Two sexes bad, three sexes better? Morgan published on the Norrie case by ABC’s The Drum

ABC The Drum: 'Intersex' ruling misses the bigger issue

ABC’s The Drum

OII Australia president, Morgan Carpenter, has been published this morning by the national broadcaster at The Drum opinion and analysis site.

We welcome recognition that sex is more than just male or female – and some of us need it – but we don’t want a third classification to be named “intersex”. We don’t want to see a third sex imposed on intersex people without consent.

We don’t agree that a third classification will reduce the pressure on parents of intersex children to make their child look “normal”. It may even increase it, when faced with assignment of a child to an experimental third class.

Unnecessary medical intervention must be addressed by eliminating the need for children’s genital appearance to meet an exacting social “norm”.

And we don’t welcome simplistic claims that a third classification will improve lives for third or second gendered people, any more than two classifications already improve the lives of women.

Thank you to the kind editors of The Drum for publishing this opinion piece.

More information

Read the full story online at The Drum.

Read OII Australia’s briefing paper on the High Court case, NSW Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages v. Norrie.