Various media reports on intersex issues.
The media reporting on this story make much of the late Ms Worrall having been born with Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, a natural biological variation that can underlie being intersex. So much is made of her CAH that it almost seems as if this variation is being blamed for her death and for the murder of…
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Our thoughts have recently been on the possible fate of our friends and allies in African nations where homophobic persecution is rife. Intersex people living in countries with homophobic laws and practices face the death penalty simply for being born different. In some African nations intersex newborns are known to be killed as a matter…
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Phoebe Hart’s autobiographical documentary is highly recommended. Documentary filmmaker, Phoebe Hart, comes clean on her journey of self-discovery to embrace her future and reconcile the past shame and family secrecy surrounding her intersex condition. Despite her mother’s outright refusal to be in the film, Phoebe decides she must push on with her quest to resolve…
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The original article that the two Australian-published versions of this story is from the LA Times newspaper and was written by LA Times journalist Shari Roan. The article was titled Medical treatment carries possible side effect of limiting homosexuality and it was published on Sunday 15th August 2010. The original article quotes Alice Dreger, Ken…
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In 2009 Dr Reis’s book, Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex, examined the cultural contexts that both inform and drive western medicine’s attitudes and responses to intersex bodies. Beginning with the profound homophobia of the 19th through to the 21st centuries, to the taboo topic of neo-vaginal dilation, Reis challenged standard medical practices…
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Tony Briffa is interviewed in The Age: Hobsons Bay deputy mayor Tony Briffa is thought to be the only person to describe his sex as “other” in the Victorian Local Governance Association survey of the numbers of males and females in local government. The Altona ward councillor was born with an intersex condition, which caused…
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However much sympathy we have in this tragic circumstance, we cannot help but be alarmed at the way CAH individuals are being portrayed. While it is understandable that a defense team might use every means at their disposal to have their client acquitted or the sentence minimized, the publicity this case has received paints those…
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Trans person Norrie is in the news: A spokeswoman for the Attorney-General’s department confirmed it was the first such certificate to state non-specified gender, and that even intersex children have their sex determined within weeks of birth. A Catholic ethicist, Nicholas Tonti-Filippini from the John Paul II Institute, said birth certificates should also record no…
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Although OII Australia does not favour the use of “condition” in connection with intersex; this article encapsulates the problems of intersex ‘normalization’ and especially the chemical ‘normalization’ of unborn children. I fear that the campaign to hold the main propagator of the dexamethasone treatment accountable would, if not accompanied by sustained challenges to more fundamental…
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The following letter has been sent to: the FDA Office of Pediatric Therapeutics; the HHS Office for Human Research Protections; Mount Sinai Medical Center (Dr. New’s current institution); Weill Medical School of Cornell University (from which much of this treatment appears to have been administered, under Dr. New’s guidance); Florida International University (where Dr. New…
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Hilde Lindemann, Ellen Feder and Alice Dreger comment on prenatal use of dexamethasone to modify appearance and gender expression associated with Congenital adrenal hyperplasia: There’s a common misperception that, now that the Johns Hopkins psychologist John Money is gone, so are all the ethical problems with the way people with genital anomalies are treated. Not…
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On the evening of Monday 14th December, CSI:Miami series 8, episode 11, Delko for the Defence, was broadcast and it characterized an intersex person as dangerous, evil and a threat to society. The character Zach is a murderer working in concert with a rapist named Justin. The CSI Miami team discovers that Zach has Androgen…
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