fuzzyhorns:

transqueersxxx:

21 - genderqueer - intersex (with CAH)

really glad to see a genderqueer/intersex person is safe posting in there… hell yeah!

What fuzzyhorns said!

IIRC, before this, the only times I saw naked-genitals photos of someone with an intersex* condition (this doesn’t count the two people I’ve had sex with who’d been born with what the surgical model calls “ambiguous genitalia” because, while I got a good look — years after the then-standard “corrective” [SIC] surgeries — seeing someone up close and personal isn’t quite the same thing as looking at a photo of them) they were photos taken by doctors, usually of minors who had no idea they could even try to refuse consent to be photographed.

The fact that someone is now comfortable enough to say to the internet “here is what’s between my legs, and I’m cool with you seeing it” is one of the most wonderful things I’ve seen all year. (I’m kinda old, old enough that I was born during the apex of the John-Money we-must-cut-up-all-nonconforming-genitals school of thought, so this is really amazing to me.) It never should have taken decades of unceasing activism on the part of the ISNA to get to this point. The early-surgical-intervention theory never should have gone any farther than theory; and it probably wouldn’t have, if John Money hadn’t flat-out lied, and then shamelessly self-promoted his continuing lies for years afterward. And the fight against that terrible, destructive model isn’t yet completely won, there still being only too many doctors who will suggest, push for and in some cases even threaten parents in order to secure the parents’ “consent” to having their children’s genitals mutilated… so that the surgeon can then publish a self-congratulatory paper.

In case it isn’t obvious enough, I really, really hate John Money and the legacy of destroyed lives that can be laid at his door.

But enough of that. Today, I’m going to focus on being delighted that “21 - genderqueer - intersex (with CAH)” felt comfortable enough with their** body and other people’s potential responses to that body to share this photo. And, while I know there are people with intersex conditions who do identify mostly or entirely as male or female, it’s good to see that the availability of the term genderqueer works for at least this person, as well.

• *I know a lot of people (whom it’s used to describe) take issue with the word “intersex” itself, and it is not my intention to ignore or deprecate their concerns. I use that term anyway for two main reasons: 

1. Activists waged an eventually-successful decades-long campaign to replace the previous medical term, “hermaphrodism,” with “intersex.” (And while it’s true that there often is, and often should be, a continuing evolution towards self-chosen demographic terms especially for minority groups, the best-known such changes probably being, in North America, Colored > Negro > Black > African-American, that explicitly does not mean that once the worst term — hermaphrodism, in this case — has been replaced, the replacement — intersex — must remain the preferred term forever.) 
2. While there are indeed many who today dislike the term “intersex” and do not self-identify with it, there is nothing even close to a consensus as to what new term would be best, with the proponents of the leading contenders frequently finding each others’ proposed terms themselves as offensive as “intersex” is to them, or more so. I therefore use “intersex,” literally, for lack of a better term.

• **As always, if anyone knows this person’s preferred pronouns and/or gender identity, please let me know and I will edit the post as necessary to correct any mistakes I’ve made.