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Organisation Intersex International
OII
INTERGENDER ISSUES
English speaking spokesperson:
Chris Somers xxy
Australia
Chris Somers xxy: Spokesperson for Intergender Issues
Chris has worked for many years on behalf of intersex and intergender human rights. Chris was given the wonderful and awesome opportunity to visit Antarctica in 1995/1996 and together with a pioneering spirit, used this rare chance in a life time, as a catalyst for change in international awareness, attitude and perceptions concerning all those who are intersexed and or androgynous. Chris raised both the specially designed flag denoting the XXY person and the Rainbow Flag and became the first openly and intersexed and androgynous person in the world to do so. Both Flags were flown at the South Pole and within the mountains of Antarctica to represent all those of us whom are intersexed and or androgynous. A powerful affirmation of our legitimate place within the world and universe.
Chris's world renown brother, namely Geoff Somers MBE, who is considered to be amongst the best of the Antarctic and Arctic adventurers, is a world leading polar navigator and a brilliant expedition logistics advisor amongst other extremes he ventures into around the world. Geoff's skills are highly sought after by other adventurers and many leading expeditions. Geoff has always been very supportive of Chris's bid to help enlighten the world to differences concerning sex and gender, specifically intersex and has very kindly offered his patronage to our organisation. We are delighted to have his support.
We are very honoured to have Chris represent OII on behalf of intergender issues. .
INTERGENDER - INTERSEX NETWORK
IG-IS NETWORK
The Intergender – Intersex Network has the following objectives:
•
Information and awareness within the public, the media, human rights associations, the medical and legal communities as well as social services of the reality of intersex and intergender persons.
Information and awareness within the public, the media, human rights associations, the medical and legal communities as well as social services of the reality of intersex and intergender persons.•Support and advice to parents of intersex and/or intergender children, to intersex and intergender individuals, their partners and friends.
Support and advice to parents of intersex and/or intergender children, to intersex and intergender individuals, their partners and friends. •To challenge the legitimacy of early surgical and/or hormonal treatments.
To challenge the legitimacy of early surgical and/or hormonal treatments. •To defend the rights of intersex/intergender persons, especially the right to self-identify.
To defend the rights of intersex/intergender persons, especially the right to self-identify. •To encourage an exchange of ideas and perspectives about intersex, intergender and sex/gender as a both a physical and socio-psychological continuum with female/feminine at one end and male/masculine at the other.
To encourage an exchange of ideas and perspectives about intersex, intergender and sex/gender as a both a physical and socio-psychological continuum with female/feminine at one end and male/masculine at the other.•To promote respect for diversity and differences of sex and gender.
To promote respect for diversity and differences of sex and gender. The Network is composed of competent people in various fields of intersex (CAH, intergender issues, hypospadias, Turner Syndrome, XXY, AIS,…), of a psychologist and resource personnel trained in counselling and in assisting those who are in transition or a « self affirmation process», as well as presenters and workshop facilitators.
To contact us, obtain more information, or tell us about your experience,…
To volunteer or offer your support …
Réseau IG-IS
Rue Notre-Dame 5, B-6800 Libramont (Belgique)
Tél : ++ 32 (0)473 44 54 69 - ++ 32 (0)61 22 53 62
Email : rsoigis@yahoo.fr
INTERGENDER - INTERSEX NETWORK
IG-IS NETWORK
One of the great myths of our culture is that all children must be identified at birth as “male” or “female” (biological sex), that they all grow up exhibiting “feminine” or “masculine” behavior (public sexual identity), that they all live as a “woman” or a “man” (social role) and that they marry a woman or a man (heterosexual orientation); but reality is very different.
Society is increasingly conscious of the existence of people whose sexual identity and gender differ from the generally accepted social standards. The gradual awareness of this reality goes hand in hand with knowledge of the difficulties these people must face: physical and psychological trauma (resulting most often from medical treatments in childhood), family and social difficulties, discrimination at school and university, in the workplace, harassment, violence, refusal of access to certain services, higher risk of suicide, of drug-addiction and poverty,…
Intersex / intersexuality ?
The terms “intersex” or “intersexuality” refer to certain normal variations of genital development :
•A person having a male (XY) karyotype (chromosomes) may be born with genitalia which are not completely virilized. The variations cover a wide range all the way to the child having genitalia which are not virilized at all.
A person having a male (XY) karyotype (chromosomes) may be born with genitalia which are not completely virilized. The variations cover a wide range all the way to the child having genitalia which are not virilized at all.•A person having a female karyotype (XX) may be born with genitalia which are not completely feminized. Also covering a wide range, the variations can include genitalia with a typical male appearance.
A person having a female karyotype (XX) may be born with genitalia which are not completely feminized. Also covering a wide range, the variations can include genitalia with a typical male appearance.These congenital variations are generally classified within the framework of “malformations” or genital “anomalies”; sexual development “disorders”, or “diseases” for which medicine proposes various treatments within the fields of surgery and endocrinology.
The majority of the intersexed and intergender people are not and do not regard themselves as “sick”.
In other words, the “male/female”, “man/woman” binary classification, is too limiting and the variations are much vaster than one thinks.
To be intersex is another existential possibility.
Intersex is not just about the body, but also the way we perceive ourselves within those bodies.
Intergender ?
Certain people, whether they are of intermediate sex or not or apparently not, do not find their place in the traditional binary “man/woman” system. They are located somewhere on the sex/gender continuum which has female human beings at one end and male human beings at the other.
An intersex person can identify as a man or woman. A man or a woman can feel somewhere between the two, feel one and the other at the same time or not feel comfortable with any which would amount to no definite gender.
Since gender identity is a crucial aspect of everyone’s identity, it is of primary importance that each one be entitled to self-identify and be able to choose where s/he best fits, either at the extremities or somewhere on the continuum.
Causes
The etiology of the various conditions grouped together under the term intersexuality varies with the individual condition. Nevertheless, the underlying causes for dysfunctions of urogenital development are often the result of certain factors:
•Genetic: for example, chromosomal variations (45 XO -> Turner Syndrome),
Genetic: for example, chromosomal variations (45 XO -> Turner Syndrome),(47XXY -> Klinefelter Syndrome), gonadal dysgenesis (only one of the two gonads is functional).
•Hormonal: for example, the production of male hormones by the adrenal glands
Hormonal: for example, the production of male hormones by the adrenal glands(-> congenital adrenal hyperplasia); deficit in the biosynthesis of androgens
(->cryptochidism, hypospadias) ; deficit in responding to androgens (-> androgen insensitivity syndrome; DHT deficit).
•Environmental: for example, chemical agents with estrogenic or anti-androgenic
Environmental: for example, chemical agents with estrogenic or anti-androgenicproperties (see animal experimentation carried out concerning this).
Dear All and Specifically the CEOs of The Australian Bureau of Statistics
I am writing to ask that Australian Bureau of Statistics take into account the following by virtue of their charter to “…accurately measure the number and key characteristics of people in Australia on Census night”… as stated by R. W. Edwards (ABS).
To introduce other relevant statistics which to date have been left out through the fact that little had been known until a few years ago. These issues and concerns are of importance to the greater understanding of the population of Australia as well as major research into other aspects of humanity, specifically those whom are neither fully male or female per se and whom are in no small numbers and yet populate not only Australia but the whole world. These statistics if gathered may well compound in our further understanding of the health and well being of our nation and the ability of it to respond to the needs of almost 200,000 people in this country alone, whom are likely to be in this category.
I am referring to those who are termed medically as intersex and or androgynous and some openly identify as such and whom cannot fill the prescribed criteria assigned on the forms which denote either ‘male’ or ‘female’, terms which in all essence are inaccurate and at odds with themselves both in law and in medicine. Whereas many of these people hide within the ranks of ‘male’ or ‘female’ for fear of retribution or ridicule it is nevertheless a serious and important issue which to date has been ignored and given the status of an enormous debilitating taboo. These factors which are very much a part of our society and which effect so many without regard to their health, well being, rearing as young people and later adults, appropriate schooling and education, health services including ongoing life support where required, appropriate age care, legal representation, equity and human rights, and much else leaves these individuals at a terrible disadvantage by omission in data collection and by society as a whole.
Whereas it is unlikely that the ABS will have many respondents to their inclusion of an extra box in the first instance where those who are intersexed and or androgynous may declare their sex and or gender identity. This is only because of the huge pressures put upon those who are different to remain ‘silent’. Nevertheless another box should be included so that those who wish to can reveal their sex and gender identity without fear. By being inclusive we all know how attitudes change and next time around there may well be a far better response.
The ABS through negating those whom are different and are willing and happy to reveal whom they are should not be forced or coerced to lie about whom they certainly are. It is ethically and morally wrong and a violation of human rights to negate the realities of those whom are different, when they can be scientifically and or psychologically proved to be so, by forcing upon them by threat of suppression and punishment for lying or misrepresenting their actuality. It is my view and held by others within the academic community that the intersexed person will be acknowledged in time, even if it comes persistent and or through severe litigation vested upon those who knowingly subvert their reality and impose their unbending will to make them conform to an outdated mode of interpretation which has no or little bearing on actuality – an oppression and suppression of their reality, which is so unnerving for some that they become through no fault of their own disenfranchised as people.
If one is persuaded to lie to conform in this case, one can lie about anything and should never be punished for doing so; this would be outrageous and it would not take long before society would fall into disarray. We live in a supposedly sophisticated society where we are constantly discovering new aspects concerning our world and everything within it and even outside of it. If we continue to disavow other realities, how can we expect to advance other than by slow and laboured degrees and perhaps well loose the secrets that we are looking so desperately for, through fear of seeing that which lays in front of us… would it be because we have no courage when it comes to recognizing our own selves and become as it were impotent, apprehensive of recognizing that which is there. By disavowing the intersexed person whom is willing to actively show you the world is not always what it may seem, is to deny all those whom are also hidden from view for fear of being annexed from the world, as would be the case by refusing to acknowledge those whom are brave enough to show their faces and be counted. Is this what you actually want?
You cite an example whereby statistics have an important role to play:
“There may be potential to link a population census data with health related data collected by ABS. The data would then provide a wealth of health related statistical data for a sample of the population. The combined dataset would allow the exploration of the connections between health conditions and social and economic factors.”
(Cited P10, Australian Bureau of Statistics. 2006. Information paper, Census of Population and Housing, ABS Views on Content and Procedures).
Presumably if you are interested in the importance of population statistics it would certainly be worth including those whom are of a different sex and or gender than the majority and yet whose numbers are equivalent to a medium sized European City or several Australian rural cities, that is whom are intersex and or androgynous. Or if not then it renders the importance of statistics concerning health immaterial, which undoubtedly is not the case.
You have clearly stated within the same document page 22, that: ” the topic of sex and age are essential for the production of accurate state population estimates. They are valuable items in their own right for planning and policy development and information on sex and age essential for virtually all demographic studies.”
If this so, then how is one able to carry out any useful demographic study with the information excised from the census.
Or is there some other agenda at play here whereby public monies are denied for the research of those whom are intersexed and or androgynous and support networks that could be set in place to help them, people whom I might add contribute to this nation through taxation and or other and yet are denied a place and identity by exclusion.
Whereas this may all seem rather daunting to most of you there are many people who are intersexed and or androgynous and whom do in fact populate the world and some are in very high places, some may even be amongst you. Yet it appears you are systematically shutting them out – why – surely you are not afraid of new developments in research and understanding about the very things you say are essential for planning, information on sex and policy development or is it the policy to annihilate others whom do populate the world by omission.
The requisite of compelling people to fill in a form which does not in fact apply to them if they are neither fully male or female per se and do not in fact identify as such and are willing to prove it with real evidence is a disavowal of the person and a denial of the evidence proving the fact.
Contrary to popular belief intersex and or androgynous people do in fact populate the world and most are in fear of people such as you who might be unwittingly alienating them by suppression of the facts. Thereby all knowledge of them is denied to those whom might well acknowledge their reality and the support and research that might otherwise be available becomes an extreme rarity, unless they pretend to be whom they are not. What value is that to any scholarly research and the understanding of humankind and the place we all play a part within?
In closing I wish to ask that you take seriously what I have offered and consider placing another box as do some universities and even hospitals who ask not only for whether someone may be ‘male’ or ‘female’ whose meaning is questionable in both medicine and law and cannot really be defined with any degree of certainty, but give them the opportunity of placing something else in the box marked ‘Other’. By doing so you will begin to learn a whole lot more about the people that make up the country you serve and whom may be amongst you.
You may be interested in a Research Degree which I caried out very successfully at The University of Western Australia concerning intersex. The thesis is approximately 70,000 words and housed under Psychology in The Scholars Library. It is entitled "Reflecting the Androgynous Perspective through Art" and a copy may be ordered through the amiable Dr. Toby Burrows at: tburrows@library.uwa.edu.au
Australia I understand is a country that cares for Human Rights, Dignity and Equity or is it an illusion… let us not be afraid of the science, beauty and diversity of Life and 'Life' itself.
With good wishes from Chris
Chris Somers xxy M.Ed. by Research (UWA); B.Ed.(Melb) intersexualite@wmconnect.com
Hons. Diploma of Creative Photography (Trent Poly, UK)
PRESS RELEASE - For Immediate Release
Organisation Intersex International
21 February 2006
Australian Bureau of Statistics to recognize Intersex and Androgynous people's right to declare their identity on the National Census to be held in August 2006.
Chris Somers xxy, an Australian and International intersexed activist, has persuaded the Australian Bureau of Statistics to accept that people who were born biologically intersexed or androgynous and who do not feel comfortable in declaring themselves to be either male or female, no longer have to. Instead, if they wish, they may elect to declare their real biological and gender identity. Whereas the 2006 Census forms have all been printed at considerable cost to the Australian taxpayers, they will as a consequence not be reprinted to include the two new designator fields this time around. It is compulsory to fill in the Census by law.
In response to a letter sent to the ABS by Chris Somers xxy, Dave Nauenburg Director, Population Census Development and Field Organisation, speaking on behalf of Mr Dennis Trewin, a CEO of The ABS, says: "the ABS has no intention to force or coerce respondents to lie about their sex. My advice to intersex people is that they can complete the sex question correctly by ticking none of the boxes provided for the question, and writing in the word "intersex", or "androgynous".
National Censuses provide valuable demographic data about the population and indeed some of this information may seriously impact those who are intersexed or androgynous in the areas of health and well being (e,g, Child, Youth and Aged Care), and have serious effects on the appropriate infrastructures, just as they do with any other person who is considered fully male or female.
Somers was recently asked by the intersexed activist and linguist Curtis Hinkle, founder of an international intersex organization based in Quebec with members from the world over, to be the Spokesperson for Intergender Issues and Chris accepted.
Curtis Hinkle says:
Whereas Chris does not identify as either male or female, but rather as a completely different sex and gender which is intersex and/or androgynous or epicene; Chris is acutely mindful of others who feel comfortable within the gender and sexual divide. However, Chris is an advocate for change concerning the way in which gender and sexuality are perceived and is intent on breaking down the barriers to a greater flexibility concerning those who have been born different; so that they are no longer invisible through the debilitating taboos that reign the world over concerning those who are intersexed and/or androgynous. Chris Somers xxy is tertiary trained with undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications and is a Guest Researcher at The Combined Universities Centre of Rural Health in Geraldton Western Australia.
Contact Curtis Hinkle for further details at:
Édith Nagant, Porte-parole francophone sur les questions intergenresFrançais
English
Européen-ne et libre-penseur-e.De formation très éclectique, scientifique, littéraire, linguistique, avec de la psychologie, de la pédagogie, de la philosophie un peu de droit et de neurobiologie, des formations diverses, notamment à l’aide aux personnes, en soins palliatifs, en approche de la spiritualité …, Edith travaille à temps plein dans l’associatif.
Milite pour le respect de la vie et contre la peine de mort, activiste dans les milieux de défense de l’environnement et de protection de la nature, activiste pour la paix et la non-violence, pour le respect des libertés et des différences, pour le respect des droits humains, en particulier pour le respect des droits des enfants et des personnes de sexe féminin et d’apparence féminine.
Quand il le faut, combat les discriminations, …
Edith a collaboré à la création, à la gestion et aux activités de comités d’éthique, d’associations de défense des droits des personnes, de soins palliatifs, d’accompagnement de personnes endeuillées, de soutien aux personnes homosexuelles, transsexuelles, intersexuées et intergenre …
Porte-parole de l’OII pour la Belgique et le Luxembourg, représentant-e du RIFE (Réseau des Intersexué-e-s francophones d’Europe) pour la Belgique et le Luxembourg, administrateur-e du Réseau Intergenre-Intersexe.
Edith Nagant
Réseau InterGenre-InterSexe
European and a free thinker.
A very eclectic background in science, literature, linguistics along with psychology and education and philosophy. A little law and neurobiology – different training in particular in social care, in palliative care, and spirituality…, Edith works full-time as a group organizer for social action.
Campaigns in favor of respecting life and against the death penalty, activist in favor of protecting the environment, activist in favor of peace and non-violence, for the respect of individual liberty and difference, for the respect of human rights, especially the respect of the rights of children and people who are female or have a feminine appearance.
When necessary, fights discrimination, …
Edith has collaborated in the creation, management and activities of ethics committees of associations for protecting individual rights, palliative care, of self-help groups for those in mourning and of organizations for lesbian, gay, trans, intersex and intergender people.
Spokesperson of OII for Belgium and Luxemburg, representative of RIFE (FINE = Francophone Intersex Network of Europe) and administrator for the Intergender-Intersex Network.
Edith Nagant
Réseau InterGenre-InterSexe
Photo: Dusan Stojanovich
Chris Somers xxy: personal account concerning gender and “medical” intervention
Concerning gender
When I was young, I looked like a 'normal' boy but did not feel like one. It wasn't until I was around 7 years old that I was fully conscious that I was quite different from my peers. In fact, many of them said: “You are different but we do not know why.” Obviously they had hit on something that was perhaps different in some respects about my character and the way I went about doing things that did not match their perceptions of me. Whereas I know I was more like a girl in many respects I was also like a boy but neither, something I did know, though I never, ever said this to anyone. Years later this proved to be the case in terms of both medical evidence and the recognition I did not identify as either of the assumed sexes, re: what I termed the bi-polar social construct some ten or more years ago and wrote in an unpublished paper.
Concerning “medical” intervention
I did not have any intervention concerning my sex and gender until I was almost seventeen, around sixteen and a half. I had started to develop female breasts at approximately 13 years of age and was in an English boarding school for boys and in the shower rooms used to be mercilessly teased for looking like a girl and getting rugby boots on occasions thrown at me. Whereas I was not ashamed of who I was personally, I was dreadfully isolated in this respect and although I did have a reasonable number of friends, I was always considered the outsider. Very different from most people and subsequently suffered dreadfully feeling no-one could possibly understand. Seeing in a book a picture of someone similar to myself naked and underneath the words a ‘freak of nature’ later compounded this dreadful fact that people mocked those who were born different from themselves simply because they did not conform to what was considered acceptable. Whereas I did not see myself as anything less than anyone else at the time that I was living in and in the situation I found myself, there were no support groups, let alone any acceptance of people like me – in fact one could see that some who were born different were displayed as ‘freaks’ in side shows freely available in travelling circuses or similar. Due to the pressure that I was under, I had a reluctant bi-lateral mastectomy for fear of being unable to survive. If I had had the psychological fortitude that I have to-day, I would never have undergone that operation. Further, if the surgeon and other people had asked more deeply what I had felt they would have understood and learnt far earlier about just who I was and how I really felt but did not know where to turn. I don’t hold a grudge towards them, but I do ask that people with the current knowledge of the terrible suffering of people such as I and others different again from me to never be put though this again and be accepted for who we/they are, while making absolutely sure that any operation carried out is under the full consent of the individuals concerned after they fully understand the implications of such treatment.
It should be noted I was in fact very proud of my breasts and felt no shame in who I was – it was society which could not accept me as I was and the pressures were far too great upon me in the situation I found myself within.
There are a number of people within the transgendered (TG) and transsexual (TS) communities who have appropriated the word ‘intersex’ and use it to gain political advantage. This is doing a major disservice to those who have been born both physically and or genetically different to the mainstream, thereby undermining their differences and their value as people. It assumes that a gender dysphoric person is the same as an intersexed person. The incorrect usage of intersex has been used primarily to gain a powerful validation of TG and TS peoples who have found difficulty in being accepted; both within the community and within themselves..
When a group of peoples uses other people’s realities in order to reinforce and validate their own at the expense of those whom they misappropriate, they become the oppressor and suppresser of those they exploit unwittingly or by design. In so doing, they deny the reality of those whom they have disadvantaged, in this case the intersexed communities whose realities are then in danger of being subsumed by focusing undue attention on themselves.
This denial of the intersexed communities’ intrinsic differences by a number of people within the TG and TS communities is debilitating to say the least; for it denies the personhood of a peoples who have been severely disadvantaged for centuries and in particular in recent modern history. This I believe is because those who are TG and TS have a real need to find acceptance within the general communities. A number of them have as a result searched for an interpretation that they feel they could use to validate their acceptance, which is understandable. In so doing they recognised the reality of the intersexed persons physical and or genetic actuality as an extremely powerful tool for political change. As a result those that do appropriate the word intersex for their own, use it for their own political agendas. And in so doing deny those who are intersexed by devaluing their existence by commandeering their reality for their own use or cause.
The intersexed person is not normally gender dysphoric and recognise they are both physically and or genetically different to the majority of sexes.
The problem arises then, that the intersexed community who have been successfully hushed up for centuries, become further subsumed by those wishing to acquire aspects of their reality, and consequently the intersexed are in danger of being either severely compromised or totally negated as people. Those members within the TG TS and other communities who are appropriating intersex as their reality are negating those of us who have for years been hidden form view. This misinterpretation and acquisition of the intersexed terminology by an increasing number within the TG/TS and other gendered communities is quite disturbing and is without doubt being used as a political strategy. The tragedy here is that the genuinely intersexed person is again negated by the whole of society, which becomes further confused by this misappropriation and with it the ignorance within the community is further reinforced.
Whereas there are some parallels between the intersexed and the TG and TS communities, it is important for us all to recognise each other’s differences without undermining any one group of peoples to reinforce the existence of another.
I am certain that we can all help each other, but in doing so must recognise that we all have certain actualities that are intrinsic to ourselves and should not be exploited in a detrimental way where we are in danger of being undermined by another. We must find the common ground and where we can help without balking at the difficulties we should, if we are to make substantial changes in legislation and within the whole of society and in the way in which we are accepted. So in conclusion let us work together where we can while recognising our differences without inadvertently undermining or exploiting each other without mutual consent…
Copyright by Chris Somers 2002
