this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
28 points (100.0% liked)

Actually Intersex

92 readers
4 users here now

A lemmy community by and for intersex people. Perisex (non-intersex) people can participate but respect the vibe.

To subscribe from another lemmy instance search for [email protected]

RULES:

  1. Be kind to one another.
  2. No harassment or hate speech.
  3. Be as accessible as you can.
  4. This is a space for intersex people. Perisex people may participate but don't be disruptive. This isn't a place for you to work out your intersexism.

GROUND TRUTHS:

  1. Intersex is a big tent. Some people see intersex in medical terms. Some people see intersex through the social model. Some see it as a mix. Some people see intersex as queer. Some see intersex as disabled/crip. Some see it as both. You get the deal. There's no single way to be intersex.
  2. Anybody who experiences or is vulnerable to intersexism gets to call themself intersex if they want. That includes people with PCOS hyperandrogenism, people with Poland syndrome, and people who don't have diagnoses.
  3. TERFs and the alt-right are on a campaign to convince people that intersex is rare, biological sex is simple, and actually intersex people aren't the experts on who is intersex. We need to resist this.
  4. Solidarity with the trans community. While intersex and transness are distinct, our communities have fundamental common ground in being threats to cisperinormitivity.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
28
Trump's passport policy leaves trans, intersex Americans in the lurch (www.npr.org)
submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
2 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

In the U.S., the X passport gender marker was only created in the first place by a lawsuit by an intersex non-binary trans individual who did not identify as either male or female. Obviously not all intersex individuals identify as non-binary, many identify as a man or woman for example, and so the intersex struggle overlaps with the trans struggle significantly this way.

https://www.intersexequality.com/intersex-history-of-the-x-passport-marker/

The X isn't meant to mean intersex or in-between:

The use of “Indeterminate” instead of “Intersex,” and the inclusion of representation for gender identity, was intentional, for reasons outlined below.

“The creation of any new category to be designated intersex poses several problems. First of all, there is no firm definition of intersex. Definitions are constructed in relation to medical norms that stigmatise particular kinds of bodies. … Secondly, intersex people are already assigned female or male, and most are raised and identify as women or men. To construct a new category called intersex unavoidably calls into question their sex assignments and gender identities, and suggests that they are not valid or correct. This is not acceptable. … We base our legal arguments on the right of every person to determine their own identity, in the hope that eventually there will be no attempt to impose legal sex categories on anyone.”

The X is thus an opt-out of gender rather than an assertion of a gender, if that makes sense.