Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"For decades, intersex children grew up under medical surveillance that monitored their behaviors and personalities. For example, children who grew up to be gay or trans were understood as 'diagnostic failures' by their doctors because their goal in 'treating' intersex children was to render straight cisgender adults through hormonal and surgical interventions. Homosexuality, after all, was considered a mental disorder for almost a century before being depathologized in 1973. Meanwhile, being transgender is still understood as a psychological issue that is addressed through medical intervention.

"Sugeons continue to operate on intersex children to this day, and very few longitudinal studies have examined long-term satisfaction and psychosexual well-being of individuals who have undergone these procedures. We do know, however, that surgery creates scar tissue, and repeated surgery only generates more scarring, which can ultimately affect appearance, sexual function, fertility, urinary function, and sensation.

[...]

"These practices went largely unquestioned for decades, resulting in generations of intersex people born into a world that was hostile toward their very existence. But dissent would inevitably coalesce in the early '90s.

[...]

"In recent years, various medical professional associations have released public statements affirming health care practices that center the needs of intersex youth. In 2017, three former surgeons general of the U.S. published an article advocating for the cessation of cosmetic genital surgery. Then, in 2018, the American Academy of Family Physicians released a statement declaring formal opposition to the practice of medically unnecessary genital surgery on intersex infants. Policy statements, however, are only half the battle against institutionalized harm.

[...]

"This work has not been without backlash; [...]

"In August, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a bill that seeks to criminalize providers who perform gender-affirming care. The bill goes on to list a series of surgeries that are common aspects of gender-affirming care, many of which are generally not even options available to transgender youth. Unsurprisingly, the bill makes specific exemptions for individuals born with 'verifiable disorder[s] of sex development' -- an unabashed use of stigmatizing and regressive language."

-- Amanda Saenz, "'I' told you so: When health care policy started catching up to intersex justice", Prism, 2022-10-25 [bold emphasis added -- the same exception has been in every state-level anti-trans-kids'-health-care bill as well]

Today is Intersex Awareness Day.