Hi Martin, I am still not sure that I understand…

…I think you are asking how I view the possibility of people choosing an intersex identity and (possibly) legal status instead of choosing “male” or “female” (and possibly having their bodies altered to affirm this choice).

My view is that a person’s body is their own, just as their identity is their own. However compelling the idea, society should not have a determining voice in how a person exists with regard to their sex and/or gender (sex and gender being two distinctly different things).

One outcome of this is that a child with indeterminate or “wrong” genitalia should not have their genitalia surgically “corrected for them” as an infant when it is not known where on the gender spectrum the child exists — this is something the child will discover for themself, typically in their early years. Such a child may still elect to keep their body unmodified, regardless of whether it seems to align with their gender or not — surgery can and has caused irreparable damage to the sexual functioning of such children in the past.

I am also of the view that people should be allowed to legally identify themselves as they wish. The process to do this should be serious, but not onerous.

When it became possible to change my birth certificate, I hesitated. My only choices were “male” and “female.” I firmly believe that male is not correct, but female is not exactly correct either. Though my gender is clearly (to me) female and I am best expressed as a woman, my body is mixed: I am a blend of sexual characteristics (even if I am not yet “officially” classified as intersex). I changed this document from “male” to “female” because our legal and political climate makes it risky for people to have “mixed documentation.” YET, I would have preferred to have selected “undetermined,” or “transgender” or “intersex” because any of these are closer to my biology than male or female.

Does this help Martin?