------ Forwarded Message > From: "dasg...@aol.com" <dasg...@aol.com> > Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 03:17:56 EDT > To: Robert Millegan <ramille...@aol.com> > Cc: <ema...@aol.com>, <j...@aol.com>, <jim6...@cwnet.com> > Subject: More Than 30,000 "Inter-Sexed, Gender-NEUTRAL" Persons Living in > Britain Today >
> The corporations responsible for subjecting embryos in utero to sex > hormone-disrupting chemicals are keeping their mouths shut, and why are the > "biosocial engineers" of the Global Elite SMILING? >> >>> >>> "When the EU drew up its first comprehensive controls on chemicals, it >>> exempted 'gender-benders.' Great Britain, under Tony Blair's leadership, >>> was responsible for this exemption. Confidential documents show that [the >>> British government] obediently acted to water down the controls after >>> [orders] from the Bush administration -- putting the interests of U.S. >>> [industrial chemical and pharmaceutical] corporations above the health of >>> British children." >>> >>> http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article\_id >>> =521535&in_page_id=1770 >>> <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article\_i >>> d=521535&in_page_id=1770> > > The third sex: The truth about gender ambiguity > Neither wholly male nor entirely female, there are more than 30,000 > 'intersexed' individuals living in Britain today > > By Colette Bernhardt > > The Independent (UK), 20 March 2010 > > http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-third > -sex-the-truth-about-gender-ambiguity-1922816.html > The greek scholar Diodorus Siculus wrote of the mythical double-sexed > Hermaphroditus: "Some say [he] is a god and ... has a body which is beautiful > and delicate like that of a woman, but has the masculine quality and vigour of > a man. But there are some who declare that such creatures of two sexes are > monstrosities, and coming rarely into the world as they do, have the quality > of presaging the future, sometimes for evil and sometimes for good." > > Throughout history, those born with both male and female physical features > have been beset by society's interpretations of them as freaks (The Lancet > branded a British hermaphrodite "a disgusting spectacle" in 1834), prophets > (the part-male/part-female character Tiresias in Oedipus Rex and Antigone was > a clairvoyant), or both. What they've seldom been allowed to do is just get on > with their lives. > > Even in modern times, tales of "intersexed individuals", as they are now > known, are often tinged with melancholy. In 1998, a Sunday newspaper reported > on the "desperately lonely existence" of Linda Roberts, who was "spat at and > stoned" in a village in Snowdonia for her androgynous appearance. > > Last year, the South African track athlete Caster Semenya, then just 18, was > subjected to chromosome testing and a humiliating media furore when it was > discovered she had no ovaries or uterus, as well as unusually high > testosterone > <http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-thir > d-sex-the-truth-about-gender-ambiguity-1922816.html#> levels. The > International Association of Athletic Federations remains undecided on whether > she is "really a woman", and has suspended her from competing in major > sporting events, including last weekend's World Indoor Championships in Qatar, > until a verdict is reached. > > Semenya has no desire to be a pioneer for the intersex community; she simply > wants to concentrate on her running. But there are countless others who are > calling for increased recognition of their status, as well as for a moratorium > on the practice of "sex reassignment surgery" of intersexed infants. > > Intersexuality presents itself in numerous different forms, occurring both in > individuals with a standard karyotype (the chromosomal make-up of the body's > cells) of 46, XX (female) or 46, XY (male), as well as in those with more > unusual karyotype combinations such as 47, XXY or 47, XYY. In one of the most > common conditions, Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH), overactive adrenal > glands can cause a female foetus with XX chromosomes to "over-virilise", > developing anything from a large clitoris to a fully formed phallus, while the > rarer Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome > <http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-thir > d-sex-the-truth-about-gender-ambiguity-1922816.html#> (AIS) can cause a male > foetus with XY chromosomes to "under-virilise", developing only a partially > formed penis and testes. > > Until recently, the overwhelming response among doctors was to surgically > "correct" a baby's ambiguous genitalia on the grounds that he/she would, in > later life, be stigmatised by these unconventional appendages. From the 1960s, > it became common practice to trim down an enlarged clitoris, and to fashion a > malformed penis into a vagina. The line among surgeons was allegedly: "It's > easier to dig a hole than build a pole." > > Intersexed babies with XY chromosomes have therefore frequently been > "reassigned" as female, with parents advised to raise them as girls, and > oestrogen pills administered to induce female puberty. > > The prevalence of corrective surgery is in part responsible for our general > ignorance about intersexuality, which is far more widespread than most of us > realise; the number of live births > <http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-thir > d-sex-the-truth-about-gender-ambiguity-1922816.html#> displaying "genital > dimorphism" is estimated at approximately one in every 2,000. That means > there could be as many as 30,000 intersexed people currently living in Britain > -- a figure that becomes even greater when taking into account all those who > only discover their condition at puberty, or when they try to have children. > > As the renowned professor of neurology and intersex expert Dr Milton Diamond > puts it: "Nature loves variety. Unfortunately, society hates it." > > "Our constant pursuit of perfection has left many children infertile, with > their gender identity stolen," argues Dr Jay Hayes-Light, director of the > campaigning organisation the UK Intersex Association (UKIA), which formed in > 2000. "There's this fear that if we have women with large clitorises and men > with small penises, it'll be the end of civilisation as we know it. In fact, > the individuals who end up most damaged are those who are surgically altered, > without their permission, to suit someone else's agenda." > > Hayes-Light, now 48, was himself born with an extremely rare intersex > condition, 5-Alpha-Reductase Deficiency (5-ARD), in which the chromosomes are > XY, but the body is unable to convert testosterone to dihydrotestosterone, > which is necessary for the formation of full male genitalia. "This was the > early 1960s; I was a lab rat, a medical curiosity. What saved me from being > poked and prodded and operated on was the fact that my mother was a > doctor." > > Advised that he would be "a very happy little girl", Hayes-Light's mother > nevertheless declined surgery for her son. But she agreed to try raising him > as female, and did so until he was 10. "I was then asked if I wanted to take > oestrogen tablets, to push my body through a female puberty," he remembers. "I > refused." Despite this troubled and confusing start to life, Hayes-Light > considers himself one of the lucky ones: "I shudder to think what I'd be like > now if I'd been forced to transition." > > Adele Addams wasn't given such a choice. Born in the late 1970s, she has > Klinefelter's Syndrome, so is XXY; chromosomally neither male nor female, in > other words. Her parents were encouraged to assign her as male, and surgery > was performed immediately. In her mind, this was "the wrong decision". After a > difficult childhood and adolescence "I eventually went into care, as my > family couldn't cope with what was supposed to be a boy but looked and sounded > more like a girl" she began living as a gay man. Yet this didn't feel right > either, and three years ago, after "a lot of fighting", she was granted NHS > surgery to make her body female. Now 31, she finally feels that "it's all come > good", and is passionate about empowering others to define their own gender. > > Last year she set up a support service for intersex and transgender people, > whom she describes as "the most marginalised minority in London". Addams, who > won a Home Office Community Engagement Award for her work, explains that while > transgenderism and intersexuality are not the same (the former is not a > medical condition), "it's not uncommon for trans people to discover later in > life that they're intersex". > > This was what happened to Alexandra Tovey, aged 37. From an early age, she > felt she was "born with a female brain, but a male body", yet her intersex > condition Partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (PAIS) was only > diagnosed last year. She'd already been living as a woman for several years, > and the news, she says, "made things make more sense". > > Now enjoying "being the 16-year-old girl I wasn't allowed to be when I really > was 16", and awaiting a full sex-change operation, Tovey, a singer-songwriter, > expresses herself through music. She's released 18 albums since 1992, and many > of her lyrics reflect her experiences as both a trans and intersexed person. > > The actress and playwright Sarah Leaver is also using art "to expose what > lives between the lines". Her play, Memoirs of a Hermaphrodite, currently > running at London's Oval House Theatre, tells the story of Herculine Barbin, a > 19th-century intersexed Parisian whose musings were published by the French > philosopher-sociologist Michel Foucault in 1980. Barbin began life as a girl, > but faced misunderstanding and contempt when she fell in love with another > woman, and was later discovered to have both male and female genitalia. Forced > to become a man, she descended into depression and poverty, and died in tragic > circumstances. > > Thankfully, Leaver's own tale is far happier. "I've always felt in between the > genders," she says. "As a kid I wore boy's pants, played football, and ran > around with my top off." Having supportive parents meant this was rarely an > issue, and it was only in her teens and twenties that she started to question > her identity: "I didn't feel I was in the wrong body, but I knew there was > something that made me different." > > Six years ago, after watching a documentary > <http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-thir > d-sex-the-truth-about-gender-ambiguity-1922816.html#> on intersexuality, she > asked her GP to check her medical history. It transpired that an operation > she'd had as a toddler in 1977 to remove a "hernia > <http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/the-thir > d-sex-the-truth-about-gender-ambiguity-1922816.html#> " had in fact been to > remove a male gonad but neither she nor her parents had ever been informed. > "It was like finding the missing piece in a jigsaw," she recalls. "Part of me > was relieved, and part of me was really angry. Why had the doctors hidden this > from me?" > > Despite her anger, Leaver, who is now 34, regards herself as pretty fortunate. > Her condition she hasn't yet sought a specific diagnosis is at the mild > end of the intersex spectrum, as she has XX chromosomes, ovaries and periods, > and has experienced few health problems. > > "We need to make room for more than two genders," agrees Addams. Tovey echoes > this sentiment: "I know others who identify with both sides, who feel 'in > between'. They need acceptance, too." > > Hayes-Light stresses that those who want to be considered "gender-neutral" are > a minority: "Although some choose not to identify as either male or female, > most do identify as either one or the other." > > When it comes to operating, all four of these case histories concur that > modifying infants' genitals for anything other than a medical necessity is > wrong. And it appears that even the medical experts have started to come > round to this view. In 2001, the British Association of Paediatric Surgeons > (BAPS) recommended that babies with ambiguous genitals should not be given > corrective surgery, and should be left to decide their own gender eventually. > > Things seem to be moving on in other fields too. "In the 10 years since UKIA > was founded," says Hayes-Light, "we've succeeded in getting intersex included > in the 2004 Gender Recognition Act. And we've seen major changes in social > attitudes, with more balanced media reporting, too." > > Yet there's still a long way to go. "Society is becoming more open-minded, but > most people still haven't heard of the word 'intersex', and gender variance > remains the last taboo in our culture," maintains Addams. Leaver looks forward > to a time "when the world doesn't cling so much to 'male' and 'female' ". > > No one can predict the future, but it does seem as though our culture is > becoming, albeit slowly, less rigid about gender roles, and more accepting of > unconventionality in general. It can only be hoped that it's a sign that we're > beginning to respect, and even learn from, the individuals we would once have > relegated to circus sideshows, and later to operating theatres. > > As the writer and psychotherapist Amy Bloom sums up: "Not monsters, nor > marvels, nor battering rams for gender theory, people born intersexed have > given the rest of the world an opportunity to think more about the odd > significance we give to gender." > > Or, in the simple, succinct words of Dr Milton Diamond: "Let's see if we can > change society, not nature." > ------ End of Forwarded Message
