Orchids sheds light on the secrecy surrounding intersex

I have spent 25 years working with intersex people and have been constantly humbled by the courage and strength they often have or develop in the face of issues most of us would never even dream of experiencing. This condition impacts almost every aspects of people's lives and one of the biggest issues is people's ignorance and fear.

There is a lot of emotion and controversy surrounding this issue which is natural given the issues that it raises. However, I feel that this documentary gives us all an opportunity to put this aside and to connect to a real person. To understand what it means to be intersex from the perspective of this courageous person is a unique opportunity to experience empathy, compassion and understanding for thousands of other Australian's who experience these issues.

" XY chromosomes not male chromosomes"

XY chromosomes are male chromosomes.

Thought the program was a bit of a "poor me", very ego-centric. In comparison to some she was very lucky. Some years ago a senior paedriatic surgeon was being interviewed on a UK TV program on issues relating to how they decide what gender a child should be when sex at birth is indeterminate.

He commented that sometimes external environmental issues play a part and then gave an example. During the closing stages of WWII and it's immediate aftermath, as the country was going to be very short of men, they were almost automatically turned into boys. I was born during that period, and at the age of fifteen my parents put me into the military "to make a man out of me". It wasn't until my early fifties that I was able to become the person I should have been.

Golly The language she uses is unfortunate. Intersexuals , Intersexed, conditions etc... so she clearly buys into differences of sex anatomy as being a pathology( condition) which seems to undo her basic premise that the medical profession is enforcing the rules of a patriarchal society.

If we have a condition surely that means medical intervention is warranted to relieve us of it.... These university professors are such a trick.

So we have no rights as Intersex but with a bit of a nip and tuck to make us male or female we then qualify.

Bonnie and Phoebe both have genetic differences that have been Known as AIS since they were first described by john Morris in 1953. They appear to be female all of their life so far as I know them.

It was formerly (and scientifically inaccurately, se our website for details) referred to as male pseudo Hermaphrodism.

The Heart sisters have XY chromosomes not male chromosomes that’s the issue with Intersex and the problem with sex bianiariast views of us. The Heart sisters are females with XY chromosomes, Any other view is absolutist, essentialist and insulting.

Phoebe does not talk about being confused because she has male biology she clearly speaks about Intersex biology and her experience of that.

Patriarchal or matriarchal we have been subjected to the same essentialist drive to normalise us. No women’s groups or feminists organisation have ever fought for us to be something other than male or female. This is appropriation of Intersex to support an argument without supporting Intersex themselves.
The leading pathologising and normalising support group for CAH ( a most common cause of Intersex differences ) is dominated by women. The Medical practitioner who is prescribing dexamethazone to pregnant women to prevent “lesbianism” in unborn Intersex babies is Dr Maria New, a woman and the leading theorist on what causes “lesbianism” id Sherrie Berenbaum ( see her studies on Tomboys etc etc where she appropriate Intersex kids to progress her view on the causes of Lesbian behaviour without ever once fighting for our rights to have behaviours that challenge notions of what is normal for boys and girls)

People are not commonly called transgenders unless the object is to insult them. People might be transgender or transsexual . Transgenders, transexuals eughhhh !!!

The attempt to put distance between transsexual/Transgender and Intersex misapprehends both . Though basic causality and life experience are often profoundly different to suggest there is no parallels at all or convergences speaks to ignorance of both. Intersex individuals who reject their birth assignments for instance are required in most countries to conform to a Transgender standards of care if they wish to have cardinal documents changed (including surgical interventions to remove what are considered inappropriate male or female bits. The notion being a Dr could never possibly get assignments wrong so the Intersex person has gender identity disorder or like Dr Jefferies the view that possession of a Y chromosome condemns you to maleness despite the evidence of your body and brain. )

Her position on transgender not being chromosomal and that gender is not innate is of course simply homophobic/transphobic projection. Neither of those thing’s is known to science just as a casual explanation for gay bi or lesbian is unknown to science (and here is hoping it stays that if we are to avoid eugenic de-selection)

Poor old professor J

She Uses Intersex to progress her arguments in a very off putting way and apparently appropriative way . Never once argued for our rights never once engaged with us any meaningful way. White middle class handwringing whinger.

If you had been out there in the trenches with us fighting for our rights to be as we were born it would be a different matter. For too long academics have used Intersex as a toy to propound their various theories about humanity without caring much how we fared in life or whether we have rights, enjoy sex, or die early because of the interventions we are subjected to .
Look to the literature: it is replete with silences about Intersex in old age, Intersex and suicidality, Intersex and violence, Intersex and rights, Intersex and long term outcomes following what can only be regarded as non consensual medical experimentation.
On the other hand we have a plethora of feminist and their antagonists, genetic theorists, anthropologists and sociologists of every shade using us as creatures that confirm one of their various theories, nearly always in support of an essentialist view of human sex binaries either as us being a tiny minority exception or proof that it exists.
Sarah Creighton and Catherine Minto are wonderful exceptions

I'm wondering why Transpeople like myself have to be thrown under the bus like this.
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The demands by intersex activists that children should not be forced by the administration of surgery or hormones to fit into a sex category, is diametrically at odds with the developing practice in western medicine of transgendering children diagnosed with gender dysphoria through the administration of puberty blockers as early as 10 years old.
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Puberty *blockers*, not the administration of hormones.
This delays changes that are *intensely* distressing for the child involved.
It's not the social issues, so much as how the person involved feels. And no, it shouldn't be done if the child isn't old enough to know, or choose, and the puberty blockers just *delay* a choice. Having something removed surgically (Which intersex activists campaign against) is a different matter.

I don't see why this (the differences between transpeople and the intersexed) is a problem, but, obviously the Author views it as such.
Is it too much to ask that we just accept people, like we want to be accepted?

I know I'm tired of living in the dark about this. I think shedding light on IS lives is what we really need. I am tired of all the mythology and confusion. This film really spoke to me and more importantly for me. <3 Orchids

This is so wrong:

"The concept and practice of transgenderism is founded in a profound belief in innate gender difference, a belief that the experience of intersex persons often contradicts."

Being transgender is not equivalent with a belief in gender binary. Check your assumptions.