24
• January 17.2003
Is ita b o y
or
a girl?
what people identify as, not on what their
genitals kx>k like. What people who want to
create the T category in the driver’s license are
item. Even intersex advocates diverge on the
saying is, if your genitals kx>k like this, then
issue of binary gender roles, with some say
ing there should he a third gender indicated
you have to he this.”
ISNA and FkxJies Like Ours have convinced
from birth.
an increasing number of medical facilities—
The idea of an “I” being placed on a driver’s
including hospitals in Oakland, Calif., and Ann
license has been proposed, hut as Koyama says:
Arbor, Mich.— to stop automatically performing
“I don’t think driver’s licenses need gender, but
these surgeries and rethink the protocol.
as kmg as they have it, it should he based on
There have
also been con
versions of
individual doc
tors, such as
Johns Hopkins’
Bill Reimer,
who has
acknowledged
ISNA’s influ
ence on his
decision to
switch from per
forming surg
eries to becom
ing a pediatric
psychiatrist
whose practice
The stars of Hermaphrodites Speak! on retreat in 1994: (hack row, from left)
includes treat
Heidi Walcutt, Thomas Streun, Max Beck, (middle row, from left) Angela
ing children
Moreno, David Vandertie, Mani Mitchell, Martha Coventry, (front row, from
with atypical
left) Suegee Tamar, filmmaker Cheryl Chase and Hilda Viloria
genitalia.
Continued from Page 23
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| Nova d(x:umentary on the suh-
o ject (except David Reimer, the
“ intersex poster hoy" who is not
intersex). The 20/20 segment
® “ Intersex Babies” included a long
clip from Hermaphrodites Speak!
Interestingly, the issue of the
genital mutilation of African and
Middle Eastern women has
received considerable media
attention in the past decade or
so. Alice W alker’s bcxik and film
Warrior Marks intrcxJuced the
subject into the national
dialogue, and some intersex
advocates have complained that
the same sense of outrage has
been absent from discussions of
the phenomenon in the
Cheryl Chase started the
U nited States.
Intersex Society of North
Even some prominent
America “ to create a world feminists, including G er
free of secrecy, shame and
maine Greer, have
TH E M E D IA
unwanted genital surgery
shown indifference or
for intersexed people’’
hostility to the idea of
he media remain a crucial
intersex (echoing promi
hut often fickle friend to
nent fem inists’ indifference or hostility to
queer communities— more so to inter-
1
the idea o f lesbian decades ago).
sex people. Koyama cites episexies of ER
(gixxJ) and Friends (had) as examples of
A C T IV IS M
growing awareness, for better or worse, of the
issue in the popular imagination.
ueer observers may find the hysteria
More in-depth portrayals have been pre
around the issue of intersex reminis-
sented by the Discovery Channel, PBS and
cent
o f historical homophobia.
A B C ’s 20/20 in the past year or so. Discov
There’s a familiar ring to the “concealment-
ery’s special Is It a Boy or a Girl! — nom inat
based m odel” used by the medical establish
ed for an award by the Gay and Lesbian
ment, the shame and secrecy associated with
Alliance Against Defamation— presented a
the intersex condition, the need to protect
balanced account, hut PBS failed to inter
parents from the distress of knowing their
view a single intersex person for its one-hour