Monthly Gathering—September 2004
Sexual Assignment: The Unkindest Cut of All?
The birth of an intersex child (one born with ambiguous or missing genitalia) continues to be perceived as a “social emergency,” so much so that medical protocols call for sexual determination one way or the other within 48 hours of birth. Doctors then do not hesitate to perform invasive surgery, including removal of sexual organs deemed superfluous, to forestall anticipated confusion over gender and sexual identity.
An intersexual may be subjected to multiple surgeries throughout childhood, the effects of which can be traumatic. The parents of these children are told to raise them without ambiguity, and consequently, many adults who have had these operations in infancy have never been completely informed of their medical histories. This management approach, which can involve a reassignment of sex, has its basis in research done on hermaphrodites and a single set of identical twins originally tracked more than two decades ago.
Are these procedures, known as “normalizing surgeries,” truly in the best interest of their recipients or are they simply reflections of society’s inability to deal with sexual variation? To find out more, join us on Saturday, September 18, when our guest will be Alice Dormurat Dreger, Ph.D., chair of the board of directors of the Intersex Society of North America, an internationally recognized policy and advocacy organization whose self-described mission is to build a world free of shame, secrecy and unwanted genital surgery for people born with atypical reproductive anatomies.
Don’t miss this opportunity to learn more about this little-known but fascinating topic.
Page last updated: Monday, September 1, 2008