Terfs are the most Bigoted People Online.
This is my response to people who believe in the myth of binary gender.
Having a discussion about topics that include Intersex in the media is acceptable.
However, doing so in a way that is rude, dismissive, and outright bigoted towards members of the community cannot be allowed to stand.
In my own life, I was initially labeled male by medical teams because I have XY chromosomes. But my body wasn't responding to testosterone and developing correctly during puberty. The reason was I wasn't merely someone with androgen Insensitivey but had Swyer syndrome. Hence, the medical "experts" reclassified me as female medically and recommended me having operations to correct previous operations.
Now, here I sit, responding to my life and the debate about Intersex with a unique perspective. I have lived experience, and like other Intersex people, I am sick of other people telling us who we are.
I was raised male, genetically male, and thought I was male; wanted to be male, yet puberty had other plans. Due to uterine tissue, the only development of a female phenotype, including secondary sex characteristics, and living as a female for over 20 years, I am more accepting that this is my reality.
I never wanted to be female, yet at this point my gender I consider gender fluid because, at times, I am ok with my body being this way and accept it.
My experience might have been rare, but it happened at other times; I damn the universe for having me born in such a bizarre situation. Genetic males shouldn't have vaginas or periods; thus, it's mentally upsetting.
But why do I feel this tension? It's not innate. It's because of people who debate intersex existence. It's because of the hate and intolerance we face, and I have faced throughout my life.
It is because my own family, many friends, and the people I interact with made me feel like a mutated freak who would be better off dead. It is for these reasons that many Intersex advocates fought for and won the right in many countries for third-sex status.
Many Intersex people, myself included, do not feel male or female. Our bodies and lives are something different entirely from the trans and cis experiences. I may not legally have fought for the third sex designation for my records (fear of even more bigotry).
I understand why many intersex people feel it is necessary to better have their identification match who they are. In short, in my life, I have been legally and medically both male and female. I have identified more as a man, yet now, living in a pretty much cis woman's body, I consider myself gender fluid. If all this is true in my own experience as one solitary case study of an Intersex life. How can anyone judge or understand the unbelievably wide range of possibilities?
I share my story to raise awareness about the lived experience. This isn't a textbook article on a disorder. I'm a living, breathing person who has had to live with my conditions for decades. For intersex people, trans people, and questioning people who read this, live your truth. Everyone should seek to be the most genuine, honest version of themselves. This is your one chance to make your dreams a reality just be yourself, there will be hardships, but not being yourself is wasted potential.
As for those who seek to use Intersex as a debate tactic, be it trans people or terfs, there is a problem when you make a population already dealing with real health issues a more targeted minority. At least try to have intersex people's voices on the matter if discussing us.
Many of these debates do not have the best interest or concern of Intersex. The issue here is not trans people; they just wanna be left to live their lives in peace. It's bigotry and hate because Intersex is a reasonable demonstration that there is no sexual binary, even physically, that it now has created a sub-industry of grifters who want to try to rob intersex people of our identity and put us into the male-female binary to uphold their myopic worldview.
Although for many Intersex people, the binary works, it doesn't for everyone, including myself, and I personally don't need to debate anyone to know myself. We have already legally won the right to be considered a third sex. Thus, anyone who tries to debate binary sex has already ignored biology, medicine, the law, and the state.
Below are some starting points where you can be educated about third sex
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46727611
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_recognition_of_intersex_people
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_recognition_of_non-binary_gender
