Doctors perform surgeries denounced as torture by the UN on intersex children to hide the ‘third gender’
You may argue that society has come quite far in terms of understanding the myriad of people who live in our world. People are getting used to the idea that we are all different, except, it seems, in one area.
Sex and gender. I’m not talking about sexism (though of course that is still a problem), I am talking about the seemingly unknown idea that a person can be neither male or female, or they can be both. I’m sure you have heard of hermaphrodites, but what you might not know is that one in every 2,000 babies born in the UK is born with some form of DSD (Disorder of Sex Development), meaning that they are born with some sort of variation of the ‘normal’ sex organs. That is more common than autism.
For some reason, the idea of atypical genitalia is a taboo we can’t seem to shake. I talked to Dr Jay Hayes-Light, the director of UKIA (The UK Intersex Association), on the subject, who told me: “Parents expect that everyone will have identical genitalia – males must look the same as other males and females must look the same as other females. The fact is however, no one is a physical clone of another.”
Doctors perform surgeries after guessing what sex the child should be, and then irreparably change it
Why these ‘disorders’ have remained hidden for so long is largely in part due to the special surgeries that the infants are put through, called ‘normalising surgeries’. These are surgeries that are usually done before the child turns one, where the doctors guess at what sex the child should be, and then irreparably change it.
These operations can cause major long standing health issues for the child, both physically and emotionally, and what is even worse is that these surgeries are almost entirely done for cosmetic reasons.
“Some intersex children do require medical care (as do many non-intersex children), which may involve surgery that can be defined as being a medical necessity. However, reassigning a child’s genitalia to conform to a gender role decided by either the parents or medical staff is purely cosmetic and more to do with social conformity than medicine.”
Dr Hayes-Light explained to me some of the extremely traumatic experiences intersex children may have to go through, particularly for those who were forced to become girls.
“Post operatively, a surgically-created vagina, if left as it is, will, as with any ‘wound’ start to heal over. To prevent this a procedure known as ‘dilation’ must be done every day. This requires the insertion of an artificial phallus-shaped instrument… Imagine if you will, a struggling ten year old child being held down on a bed by one adult whilst another attempts to insert a ‘dilator’ into the neo-vagina… My specialist field is child mental health and I have counselled several of these children who have been traumatised by this type of procedure.”
And remember, one in every 2000 children in the UK are born into this sort of treatment.
Recently, though, there was a serious denouncement by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture on the process of normalising surgeries, which said: “These procedures are rarely medically necessary, can cause scarring, loss of sexual sensation, pain, incontinence and lifelong depression and have also been criticized as being unscientific, potentially harmful and contributing to stigma.”
Not only that, but Germany also recently changed the law surrounding births, allowing for children to be put as neither male nor female on birth certificates. This is a good start, but sadly Germany has also included in the recent change that children who are marked as neither gender must also be put into a separate register, which has the potential to further stigmatise intersex people.
However, Germany’s recent change has sparked a renewed effort on our own home turf, with an organisation called Intersex UK spearheading a campaign for a change to our own laws (and without a sketchy register). They are asking the government to allow parents to leave birth certificate ‘gender sections’ blank, provide better support for children and parents in these situations, and finally, more awareness of DSDs, so the public know how common this sort of thing is.
This would mean that parents would not feel pressured to rush into a surgery that may be wrong for their child, and instead allow the child to grow up and dictate what sort of life they want to lead. Dr Hayes-Light told me that “around the age of 24 – 36 months a child of average intelligence will be aware of their gender identity… This means that the parents and medical advisers can be guided as to the best way to identify the child when s/he starts school. In later years the child can be supported to make decisions regarding their anatomy for themselves”.
Change must come from the top and spill over. People can’t modify their opinions if the law contradicts them
XXXora is a visual and performance artist and a prominent intersex personality, recently nominated for an ‘emerging talent’ prize at the Southwark Art Awards for her recent exhibition, The Captured Hermaphrodite. She uses her work to demonstrate how natural the hermaphrodite is in the world, looking at the naturally occurring species that are both male and female, such as flowers and some species of fish, as well as famous figures that demonstrated characteristics of both sexes, such as Margaret Thatcher.
XXXora (centre) with Natalia Tena at the opening of her exhibition ‘The Captured Hermaphrodite’
While she uses her art to help raise awareness of the intersex gender, she told me that she felt that the only way for change to happen is if the government itself takes an active role. “I think change must obviously come from the top first and then this will spill over. People cannot modify their opinions or widen their acceptance if the law contradicts them. Numerous countries around the world have set a precedent by adjusting their laws.”
I asked her what the changes that Intersex UK were proposing would mean to her, and how she felt it would affect the attitude towards intersex persons. “There needs to be a gender neutral third box in the middle which allows people the choice if that is their nature. We all have the right to identify as we please.”
News for all of XXXora’s upcoming exhibitions, including The Crying Alchemist, and her follow up exhibition of the The Captured Hermaphrodite, as well as other events, can be found on her website.
Featured image: lindsaybridge via Flickr. Inset images: Wikipedia, XXXora.
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