender reassignment surgery on a mere whim.
3
Before judging the parents, put yourself in their shoes: they were faced with no good options. Back then they did what they thought was best for the child based on information available. Nowadays we know better and anybody who still opts for surgery for a baby might be wrong. It is easy for the author of this essay to say the parents where wrong as hindsight is 20/20 but the author needs to remember the decision came from a place of love and from wanting to do what they thought was best. And that is the one thing I can assure you every single one of us who are parents pray for every time we need to make a decision with no good option for our children.
4
I would challenge our thinking to go beyond single issue advocacy and admit there are many things we do not know. Why does God permit intersex babies? If you had such a baby, what would you do? With surgery, decide for a boy or girl or leave the baby alone?
At a mental health drop-in center I met a young man named David who had been such a baby. His parents had elected that he be a boy. He was one of the most unhappy persons I have ever met. He wrote excellent poetry—however, with tragic, depressing themes expressing his anguish. He said, “I wish they had let me alone. Or at least let me be a girl—not a boy.”Instead of making judgments, isn’t it God’s way to love people as they are?
6
The Trump administration cares zero for the actual details of how policy will affect actual human beings. They just want to appeal to the prejudices of the religious right for political gain. Arguing with them is a waste of breath, vote them out instead.
3
the republican/evangelical/pro-choice obsession of what our underpants cover is putrid.... there are no other words for theses science deniers
"Intersex refers to people who are born with ANY of a range of characteristics that may not fit traditional conceptions about male or female bodies."
Your definition citation does not respect your circumstances, which are very, very rare.
Visit www.isna.org/faq/frequency for a more scientific statistical analysis.
1
Frankly, this seems ridiculous. Had my children been born with the vanishingly rare condition of androgen insensitivity (2% is one in 50; the real rate is one in 20,000), I would have made the exact same decision as Weigel's parents, and I would have done it without a second thought. I'm not even sure how they knew about it when she was a baby - most people with the condition are unaware of it until puberty, when they go to the doctor to find out why their period hasn't started.
There's nothing wrong with parents trying to achieve normalcy for their kids. In Weigel's case, she (apparently) appeared fully female. Even if that weren't so, what good parents wouldn't make these decisions for their kids as soon as possible? Should a child somehow presenting both male and female characteristics go through the first decade or so of life like that? That will work out swimmingly for the kid's confidence and self-esteem throughout their educational career, because, as we all know, children are never thoughtlessly cruel to those who are different (note the heavy sarcasm).
She seems to think some injustice was done. I think she should be thanking her parents for making the best decision available.
Weigel does raise an interesting point about where she (phenotypically female but genetically male) would fit into this latest Trumpian business. Likewise with those who are truly transgender - the law must allow for both. Several more points I'd like to make, but I'm out of room.
5
@Greg Right on, Greg! Clearly you’ve got the whole picture—and the data. So let me add what may be one of those things you didn’t have room for.
What the genes do in determining male or female is just to determine whether the gonads are testes or ovaries. That’s it. From then on, it’s the testosterone from the testes that determines all the rest of male development. Without testosterone, the body develops as a female body. So a male with Androgen Insensitivity will develop an essentially female body. I suppose you can call that “Intersex” if you’d like. And so, as you emphasized, the parents must make a decision, and you’re absolutely right that the obvious choice for a baby that looks like a girl and doesn’t respond to testosterone is female. Even though the genes look male, the child looks and is raised female--which of course is the way she should be classified.
Apparently President Trump needs to take some courses in Developmental Biology and Physiological Psychology—along with many others, of course.
I am deeply sympathetic to Ms. Weigel's story, but as a parent of 3 children, I can't help but feel sympathy for the dilemna her parents were confronted with as well-- assuming Ms. Weigel is 30 years old or so, American society in the 1980s was a very different place culturally, and the reality is that most parents want a 'normal life' for their children....it doesn't diminish her plight to acknowledge that parents and medical professionals are a major part of the current transgender/intersex debate, and to celebrate the progress we've made as a society, while also fighting Trump's small- minded approach to issues of gender....
3
There are many things we do not see or understand until we become parents ourselves. As much sympathy I have for the author regarding the awfulness of the cards she was dealt at birth, I feel for her parents after her decision to publish this essay made an issue that should have been handled privately and with the help of mental health professionals so public.
1
I wholeheartedly support trans and intersex rights. People should not be discriminated against because of their gender identity.
Having said that, in the last three days, there have been two op-eds here in the Times and one in the Washington Post talking about the plight of trans or intersex people. Women, (biologically speaking), who comprise about 50% of the population, are under constant threat of continuing to lose rights. Reproductive rights have already been seriously restricted, both through legislation that limits abortions, and through limited insurance coverage for birth-control. Issues of maternity leave, equal pay, etc. are at stake in the coming election, affecting HALF of the population. Yet there are virtually no editorials or op-eds about that.
9
I agree. As a female woman, I feel I have been pushed aside and down. I have been re-labeled, I have been told that other people know better what being me is all about, I am being told my life experiences dont matter and that I do not have the right to push back without being called "a hater". I am all for equal rights and tolerance but do not steamroll over those of us who are the group you want to be accepted into.
4
Again, the exception proves the rule.
By codifying the basis for gender identification the Administration laid out the framework for discussion and action. This is far more helpful than Facebook’s 52 different ways to describe one’s gender, which smacks of distraction rather than helpfulness.
To get to work on the issue of intersex there needs to be ground rules. That’s what the Administration provided, a basis point based on science. With that done, the table is now set for a compassionate and dispassionate discussion on how to assist, with dignity those who are more than the either or.
2
@K. Lazlo Hud
But the administration is not basing their policy on science despite their claims. Science has shown that there are many possible combinations and physical manifestations of sex other than just all male or all female.
I take your point that you have to start the conversation somewhere but this is very poor starting place. I have no faith that this administration has any interest in a compassionate discussion. To me this is a clear attempt to end-run around any legal anti-discrimination protections for anyone who is sexually other that M/F. If they can also throw in a way to avoid any legal protections against discriminating again women they will gladly do that also.
The what do you suggest? You can't ignore biology. You can't make biologically male women equal and the same as biologically female women because they are not. There are going to be places, instances, programs, life experiences where biology will have to be taken into account, for example sports where a biological male has a natural advantage over a biological woman. How do you suggest requirement for participation be defined?
3
Thanks for your reply.
Respectfully I differ on your view that science has determined definitive answers beyond binary gender. Caveat: there is obvious as well as genetic evidence for intersex persons, a much rarer occurrence than alluded to in this article.
This link takes you to a very large report available in The New Atlantis
https://www.thenewatlantis.com/publications/number-50-fall-2016
The editors’ preface gives a pretty good idea what the paper concludes - “written by Dr. Lawrence S. Mayer, an epidemiologist trained in psychiatry, and Dr. Paul R. McHugh, arguably the most important American psychiatrist of the last half-century — in the hope of improving public understanding of these questions. Examining research from the biological, psychological, and social sciences, this report shows that some of the most frequently heard claims about sexuality and gender are not supported by scientific evidence. The report has a special focus on the higher rates of mental health problems among LGBT populations, and it questions the scientific basis of trends in the treatment of children who do not identify with their biological sex. More effort is called for to provide these people with the understanding, care, and support they need to lead healthy, flourishing lives.”
If you want further understanding you’ll read it. If you don’t, you won’t.
I suspect mixing political bias into this discussion (the second part of your reply) may mean your mind is made up.
Hope not.
I highly recommend the book Middlesex written by Jeffrey Eugenides, a fictionalized account of the life of an intersex person. The author provides a great explanation of the genetics at the same time that he tells a great story about the challenges of growing up with a body that doesn’t conform to social norms. At the very least it should be required reading for everyone in the Trump administration. That said I fear that they’d be more likely to ban the book than read it.
2
Seeing the world through rosy-colored glasses, I always assume we are going to continue to broaden and add texture and complexity to our understanding of everything. But this administration wants the opposite - to force everything into a simplistic black/white paradigm. Its need to do so only reveals its lack of sophistication, knowledge, and emotional capacity. This is but the most recent example. I fear for our future.
75
@Monique Rinere,
Each one of us will have to open our hearts and be willing to 'broaden and add texture and complexity to our understanding of everything.'
A good President could not force us to be open and kind. A bad President cannot force us to be mean and cruel.
It has always been up to us, each as individuals, to make this country a better place.
No President can take our ability to be understand and inclusive away from us.
Don't fear. There are so many more kind people in this country than people like Trump.
8
@WillT26
I think it is true that there are many more kind people in this country...but are they going to vote?
2
@SQUEE,
Sure- but kindness doesn't guarantee that they will vote a certain way!
2
The administration of Donald Trump is responsible for a litany of vindictive policies that deserve condemnation, but there is no evidence that this is one of them.
Ms. Wigel's suffering that she shares with the readers is a result of an accident of in utero development that has existed, with similar distress, from time immemorial.
In the first part of the last century there was a consensus that assignment to a gender be made jointly by parents and physicians, as it was believed that this would allow a better adjustment fro the child. At times this didn't work out, but to wait into the child reached adulthood would mean a long childhood of potential stigmatization. Wikipedia articles on Intersex and Transexual go into this.
As usual, Trump has leaked without any context, so this alone is to be condemned. If only we had a President who could convey the reason for change, and then with genuine compassion explain why his proposal is required, the reaction of anger, fear and hurt would not have been unleashed.
4
@Call Me Al, this didn't leak from Trump, but from the Dept of HHS.
Being human is fraught with physical, moral, and spiritual predicaments, and no small measure of ambiguity. Humans who are lucky to fall in the broad center of normalcy don’t know what it’s like to be on the edges, but the edges are not made up of mere genetic mistakes, or people who are simply feeling rebellious. Everything that has a center naturally has an edge.
Virginia Mollenkott’s book, Omnigender, provides scientific support of 2% of births being intersex, and there's a scientific explanation for the edge conditions of gender in Handbook of Neuroendocrinology, (Fink, Pfaff, Levine). Chapter 17, Sexual Differentiation of Brain and Behavior, explains what is known about the puzzle of sexual differentiation in gestation. All brains start out feminized, and through hormonal exposure, can be masculinized or defeminized (neither feminine nor masculine). My brain is defeminized. I am non-binary. Life has been challenging.
People born into the broad middle of averageness should be grateful they haven’t had to live the lives of those who, through the roll of dice during gestation, find themselves on the edge. Most of have already been broken like horses. They have already had to swallow the rocks of society’s indifference and hostility toward their condition. Pain has focused their minds, and when they speak out and hold signs in public, it is not to attack the center and tear society to shreds. It’s simply a request for a little understanding and a touch of human decency.
14
The is bloody shocking and those that voted Trump and still support him should consider whether they would have supported Trump during the campaign if they knew Trump would do this? I doubt most would-you were just angry about toilets.
In Jan ‘16 Over 60% of Americans said that Trump must resign if his team were found to have “colluded” with Russia. His team. 60% of all Americans includes a fair number of Republicans. If you repeated this survey now I doubt you’d find 25% of republicans would think the same. I’m not sure you’d get more than 40% of his supporters calling for his resignation if Mueller produced a video of Trump himself conspiring to defraud the electorate with Putin.
People who support Trump need to write down just how far they are prepared to follow him. He pushes further into disgrace every day and everyday he is supported into yet further disgrace. It is an awful day when you wake up and realise just how far down the road you’ve traveled from what you identified as a right and just position. Putting a marker down now that clearly identifies how far you are willing to follow may save you from one of those terrible days.
The more selfish need to consider who will be next if they cannot find the morality to stand up to Trump: because sooner or later Trump will come for you and yours. And when he does throw you under the bus he will do it in just a casual a manner as he throws transgenders and intersex persons when he’s looking for a distraction.
2
The problem was created by the social radicals in the Obama administration insisting on legislating by redefinition.
2
What is the purpose of Title IX? What kinds of discrimination was Congress trying to prohibit?
If the Trump administration's proposed definition of "sex," as it occurs in Title IX, is an incorrect definition, where will that make a difference? What would be an example? What would clearly be a case of discrimination on the basis of sex correctly construed that would not turn out to be discrimination on the basis of sex given the administration's definition?
@Mark - Title IX in 1972 prohibited sex-based discrimination against girls & women in federally-funded education and related programs, such as school sports.
Read some history & you'll learn that girls & women routinely used to be treated unfairly in such institutions & programs, or we were excluded entirely. As is still the case in many areas of life outside the educational sphere.
Today, half the students in US med & law schools are women, but prior to Title IX hardly any were. Similarly, though females now outnumber males in US colleges, it used to be that most top-tier colleges & unis were closed to us. And when previously all-male schools finally began taking applications from women, we had to have higher grades & test scores to get in - & were subject to unfair treatment, hostility & harassment once we arrived.
I'm all for protecting trans & gender-nonconforming people from discrimination. But I'm for doing so by passing new laws democratically - NOT as Obama did. He use executive-branch orders & sleights of hand rather than the legislative process to unilaterally & imperiously remove "sex" from the laws passed by prior Congresses, wrongly decreeing they really meant "gender" & "gender ID/expression" instead. Talk about erasure!
Eliminating females' sex-based rights, protections & accommodations to privilege transgender & GNC people's needs & rights over ours is a problem. Already, teen males are competing in girls' HS sports in CT, & it's a problem!
4
Amen. We do not need to erode what females have gained over the years with a lot of sweat and tears in order to accommodate what might as well can not be accomodated after all as like it or not, biology tells us female women and male women are very different human animals.
This is a comment about people with gender dysphoria: How do those of you against a more streamlined categorization of sex based on chromosomes propose areas and programs created for biological females be protected from the encroachment of biologically male transgender women when regardless of what a person feels like biology still plays a big, defining role? As a biologically female woman, I feel that my biology, my life experience, my needs and even how I define myself and what I call myself are being steamrolled and negated in order to accommodate a group of people who regardless of how had they see themselves are still subject to the biology of their male sex. I am all for inclusion and rights for groups that deviate from the baseline but not at the expense of the people that are part of the baseline group. I know this is a very unpopular statement but reality is that no matter what we think, feel, or want biologically female women are different than biologically male women and there will always be areas where "one size doesn't fit all" and we need to respect that. Sometimes it feels as if as a biologically female woman I am being pushed even lower down the scale of privilege.
10
@RosieNYC, I do agree this is an important social issue that needs to be discussed. Personally, I believe the solution that the most people will agree with would be to move away from male and female only groups. For bathrooms, they should be unisex with appropriate privacy for everybod. Same for schools, there is no evidence that coed students perform worse in life by any metric when compared to single gendered schools. For sports, I believe the solution is to move to unisex teams, but divions based on skill or merit.
I know there are flaws with this, for example this will unfairly paint male athletes as "best" thanks to a biological advantage and not personal merit. This would also highlight an overlooked issue in my eyes; not all men and not all women are comfortable sharing changerooms or bathrooms even with their own gender. In a world where gay people didn't exist it could maybe make sense, but if you are gay, the social discomfort from being bare in front of others will still be there.
All I know is the solution involves compromise and progression of some form, the LGBT aren't going anywhere and we need to steer society to serve us all best.
2
@Zac
PLEASE don't subscribe to the notion that the ADA compliant, wheelchair accessible unisex restrooms are "appropriate privacy for everybody." Prior to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended, (Title III - Public Accommodations - 28 CFR Part 36 §36.305 - Alternatives to Barrier Removal (3) Relocating activities to accessible locations.
§36.402 - Alterations. https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&SID=2ab2aab2d3d2fd0f544...
Ms. Wigel's suffering that she shares with the readers is a result of an accident of in utero development that has existed, with similar distress, from time immemorial.
In the first part of the last century there was a consensus that assignment to a gender be made jointly by parents and physicians, as it was believed that this would allow a better adjustment fro the child. At times this didn't work out, but to wait into the child reached adulthood would mean a long childhood of potential stigmatization. Wikipedia articles on Intersex and Transexual go into this in detail.
As usual, Trump has leaked this without any context, so this alone is to be condemned. If only we had a President who could convey the reason for this change, and then with genuine compassion explain why his proposal is required, the reaction of anger, fear and hurt would not have been unleashed.
3
Malta is now preventing surgical alteration of AIS people. Let us hope that parents and surgeons with allow intersex children to determine their gender themselves in more venues as soon as possible.
Androgen insensitivity is important in this debate because it is a direct contradiction of the proposed new rule. It is people born with exterior sexual characteristics that do not match their DNA.
The proposed rule presumes that a check of DNA would be a final word on sex characteristic the person is born with. It isn't. It is just incorrect.
It is a clear case of the proposed rule denies reality. It does not matter if it is rare. It happens. It makes the rule wrong. Anyway, we don't have reliable numbers on how rare it is, just that it is.
If you find a genuine fact set that makes the rule just wrong, then it is wrong. End of case. Next rule proposal?
3
@Mark Thomason,
It does seem a little arbitrary. Like saying people are adults at 18. Says who? Some people mature earlier- some later.
Or speed limits. Some people are just better drivers. They can easily go a little faster than bad drivers. Some people have better cars- or better tires.
Or the legal limit to drive 'drunk.' Some alcoholics could drink well over the legal limit and still be able to function.
I believe people should be able to self-identify their gender and their decision should be afforded a great deal of respect. But I also think that there are cases where we might have to keep some arbitrary rules- not because they work all the time but because we need them to work some times. I wouldn't, for instance, think it very fair if women's sports was dominated by people who transitioned from male to female- not if it meant that biological women were denied equal access.
5
@WillT26 -- If we need clear rules, we can't find useful ones with rules that deny facts and are plainly wrong. We've got to find a better rule, even if "arbitrary." Arbitrary means a line, not denial of reality.
1
@Mark Thomason: But isn't the question how a certain term is to be *interpreted* in the context of civil rights law, i.e., Title IX? On what basis do we say that an interpretation is "incorrect"? Terms get a certain interpretation in legal contexts which may not extend to other contexts. Juries get told things about reasonable doubt or witness credibility that, in other contexts, might be considered debatable. Isn't the question here, at least in part, what Congress meant to do, or what forms of discrimination it meant to prohibit?
Thank you for sharing your life, feelings and thoughts. Having your gender decided by others before you can even be consulted is difficult to concieve of. Although I can grasp the concept of intersex, I have a hard time wrapping my head around trans-gender. It's what people go through to become their true selves -- the surgeries, the hormones, and everything else -- that reminds me that I don't have to understand something for it to be real and important to others. The courage of all of you is amazing.
7
There is something “ off “ with people that are obsessed with the Genitals of others. It’s a creepy, distasteful perversion, hiding behind the alleged guise of “ protecting Children “ and policing bathrooms. Seriously.
21
Yet more GOP congressmen have been arrested in public bathrooms for criminally sexually inappropriate behaviour than transgenders.
These people want control of your bodies and sexual practices. They don’t think federal government should have any right to mess around in the affairs of business boardrooms or rights to own a personal armoury - but anything to do with the reproductive organs or choices and the federal gov has every right to remove your choices and therefore determine you life. It’s sickening. The closer to equality we get the more they fight to remove a persons choices.
3
OutCasting, public radio's LGBTQ youth program, has done extensive work on both transgender and intersex issues. You can find it at http://mfpg.org/index.php/listen. Disclosure: I produce the program.
7
Being transgender all my life, not intersex, I get the issues presented by the author. But as I read the comments here and the extravagant lack of medical science and facts used to formulate them, even by intelligent NYT's readers, I know trans rights are decades away. A pox on America.
8
@AG,
I think you are mistaken. I think most Americans are kind and open-minded and are want to treat people fairly.
Just live your life. You don't need the approval of strangers. Most people don't care which bathroom people use and the law applies to everyone equally.
You're welcome.
-Member of the Resistance
8
Children born intersex should have the right to determine their own gender.
In fact no child should be burdened with a gender assignment. Humans should be gender-less until they are adults (25 years old- the science is clear that people are still kids until that age) then they should get to choose.
Even names can imply gender so birth certificates should not have first names. They can be referred to as 'Child X' (X being the last name one of the parents).
We don't want to pressure the kids with our oppressive Western patriarchal beliefs so all biological science, and sexual education, should be deferred until AFTER they choose at age 25.
We will finally break the cycle of oppression.
You're welcome.
-Member of the Resistance
4
Very few people outside of the special interest group that represents intersex individuals would believe the figure is 2%.
Strictly within the bounds of reasonable medical definitions, the incidence rate is about 0.018%.
"How common is intersex?" Journal of Sex Research. 39 (3): 174–178.
7
@SteveRR In anthropology, we find the nearly 2% figure quite reasonable based on this study:
"Approximately 1.7% of all live births do not conform to [the] ideal of absolute sex chromosome, gonadal, genital and hormonal dimorphism."
Blackless, et al. "How Sexually Dimorphic Are We?" American Journal of Human Biology 12: 151-166.
11
@Brian Haley
Very few biologists or medical researchers would equate dimorphism with intersex.
There is a medical definition which the study you cite conveniently chooses to ignore.
Once again - it appears that this inflation in incidence is an attempt to promote a very... very rare disorder into a special interest condition that commands funding, special laws and accommodations by simply expanding the definition of what it means to be intersex to encompass all variety of marginal birth differences.
1
@SteveRR - It can't be that rare when there are groups of us from across the planet in closed groups on social media discovering how much we all have in common.
How rare do we have to be to be considered 'rare'?
And why should that matter?
We are the LIVING exceptions to the rule and as we are all human, we deserve consideration, rare or not.
This is a beautifully written article which is marred by the nasty comments of all too many people who have no empathy or compassion--or understanding of basic biology. Of course that describes the Republican Party and its Christianist wing. They want simplicity not complexity and to deny the reality that not every human being is either completely male or completely female in their biology and identity.
8
Thank you for writing this. Human beings are sometimes far too complicated to be squeezed into “one or the other” molds. I hope the coming years will be easier and more understanding for those who were born different. Why do others have to make it their business? When I am in the women’s restroom, I do not care if the person behind the door of the stall next to me is 100% XX. It’s a person who needs to use the restroom. Period.
16
Trump is wrong on this- like he is wrong on so many things. But we, the Resistance, will never let him define who we are!
I have always identified as a middle-aged black Haitian woman. Even as a small child.
Our oppressive Western patriarchal society has always denied my identity- placing me into the 'white male' box. Purely on the color of my skin, my genitals, and my genetics.
While my body and genetics would show that I am, in fact, a white male my heart will always be in Port-au-Prince and I will always be who I am: Rosaline Gremillion, a fifty year old woman from Haiti.
No one will ever take that for me. Not Trump. Not anyone! It doesn't matter that I have never been to Haiti.
It is the responsibility of each of us to learn the identity of the people we come into contact with. Take the time and ask- 'Who are you?' Because you never know if that white guy is actually a middle-aged black woman from Haiti.
Appearance and genetics mean nothing.
Ak pi bon volonte,
Rosaline Gremillion
Member of the Resistance
10
Trump is exploiting this issue because it is a weak spot on the Left: we are also science deniers, and the trans activist movement is the clearest example of this. Intersex people have empirical medical conditions that lead to multiple health problems. Trans activists have appropriated these medical issues and exploited them. Transgender people suffer from none of the medical issues that intersex people are born with. Trans people suffer from SOCIAL issues, not medical issues (unless hormonal or surgical treatment goes wrong). We have made fools of ourselves on the Left by denying the scientific reality of biological sex, and we have undermined the intersex community by conflating their medical issues with the social issues faced by trans people.
27
@Penny White
The lack of science in this opinion is disheartening. Start with a textbook first; an informed opinion comes second.
3
@Penny White
Actually, current science suggests that sex is much more of a spectrum than a binary. I suggest having a look at this article summing up recent research in this field: https://www.nature.com/news/sex-redefined-1.16943
3
@Penny White
Although you are right to make the distinction between intersex and transgender, so what?
Because some people are born as intersex, it's okay to discriminate against transgender people and deny them the right to live according to gender constructs that suit their needs?
If there's no "empirical" evidence of homosexuality, we should ban homosexual identities and discriminate against those who insist on claiming them?
These are all different kinds of sexual and gender identities, and I'm not interested in telling anybody what they have to be in these terms.
Understanding of intersexuality is woefully lacking in the U.S., including in queer communities. The number of commenters who assume they can ‘splain Ms. Weiger’s situation to her — as if they knew better — merely points up how much those of us who are not intersex need to learn. Thank you, Ms. Weiger, for this important and educational piece.
32
A browse through Breitbart can offer a view into the attitude of Trump's base as to gender and sexuality. It's pretty appalling that such people now have such power, thanks to their demagogue0in-chief.
The thought of any person not equipped with a conventionally binary gender being at the mercy of these barbarians and their spawn is truly dismaying.
I believe Ms. Weigel's ordeals and the choices made by her parents and doctors were to protect her from falling into the "merciful" hands of the barbarians at school and being savaged on a daily basis. It's appalling that the fearsome likes of Trumpians are determinants in parents' decisions to protect their helpless, vulnerable infants. They are the worst of people; fear of their malice and psychopathy drives major surgeries, hormone ingestion etc.
Had I, as a parent, been in that situation, I would be so frightened and anxious to spare my child any misery... it would be torture to make all those decisions and for what? Not for physical health, but to avoid being bullied mercilessly.
6
I think gender abnormalities and dysmorphia conditions should fall under the rubric of disability and reasonable accommodation rather than under sex/gender civil rights equality. Think about it.
5
@Thomas Busse
Gender differences are in no way "disabling" unless society makes them so.
9
@Thomas Busse -- Good idea. They may not be "disabled" but the precedent of "reasonable accommodation" seems appropriate.
We have people who in the complexity of individual variation just don't fit with common assumptions. Be reasonable. Accommodate them.
Complexity does not lend itself to simple fixed rules of absolute yes/no. It depends.
Have a heart.
3
A couple of weeks ago, I asked the students in my introductory anthropology course how many of them had learned in their high school science classes that there were more sexes than just male and female in our species. Two out of 100 hands went up. They admitted to having heard the word intersex, but knew little more than that.
And so it is that European and American culture has largely hidden a biological fact. There are intersex people (and deer--just look it up!). There are people with XXX chromosomes, people with XYY chromosomes, people with mosaic conditions in which different cells in their bodies have differing chromosomes. And there are many more ways in which chromosomes and sex organs don't match the culturally assumed simple binary.
Some societies handle this diversity honorably, ours does not. This administration's plan doubles down on ignorance and evil.
Vote. People's lives depend on it.
110
To define is to control.
From Wikipedia (for convience and ease):
>The Nuremberg Laws (German: Nürnberger Gesetze) were antisemitic and racial laws in Nazi Germany. They were enacted by the Reichstag on 15 September 1935, at a special meeting convened during the annual Nuremberg Rally of the Nazi Party (NSDAP). The two laws were the Law for the Protection of German Blood and German Honour, which forbade marriages and extramarital intercourse between Jews and Germans and the employment of German females under 45 in Jewish households; and the Reich Citizenship Law, which declared that only those of German or related blood were eligible to be Reich citizens; the remainder were classed as state subjects, without citizenship rights. A supplementary decree outlining the definition of who was Jewish was passed on 14 November, and the Reich Citizenship Law officially came into force on that date. The laws were expanded on 26 November 1935 to include Romani people – known at the time as "Gypsies" – and Black people. This supplementary decree defined Romanis as "enemies of the race-based state", the same category as Jews.
11
Many Americans enjoy having separate men/women bathrooms.
Many Americans do not think it's fair for a trans women to compete with biological females in sports.
Many Americans do not think the military should be paying for sex change procedures.
But ya know what? Most Americans also don't care what you do in the privacy of your own home. The problem here, is that genitalia discussion is apparently central to the trans person narrative, something I would describe as TMI.
Is there a way to discuss being trans gendered without evoking the presence of absence of genitalia?
11
I'm completely against what Trump is doing and I think it's abhorrent and I hope we can fight it with a Democrat controlled Senate and House. However, there are a few pieces of this article that I didn't approve of.
I feel like it is disingenuous to say "intersex like me". Intersex is an umbrella term and includes many disorders that may not require invasive surgery and can pass by unnoticed (Klinefelters Syndrome comes to mind).
Furthermore, there is a health detriment to not removing gonads at birth. Namely an increase in the risk of gonadal cancer, which is higher in people with CAI than in normal males. Also, despite having CAI you are still phenotypically female. (This means you have the typical female body shape and will develop the secondary sexual characteristics, albiet it may be less defined). This means surgery to become a male from this is not only more dangerous, but much more costly.
I'm sorry the author of this piece has suffered from CAI, but that doesn't mean current practices are rooted in an ignorance of what CAI is or how it is best treated. It is often the best guess we can make looking at the models we have and are making.
25
@Bob,
You are trying to bring nuance to this- and it is interfering with the rage-athon. Or is it rage-out? I don't know for sure but it involves rage, a healthy dose of sadness, and oddly enough a little hunger.
No one wants to know the medical science. Just write: Trump bad and people who like Trump bad.
Anything beyond that is incredibly insensitive.
9
@Bob
while I agree with many of your points, you are confused the writer is describing AIS not CAH. Being in fact phenotypically male but resistant to androgen so that secondary parts do not respond to androgen and develop classically male. CAH could be considered its opposite condition too much androgen (and comes with health risks).
AIS generally does not and there is no risk to leaving the gonads in except failure to develop secondary female characteristics in puberty. However, it should be noted that some AIS individuals become less resistant at puberty if gonads are left in a good argument to touch apart from an individual's right to decided for themselves.
Still it is true the presence of intersex conditions don't connote a third sex since sex is defined by sex cells and the concept of gender is deeply problematic.
8
@Bob,
Adult CAI patient here.
Where did you get your info about there being an increased risk of cancer for CAI patients? That’s actually old research... I was coerced into a gonadectomy under that pretense in my teen years and learned from several specialists that the increase in risk of cancer is actually negligible and it’s healthier for patients to keep their gonads and their natural process for producing hormones rather than live a life on synthetic hormone replacement therapy, which actually can cause a HIGHER risk for breast cancer. Furthermore, were there an instance of gonadal cancer later in life, the same exact procedure can be administered as an actual treatment and not profilactically, with highly successful results. On the flip side, oral estrogen can cause stomach problems, increased risk of pulmonary embolisms and all forms of estrogen increased risk of breast cancer. This is the type of old outdated info being spread around that is oppressive to us!
23
It's unsettling, reading some of the comments here. The big question is why is it important for us to define gender as binary? I would suggest that this is of no importance whatsoever and letting this go will even help to shorten bathroom lines. In the ancient yin/yang symbol, there is some yin in yang and vice versa. Come on, relax and accept yourself for what you are and accept others for what they are. Is that really so hard?
7
@The F.A.D.,
I tend to agree with you. There are some practical issues though. These definitions play a role in certain aspects of life- the awarding of sports scholarships; research areas (are women under-represented in certain fields, professions, schools, etc.). Public planning: how many obgyns are needed in a certain area. How many rooms does the hospital need in its maternity ward?
Minor issues, overall, but they do show the need for some kind of, agreed upon, definition.
And because identity is so fluid now we might have to come up with some kind of process for this information to be easily updated.
Going on appearance and genetics just doesn't cut it anymore. Self-identification and societal acceptance is the right route.
1
".....explore the beauty of the blur"
Good advice. If we were more accepting of our fellow human beings on all fronts, the world would be a better place.
17
@SC,
Except Trump.
You're welcome.
-Member of the Resistance
1
@WillT26
Yes, for sure. lt would be great if he and his ilk would take this advice.
What would the writer have society do for her? Her parents were the primary providers of identity guidance and it seems chose according to outward appearance, which seems perfectly reasonable. Is his all about which bathroom to use? I don't care, if you dress like a man use the men's room. There is no Governmental interest in one's gender other than providing an orderly public common good.
8
@sob: She was forced to undergo unnecessary and painful surgeries. Yes, by her parents, but her parents (and doctors) made this choice within a social and cultural context which assumed this 'was best.' So, she would probably have society be more accepting of all people without surgically forcing them into a false binary.
7
@sob How exactly does "chosing" a particular gender for a child who doesn't fit readily into either one of the two acceptable ones provide an orderly common good when it's based on a lie?
9
@sob
“If you dress like a man”? Have you noted the way people dress? I wear jeans or some kind of pants and a shirt almost every day. So does my husband. Sometimes we both have on flip flops or tennis shoes.
Governmental interest nowadays is almost always about control and not about the common good.
Thank you for sharing this.
7
Saw a three musketeers statue the other day. At that time, men shaved their legs, wore perfume, feathers, silks, and nobody called a rich man anything but "sir". Take away the laws, and that allows everybody to kick them for being different. The head of the FBI was trans. Don't forget to vote.
9
No. Not “which of two gender categories”; which of the two sexes, there being only two.
No, it’s not a blow to “transgender rights”, because the word “rights” is not susceptible to that adjective. When circumstances arise when distinctions need to be drawn on the basis of sex – not “gender” – anatomy is destiny.
The author suffers from an abnormal condition. It happens. Some people suffer from birth defects; that genes (or epigenetics) sometimes go awry is irrelevant to the discussion.
Well meaning MD’s and parents, perhaps, made a mistake in the author’s case. Apparently, it does not occur to the author that well-meaning MD’s, inflicting alien hormones and body mutilation in the service of “gender” reassignment surgery, might be making mistakes, too. Surgery on a perfectly healthy body which corrects no abnormality is problematic in the extreme. As the author notes, “the surgeries are irreversible” and “medically unnecessary”. When the “bodies are good enough as they are”, they should be left alone.
Again, it’s not “gender binary”; it’s sex binary. And it indisputably is. Extremely rare genetic/epigenetic defects change nothing.
18
When did the American Dream die?
2
@Avier,
The Statue of Liberty is weeping in the harbor.
The choirs of angels have all gone silent.
The Canadian geese have all flown away.
America, the Great, died this October day.
7
@Avier It started to die when Reagan was elected in 1980.
12
The main goal of parents is to discover who your child is, and then to love who you discover them to be.
You should have been allowed to just be who you were, and then you could make decisions that were in your best interest when you were an adult.
I'm concerned about what Trump is doing, although frankly I don't think he cares about this issue. He just knows how to rile up liberals and then that riles up conservatives. And he just likes things riled up. After this it will be something else. The happiest part of his week is the caravan coming from Mexico.
Ms. Weigel: You will not be erased out of our family's existence, regardless of what Trump does. Nor that of many people. Just be yourself and be nice to my grandchildren (my bottom line, actually).
7
Trump, during his 2016 campaign to a crowd of LGBT people: "Vote for me. What do you have to lose?"
Everything it seems, everything.
Mr. Trump, you're all about being blunt, saying undesirable truths, being a tough guy. Start with telling voters the real truth about what you want to do rather than lie like a con artist.
14
Long before I thought of having sex with a girl, I remember one of my female friends in HS telling me we couldn't "do it." We had a strange relationship. She looked down my shirt, I looked down hers. She had more than a bit of a mustache, bleached and well disguised. She told me she had a weird body. I told her I didn't think so. She said you don't know what you haven't seen. She was right, I had only peeked down her shirt. As the article states, she had breasts the appropriate size to the rest of her. Until now, I hadn't thought of her as anything but a girl who liked me and I liked her. Early experimentation that didn't go very far. Typical in the early 1970s for school kids. I enjoyed every minute of being her friend. I'm not sure, but she may have worried every minute of what I might figure out. Perhaps I'm wrong, but I think this article may have cleared up a lot for me. In the intervening 50 years, I hope she's enjoyed her life to the fullest.
46
Great article! One more complication of not recognizing individuals with androgen insensitivity syndrome: individuals with this disorder are at high risk for development of osteoporosis later in life. As a consequence of this short-sighted government policy, I can see medical schools neglecting to teach the special issues unique to transgender and intersex patients, which will have negative ramifications for the health of our nation for many years after Mr. Trump leaves office.
17
@Charles H. Bush This policy will have zero to do with intersex conditions being taught at university. The hyperbole of the trans activist community, along with the lumping together of intersex people, transvestites, non-binary people,and transsexual people has made a mockery of people with sex dysphoria who transition as a form of palliative care. We on the Left handed Trump this weapon and he is wielding it well. We are idiots.
9
I'm sorry, science and facts have no place in our brave new world. Only our peerless leaders current thoughts dictate our reality which is subject to change at the peerless leaders whim.
8
@rcburr
I'm...not sure if I understand what you're saying clearly, but I want to respond to the parts I do think I understand.
In regards to your statement that "science and facts have no place in our brave new world", I'm inclined to disagree. I think that science and facts remain just as important as ever, if not more so. The problem arises when said science and facts leads to decisions and policies that end up hurting people who don't reaffirm exactly what it is our data suggests that we should see.
In regards to our "peerless leaders" (I'm assuming you are referring to their apparent lack of supervision), it is up to us as the citizens to take a stand, through our words and our actions, in order to bring about the changes we need.
1
@Brian I think the original comment was meant as sarcasm, but these days there are plenty of people who readily ignore facts and science, so it can difficult to tell.
If you are unhappy with the interpretation of Title IX, work to change the law! The current law uses a term 'sex' which is now unclear in meaning (although I believe that the generally understood definition of sex is biological and interpretation in this instance has been confused with gender). The Trump administration has issued its interpretation, just as the Obama administration did before it. Until the law is clarified, there will continue to be uncertainty from administration to administration.
12
@Stefan We need SEPARATE laws protecting Gender Identity that do not undermine laws based on biological sex. The Equality Act must be passed, and Title IX must continue to be interpreted as based on SEX, not "Gender Identity". Sadly, there are far too many misogynist Lefty dudes who are eager to undermine sex based protections by replacing sex based protection with Gender Identity protection- which would expand the rights of males, and contract the rights of females, especially when it comes to sports and setting boundaries against potential male predators.
9
This article explores the nightmares that can happen within the realm of the usual XX and XY chromosome world. It doesn't even hint of what can happen to children born outside that realm, which does happen. Wonder if Trump knows about that possibility?
4
@MJRI--My bet is that he has no idea of the existence of folks who are not typical in the chromosomal sense; after all, that would would involve acknowledging and understanding science.
15
@Susan Trump is exploiting this issue because it is a weak spot on the Left: we are also science deniers, and the trans activist movement is the clearest example of this. Intersex people have empirical medical conditions that lead to multiple health problems. Trans activists have appropriated these medical issues and exploited them. Transgender people suffer from none of the medical issues that intersex people are born with. Trans people suffer from SOCIAL issues, not medical issues (unless hormonal or surgical treatment goes wrong). We have made fools of ourselves on the Left by denying the scientific reality of biological sex, and we have undermined the intersex community by conflating their medical issues with the social issues faced by trans people.
1
Anyone who knows anything about gender knows what the Trump Administration said is anti-scientific. Intersex people exist. They always have and always will. Chromosomal anomalies was one of my first thoughts. What about Intersex people?
My second thought was:
What are they trying to cover up THIS time?
The last time Trump made a major fuss about Trans people they were trying to draw attention away from major testimony in Congress affecting the Russian investigation. As expected, the congressional testimony got buried in the news and every story was about the nothing of the Administration prohibiting Trans people from serving in the Military (which probably isn't happening any time soon. The Obama Admin did their job WELL).
What are they trying to BURY?
38
@Dejah Intersex people exist - but they are variations on the male-female sex binary that is universal among human beings. We are male, female, or intersex. That's it. When we deny this, we look just as stupid and anti-science as the Far Right. The Trump administration is using the dumbest and most irrational cause the Left has come up with and is effectively using it as a weapon against us. We set ourselves up for this. Meanwhile, rich white male Caitlyn Jenner is riding around in a MAGA hat.
9
The irony is that your argument-- that there is no need to force an intersex person into a binary category, especially as a young child who has no informed consent-- is the opposite of many trans people's position that they need cross sex hormones/surgery in order to fit their body to match their mind's binary.
11
@Megan
No, her argument is exactly the same, not the opposite, as that of trans people -- namely, that no one is forced into a binary category against their will. A trans person choosing to match their body with their mind's gender category is in harmony with this argument, not opposition.
13
@Megan
While many trans people may prefer to identify within the gender binary, there are those who do not. One of my friends is trans FTM but does not identify as male, instead using they/them pronouns.
6
@Amanda "Their mind's gender category"? Please tell me you are not promoting the misogynistic concept of Lady Brain here. I am so sick of hearing trans activists claim that "liking pink and princesses = Lady Mind" and "liking blue and toy trucks = Man Mind" This ideology is so regressive and harmful to women it makes me choke.
5
The kinds decisions that your biology presented to your parents and doctor at birth were no different that those that are presented to many parents and doctors when children are born. Children with missing and under/undeveloped organs and body parts are not uncommon. You may resent the choices that were made on your behalf, but there are consequences to all decisions, including the decision to "do nothing" and let you decide as you grew older.
That you (and others) are born with genetic and developmental anomalies and deformities doesn't refute but rather supports the reality that the human race is binary when it comes to sex. Intersex is literally "between the sexes," but does not itself constitute a third sex.
8
Hold tight.
Every major Obgyn and surgery society will be coming out with position statements against the Trump administration’s bizarre policy.
The medical community is going ballistic over this.
Please tell everyone you know to vote.
27
@Veritas
And courts use medical science to help establish law. The science is more than clear a trans gender is inborn; they do not know how yet. But if the courts are packed with arch conservatives who ignore facts in favor of faith, there is no recourse.
Thank you for showing courage in the face of republicanism and thank you for pursuing a life that is yours. I hope you are happy because you are brilliant, kind and strong.
22
Could the phrase “as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals a person is born with,” be read as allowing for three possibilities: 1) male, 2) female, and 3) either male or female? Could someone born with genitals that are ambiguous as to the binary division between male and female fit into the third category? I see the possibility of ambiguity in its choice of words.
This clearly does not appear to be the Trump administration's intent. The bottom line is that it is ignorant and atrocious to deny the existence of intersex persons.
4
My good friend, now deceased, was trans. It nearly destroyed her life, and she attempted suicide. Eventually, she got help, surgery, and became real. Reality is all they seek. They only want what most other people have from birth. They want their brain and body to match. Changing a law won't make them go away. It will only increase their suffering. Don't we have enough suffering in the world as it is?
30
@IMiss America I'm glad your friend got help - but she was "real" before she ever got her surgery. The surgery gave her the freedom to express herself and to relieve her severe sex dysphoria (which might have a neurological basis). Gender Identity is very different from biological sex (for example: it is physically impossible for a trans woman to get pregnant, because she can only change her gender, not her sex). We cannot erase women's sex based protections in favor of protecting Gender Identity. That would be misogynistic and has already undermined women and girls in sports, and it has led to women being harmed in shelters (google Christopher Hambrook) and prisons (google Karen White, transgender rapist). Sadly, those who promote trans rights tend to be economically privileged, and have little concern for homeless and incarcerated women or for those who depend on sports scholarships.
2
@Penny White: "Sadly, those who promote trans rights tend to be economically privileged, and have little concern for homeless and incarcerated women or for those who depend on sports scholarships. "
Can you cite any reasonable source for these claims? Most of the people I know who are LGBTQ activists care deeply about all forms of social injustice, which would include homeless and incarcerated women (and men).
Thank you for this thoughtful commentary.
9
I commented on Jennifer Finney Boylan’s column (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/22/opinion/trump-transgender-sex-policy...., and anyone who cares to read it will find that as a lifelong Republican I regard the Trump HHC position on “erasing” our trans community to be both VERY wrong and politically dumb, to boot. But I read Ms. Weigel’s op-ed and I can’t help but think that an argument based on protecting the rights of a minority as small as that trans community (1.4 million among 327 million Americans) not only misses the point but is clueless. “Where does the Trump administration’s broadside against transgender rights leave people like me?” That’s some clueless plaint, Ms. Weigel. When your numbers are so few that most Americans probably haven’t even MET a trans or a knowingly “intersex” individual and could live out the rest of their lives without meeting one, the FAR better argument is how that broadside damages ALL Americans.
Yours is a class argument, Ms. Weigel, and in case you hadn’t noticed Americans as a people are becoming increasingly impatient with class arguments, for the simple reason that they inevitably pit some of us against all others as the “some” seek preferential notice by which they can claim advantage – instead of depending on individual capacities and efforts to find INDIVIDUAL and LEGITIMATE distinction. This is what lies at the heart of even Trump’s most excessive statements – stop identifying …
… as white, or black, or Hispanic, or Asian, or Native American, or the many shades of LGBTQ, or the infinite variety of inconsequential “differences” to which humans are heir. Identify as American, and get on with distinguishing your OWN life among us.
The HHC’s blatant attempt to “erase” the trans community is fundamentally wrong because it seeks to limit the PEOPLE who can aspire to be Americans, and to minimize those efforts that they CAN take to distinguish themselves as individuals.
2
@Richard Luettgen
The problem with your statement is much the same as when Archie Bunker on All in the Family said "What is it with all this Italian American, Black Americans, Chinese American? Back then we was all Americans, and if you were a <various ethnic deragatory terms> that was your own business? The problem with this, and your statement, is that race and sexual orientation and gender identity are used by far too many to judge their fellow citizens, and worse to hurt them, deny them jobs, deny them housing, harass them, assault them, simply because they are different and justify that by citing religion, citing skin color. In a perfect world people would be themselves and labels wouldn't matter, but the problem is those labels mean a lot to people who aren't in that label group, and reason it is important to those people (ie the rabble that support Trump), is that they want to eradicate those labels; not to make everyone equal Americans, but rather, like with Blacks under Jim Crow, to make anyone 'not their label' ie white, "Christian" , straight, Sarah Palin "Real American", either disappear or be second class citizens.
And want to know why this is important? Some of the 'bathroom bills' as one piece of silliness, have language that determines bathroom usage by the genetic sex of the person..so the OP, a woman in all respects, could be busted for using the bathroom because she has an XY chromosome, same as a M to F transwoman would have.
@Richard Luettgen Who are you to decide that we must all identify solely as American? What right do you have to define anyone? And as for matters of class? Please! You as a life-long Republican and your fellow Republicans have been defining the class where you belong and where others belong for years. You do it by your words and by your policies. You may hide behind phrases such as “INDIVIDUAL and LEGITIMATE distiction” but many of us recognize these code words and phrases for what they are.
Nothing erases people - but alas there will be no classification to call special attention to yourself and your feelings - that may not reflect the reality seen by science and creation. You can no longer be singled out as a class/group/or individual entitled to special treatment under the law and alas that is a great idea. That ship has been sailing out of control on shaky ground.
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@kdw What about the concept of "equal rights are not special rights" eludes you?
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@kdw
Aside from the fact that intersex is indeed a scientific biological fact (read the article), and there is substantial and increasing research to show that trans is the same), trans and intersex people are not asking for special attention. Only the freedom from discrimination and persecution that will allow them the same opportunities as their fellow citizens.
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@kdw
Yeah, I know, unlike those poor, working class whites (especially men) who have been so abused in this country and who by any definition are bemoaning the special rights they once had for being white, being able to get a job even if someone who wasn't white was better qualified, being able to move up the ranks in a company because they were white and a man........the irony is those claiming trans or other LGBT people are looking for 'special rights' are people who were once born with special rights and now are whining like a stuck pig because they have started to lose that, and are going to be a minority themselves, no longer counting on being a majority to stick it to the various minorities.
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Clearly you were born at a time when doctors--however arguably wrong--attempted to help a child "fit" into society because existing "in between" would not be an easy or socially acceptable path. The path remains difficult because the world does, and probably always will, view sex and gender in binary terms. You write that this was done without your consent. Perhaps that would be possible once you became old enough to make such decisions, but how would you have provided such "consent" as an infant and toddler? Finally, this issue of childhood consent is muddy: many of the same people who fight for children to determine their own gender are often the same people who are adamant that children are not mature enough to consent to sexual activity (even applying that to teenagers) when decisions about gender and biology can be even more consequential. All I'm saying is that there are a lot contradictions and complexities in terms of gender and sex assignment and consent.
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@sansacro
The issue of childhood consent is not muddy. A child can not consent to a medically unecessary surgery. A child should not have a medically unecessary surgery. It’s a risk to their lives to even go under anesthesia, let alone have their bodies cut into. If they grow into adulthood and feel they need modification, they can get that modification after puberty, when their bodies and particularly their genitals have a chance to naturally develop. This is the only truly medically and scientifically prudent course of action. Why would you do a gender altering surgery before puberty? It makes no sense. They don’t do it to trans kids who want to transition. Why would anyone want to justify this being done to intersex kids? It’s genital mutilation.
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This is scary stuff folks. I hate to be the one to break it to everyone, but your sex is determined by your brain, not your genitals, or your genes. You are what your brain says you are, like it or not. Gender dysphoria is a real thing. Most of those that have it suffer quietly. Many simply kill themselves. A very lucky few get treatment, and blend into society. This change would destroy their lives for no reason. People with this affliction are not dangerous to anyone, or anything. They just want to live their lives. We should let them.
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@IMiss America
Are you saying there are female brains and male brains, yet, as so many have argued, gender (not sex) is socially constructed. A trans man can have his period and give birth to a child--how does this reconcile with sex as neuro or cognitive? I'm not disputing your experience but it is also arrogant to condescend ("I hate to break it to everyone") and cite the anecdotal to shut down discussion on an issue that is not so clearly resolved.
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@IMiss America Miss agree to disagree please. But God determined your sex at birth - and refusal to see truth is not an excuse and does not erase the truth. Not talking danger but talking ridiculousness. All are free to live your lives and call yourself whatever you like- but do not demand others change their belief in God and science.
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@IMiss America
Scientifically, you are wrong. The structure and function of your brain early in life is determined largely by your genes and how the products of your genes interact with the environment (which in turn will feedback to impact gene expression). Hormones are another huge factor, which are the result of genitals, not wishful thinking.
Great read, absolutely right. Thank you.
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I had a cousin who was born intersex and wanted to be and felt female.
But family wanted and chose that she was a he no matter her personal feelings and choices. While mother nature made her physically more male than female. And as a juvenile in a poor black family there was no room for dealing with and interfering grown folks business.
However as an adult Dicky became and lived as Julia. And she died and was mourned as Julia by most but not all of our family.
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The Genitalia Over People party has been going on for quite a while. It’s been energized lately by having an idiot at the helm, but the subtle complexity of gender issues is one of those things that idiots seem to know a lot about. It’s possible that the president is so insistent on clarifying the issue because when he gropes a woman, he doesn’t want to be surprised.
Just to make sure, his next step might be to insist that intersex folks be made to wear brightly colored armbands to advertise their strangeness. He’ll argue that there’s historical precedence. That’s comforting, because in school, history was never his strong point. He was more of a recess kind of guy.
Intelligent people rely on science, reason and empathy to communicate the differences between us. But the G.O.P. has long indicated that they’re not interested in science, because the Bible tells you all you need to know about sex and reproduction. Women are on the bottom. End of discussion.
Frankly, ordinary female plumbing has long puzzled Republicans, so it’s not surprising that normal variations are beyond their Ken, not to mention Barbie. Remember Todd “legitimate rape” Akin?
The entire history of the 20th century was one of increasing individual rights and writing empathy and compassion into law. Given the recent Supreme Court ringers pushed through by conservatives, it may be that we’re in for a reversal.
We can turn it all around in November. So vote, early and often.
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I don't like the administration's action either, but I don't think the government is suggesting that gender assignment surgeries on intersex newborns be compelled. It seems to me that the tide of history is rising on the side of electing against (if not banning) such surgeries.
But, the surgery on you was elected by your parents, who presumably had your best interests at heart. I guess you disapprove of their choice, but hindsight is 20/20. I hope you can forgive them.
Perhaps a law should prevent parents from making this choice, but generally the law grants the parents the legal right to make medical decisions for their children. In any case, if the law is ever to block such surgeries, today's Republican party must be removed from power.
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@Sam I Am It's not so much about the consent of parents that Ms. Weigel is talking about. it's the idea that the government should define a binary because of its limited understanding of biology. Some people are born with both and that frightens folks who think in absolutes based on history and not science.
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@newyorkerva Human beings are a binary species.
Intersex does not constitute a third sex. It's a genetic anomaly, departure, deformity, etc. from male and/or female.
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@Sam I Am Note that the author would now be defined as male by this legislation regardless of the author's parents choice to have her grow up as "female".
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Thank you! I am a PA specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, and I lecture widely at PA programs at colleges and universities in the metropolitan area. I am going to include your article in recommended reading for my lecture on AIS. It is exactly what the Trump administration and the medical community need to hear.
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Thank you for writing this. I don't know why the GOP is so obsessed with (1) genitalia, and (2) forcing people to fit into specific boxes of the government's choosing.
We all deserve better. But the people directly impacted by this government overreach into the private realm of personal identity especially deserve better.
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@AJ
The GOP is obsessed with these things for the simple reason that it rallies their base.
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@AJ
The answer is simple, it comes down to trying to control a future the GOP base fears. The GOP itself, outside maybe the representatives from the good old boy states, doesn't really care about things like this, but their base does, and it is a powerful political weapon to use. The white, rural, working class, mostly Scotch Irish, bible thumping true believers are scared of a world where they aren't the majority and don't make the rules, so like Jim Crow they want to use the government to maintain control over people they fear. So they obsess about issues like genitalia, about forcing people to conform, because that gets the base to the polls...and for the base themselves, you are talking people who feel like they have 'lost their country', a place run by white, straight (men), where they could have a job for the asking, where they could assume they would be on top just because they were white and straight, and they want to use the government, despite all the blather about freedom, to force their ways on everyone else, because in their fear of change that is the only thing they think they can do. Sadly, thanks both to the reticence of people who don't believe like this to make the GOP and rural American pay for this stupidity, and an election system rigged in favor of a minority, it is going to happen. My dad said change doesn't happen until people get on the barricades; young people and then the middle class in the 60's got us out of Vietnam;nothing like that exists today
@AJ
Why? Many Christians are on record saying that homosexuality and being transgender are highly immoral and will destroy mankind. Pope Francis has said this exactly about transgender.
It's beyond any scientific argument now that this is inborn and no reputable doctor says otherwise. None. They know now it is inborn; the remaining debate is purely on how.
To ignore hard science is to ignore reality, just like Republicans ignore global warming. They are the Know-Nothings of this era. They are our American Taliban.
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