What I Just Learned About Intersex People (and Why It Matters)

It's Pride Month, and I'm loving all things LGBTQIA+.​ Though, I have to say, until a few days ago, I​ didn't understand how harmful it could be to leave those last few letters off. 

I've just read "Inverse Cowgirl," by Alicia Roth Weigel, and learned so much about intersex folks (those born between the sexes, having both female and male sexual organs.)

Did you know that roughly ​1.7% of the population was born intersex?  That's roughly the same as ​people with red hair.  And it's WAY more people than trans folks (estimated .06% of the US population over 13 yrs old).

​Many (most?) people born in the U.S. as intersex are subject to Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM)​.  This is an medically unnecessary surger​y that can inflict permanent harm on intersex children, by removing parts of babies' genitals to "fit" into one gender or the other, without their consent, even though the surgeries could be safely deferred.

This forced binary-leaning surgery sets up children for a lifetime of challenges, from drastically altered hormone production, to fertility differences, to insufficient medical care. It can even include a lack of understanding within the LGBTQIA+ community, which is meant to be an affinity group of belonging.

For Pride Month, if you're not already familiar with intersex issues, I encourage you to learn more by:

• Reading "Inverse Cowgirl," by Alicia Roth Weigel

• Checking out documentaries Every Body or Who I Am Not 

• ​Or learning more on the Human Rights Watch website.

Gen X Women Rising is a platform for empowering women in midlife - all women in midlife. That includes trans women and intersex women. For that matter, non-binary folks who find this info helpful, you're certainly welcome too!

What I know is that even cis-gendered women are under-researched (think of the dearth of information that's needed for folks not neatly fitting into the binary), but there's more info now available that will help us through these transitions of aging, hormonal shifts, and family and career shifts.

One reason why it is important that we are empowered is to use our wisdom, our experience, and our various kinds of leverage to create a better world - for all. In order for us to create a better world for all, we need to continue to educate ourselves on issues of social injustice. Thus, I hope we all continue to learn about one another, and what makes our life experiences unique.

Let's keep holding each other up!