(Content warning for discussion of sexual assault and transphobia)
The inclusion of intersex in the queer community provokes mixed reactions from individuals who identify as such. The controversy doesn’t stem from the queer community being uninclusive of intersex individuals, but rather from a misunderstanding of the differences in support needed by trans and intersex communities. According to InterACT, a group that advocates for intersex youth, there are three strong areas where the difference between trans individuals and intersex individuals must be defined: consent, autonomy, and medical necessity.
In order to receive any forms of gender affirming treatment, transgender individuals must provide explicit consent, and in many cases must also receive permission from a variety of other sources. For intersex individuals, most of the gender-related medical treatment they receive is given when they are in infancy or childhood and are unable to consent to such procedures. Similarly, while both trans and intersex individuals desire full bodily autonomy, intersex individuals face many more challenges in achieving it.
Generally speaking, trans individuals are not forced to undergo any sort of surgical procedures that they do not want to undergo. The autonomy that they struggle with is being denied medically necessary treatment to alleviate gender dysphoria. However, intersex people are fighting for the autonomy to make these surgical decisions themselves when they are old enough to understand that choice, without doctors or parents making the decision for them.
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Image Credit: Case Western University News |
The final key distinction between trans and intersex individuals is medical necessity. For trans people, gender affirming procedures are deemed medically necessary, usually in order to combat gender dysphoria. The surgical procedures that intersex people undergo are not medically necessary except in two specific conditions: a) there are genuine health repercussions to the procedure not being carried out (for example, a child born without a urinary opening needs to have one constructed so that urine can leave the body), or b) the intersex person also identifies as transgender and is able to consent to procedures to alleviate gender dysphoria.
Advocating for intersex rights but treating them as another subset of transgender identity makes them and their needs invisible. Cary Gabriel Costello, a sociology professor who identifies as intersex and a trans man, discusses the consequences for the queer and trans communities if intersex individuals don’t feel welcome in those spaces in his article “An intersex perspective on the trans, intersex and TERF communities.” He explains that while intersex individuals are critical of biological sex binaries, they’re still drawn to “gender critical feminism”: another name for “trans-exclusionary radical feminists” (TERFs.)
One reason for this is “gender critical feminists” and intersex individuals have similar opinions about terminology used by the trans community. Intersex individuals are critical of the term “cisgender” because of the ways in which the terms “cisgender” and “transgender” largely adhere to the concept of sex as binary. “Gender critical feminists” are also critical of “cisgender” as label because they feel that sex is a natural binary, and to suggest otherwise is inherently sexist and ignoring the harassment of “natal” women by rapists. In Costello’s words, “[this] claim puts intersex people in a very bad place, positioned as supporters of rape if we argue that sex is not a natural binary.”
The second reason that TERF ideologies are gaining traction in intersex communities is because of the ways that these transphobic ideologies are both being misconstrued and being given a valid platform. Costello provides the example of “cisgender privilege”- according to TERFs, trans communities use this term to describe “having a cis female body is a privilege.” When described this way, the trans community clearly seems in the wrong. However, cis privilege is actually used to describe the privilege of not having your gender questioned or under scrutiny, and being perceived as a “natural” or “original” gender. These are completely different interpretations of the term, but the treatment of TERF ideology as a valid point of view promotes more transphobia within the queer and intersex communities.
Image Credit: Sophie Mo @ huck
Most “gender critical” ideologies differ from the intersex community- for example, TERFs believe that all sexed medical intervention, even that with consent, is a mutilation of the body and fueled by patriarchy. To them, gender affirmation surgeries are irrelevant because they would never produce any “real” genitals.
TERFs are objectively using intersex theories and misusing them to the point of being unrecognizable, while accusing trans communities of doing the same thing. As much as it is the responsibility of intersex individuals to think critically about “gender critical feminism,” it is also the responsibility of trans communities to be more inclusive and thoughtful about intersex spaces.
Further Reading:
https://interactadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/LavLaw-Trans-and-Intersex-Fact-Sheet.pdf
https://uwm.edu/uwmilwaukee-connects/speakers/cary-costello/
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