Current Events > California becomes the first state to stand behind intersex rights

(+) Yeah! (+)

Californias state legislature passed a new resolution today (28 August) affirming the rights of intersex people. This makes them the first state in the US with such language and protection.

Senator Scott Wiener (D) first introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 110 (SCR-110) at the end of February. interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth and Equality California co-sponsored the resolution.

Other states have made moves to support intersex rights, including Indiana, Nevada, and Texas. This resolution in California, however, is the first to pass.

According to the language of the resolution, the purpose of it is to foster the well-being of children born with variations of sex characteristics through the enactment of policies and procedures that ensure individualized, multidisciplinary care.

Freedom to choose and be celebrated

The language of the resolution is telling and broad in its support of intersex people and specifically minors.

One element of it resolves to consider intersex children a part of the fabric of our states diversity to be celebrated rather than an aberration to be corrected.

Further, the resolution also recognizes that intersex children should be free to choose whether to undergo life-altering surgeries that irreversiblyand sometimes irreparablycause harm.

Wiener celebrated the passage on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/Scott_Wiener/status/1034495669745082368

Intersex people have surgeries performed on them as infants without their consent around the world.

Amnesty International revealed last year that babies in Denmark and Germany face up to five surgeries in their first year alone.

More and more people, however, are revealing the traumas these surgeries can inflict and asserting their pride being intersex.

Sara Kelly Keenan became the first person in the US to have intersex on her birth certificate last year.

Its also the latest in a string of progressive LGBTI policies out of California, including bills for senior citizens and beyond.

https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/california-first-state-intersex-rights/
---

Sorry but what rights didn't intersex people have before
---

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Sorry but what rights didn't intersex people have before

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gQOYAp1-oU" data-time="
---

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Sorry but what rights didn't intersex people have before

Right not to have surgeries done on them without consent?
---

If you're born with sexual characteristics of two genders, then yeah - you should have the right not to be surgically altered by your parents to make you present as one or the other.

More education for intersex people and their parents, and more freedom for an intersex person to decide their own course of action, is great for intersex people and the world around them.
---

frozenshock posted...

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Sorry but what rights didn't intersex people have before

Right not to have surgeries done on them without consent?

Since when did you need an infant's consent to perform a surgery on them
---

Has California banned circumcision?
---

Sephiroth1288 posted...

frozenshock posted...

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Sorry but what rights didn't intersex people have before

Right not to have surgeries done on them without consent?

Since when did you need an infant's consent to perform a surgery on them

Since now.
---

Funkydog posted...

Sephiroth1288 posted...

frozenshock posted...

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Sorry but what rights didn't intersex people have before

Right not to have surgeries done on them without consent?

Since when did you need an infant's consent to perform a surgery on them

Since now.

How exactly do you get consent from an infant

Like, if a baby is born with a cleft lip, do they need to live with a fucked up mouth it until they're old enough to consent to a surgery?
---

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Funkydog posted...

Sephiroth1288 posted...

frozenshock posted...

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Sorry but what rights didn't intersex people have before

Right not to have surgeries done on them without consent?

Since when did you need an infant's consent to perform a surgery on them

Since now.

How exactly do you get consent from an infant

Like, if a baby is born with a cleft lip, do they need to live with a fucked up mouth it until they're old enough to consent to a surgery?

This is in regards to surgery around "being intersex" nothing else.
---

Funkydog posted...

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Funkydog posted...

Sephiroth1288 posted...

frozenshock posted...

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Sorry but what rights didn't intersex people have before

Right not to have surgeries done on them without consent?

Since when did you need an infant's consent to perform a surgery on them

Since now.

How exactly do you get consent from an infant

Like, if a baby is born with a cleft lip, do they need to live with a fucked up mouth it until they're old enough to consent to a surgery?

This is in regards to surgery around "being intersex" nothing else.

How is fixing your genitals in any way different from fixing your mouth? Seems pretty arbitrary
---

Is that a serious question?
---

Why aren't they standing behind intersex lefts? And does this protection include intersex alt-rights?
---

Funkydog posted...

Is that a serious question?

Yeah, why are the genitals the one organ you need a baby's consent for in order to do surgery on
---

You don't do plastic surgery on a baby's face

Similarly you shouldn't be cutting off their genitals or carving out their uterus if it's not medically necessary
---

Funkydog posted...

Is that a serious question?

Mal's having a big shitpost morning.

...

Although I guess that's most of his mornings.
---

Doe posted...

You don't do plastic surgery on a baby's face

Similarly you shouldn't be cutting off their genitals or carving out their uterus if it's not medically necessary

There's a lot of benign deformities though, so what makes deformed genitals that can eventually lead to sterility so important
---

CyricZ posted...

Funkydog posted...

Is that a serious question?

Mal's have a big shitpost morning.

...

Although I guess that's most of his mornings.

Oh, that's Mal?

At least I know not to waste my time anymore now.
---

Because such things tend to be particularly involved with someone's mental development and their eventual self identity?
---

Doe posted...

Because such things tend to be particularly involved with someone's mental development and their eventual self identity?

But having a messed up face like a cleft lip doesn't?
---

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Doe posted...

Because such things tend to be particularly involved with someone's mental development and their eventual self identity?

But having a messed up face like a cleft lip doesn't?

The problem is that choosing one sexual organ over the other might not be what the child is wired to. They may be wired to grow up male but their penis was cut off as a child.

The comparison to cleft lips doesn't work as the self-identification aspect of the brain isn't really connected to the lips.

There is a good SVU episode about this as well as interesting studies about growing up intersex.
---

Why is everything a fucking left vs right debate nowadays? Smh
---

Kastrada posted...

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Doe posted...

Because such things tend to be particularly involved with someone's mental development and their eventual self identity?

But having a messed up face like a cleft lip doesn't?

The problem is that choosing one sexual organ over the other might not be what the child is wired to. They may be wired to grow up male but their penis was cut off as a child.

The comparison to cleft lips doesn't work as the self-identification aspect of the brain isn't really connected to the lips.

There is a good SVU episode about this as well as interesting studies about growing up intersex.

Basically that. Mal is arguing the concept of infant surgery while removing the context of what being intersex is. Intersex people do run the risk of identifying as another sex than what their parents "chose" for their genitalia. Completely separate issue than even Trans, but often ignored / neglected. And many intersex results end up resenting the incorrect choice was made for their bodies.

BigSLM1993 posted...

Basically that. Mal is arguing the concept of infant surgery while removing the context of what being intersex is. Intersex people do run the risk of identifying as another sex than what their parents "chose" for their genitalia. Completely separate issue than even Trans, but often ignored / neglected. And many intersex results end up resenting the incorrect choice was made for their bodies.

Well put.
---

Kastrada posted...

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Doe posted...

Because such things tend to be particularly involved with someone's mental development and their eventual self identity?

But having a messed up face like a cleft lip doesn't?

The problem is that choosing one sexual organ over the other might not be what the child is wired to. They may be wired to grow up male but their penis was cut off as a child.

The comparison to cleft lips doesn't work as the self-identification aspect of the brain isn't really connected to the lips.

There is a good SVU episode about this as well as interesting studies about growing up intersex.

Instead of dodging the question with something stupid like "are you seriously asking???" people should immediatly answer like this. Thank you for answering in a concise manner.

It doesn't matter if the question is a "stupid" question. Just answer the damn thing.
---

Kastrada posted...

The problem is that choosing one sexual organ over the other might not be what the child is wired to. They may be wired to grow up male but their penis was cut off as a child.

Don't most intersex kids grow up identifying as the gender they resemble?

Kastrada posted...

The comparison to cleft lips doesn't work as the self-identification aspect of the brain isn't really connected to the lips.

No i'm fairly certain that growing up looking like Quasimodo would have a much more profound effect on a child's psychology than what their junk looks like.
---

Just waiting for the escape from L.A. situation to happen
---

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Kastrada posted...

The problem is that choosing one sexual organ over the other might not be what the child is wired to. They may be wired to grow up male but their penis was cut off as a child.

Don't most intersex kids grow up identifying as the gender they resemble?

Kastrada posted...

The comparison to cleft lips doesn't work as the self-identification aspect of the brain isn't really connected to the lips.

No i'm fairly certain that growing up looking like Quasimodo would have a much more profound effect on a child's psychology than what their junk looks like.

A. I don't have the numbers of that but it's still pre-emptive surgery that isn't really necessary. People can and do have healthy lives with both sex organs.

B. The implication that cleft lips being the same as Quasimodo is a bit problematic. Cleft lips can be just cosmetic issues whereas having a hunched back could severely shorten a life span.

I understand what you are saying about it hurting a child mentally but fixing a lip is less invasive and less tied to the brain than sexual organs. More so, fixing a cleft lip or palate will not cause undo harm to a child's mental state. Surgery on intersex babies has a 50% chance of being completely wrong.
---

Kastrada posted...

A. I don't have the numbers of that but it's still pre-emptive surgery that isn't really necessary. People can and do have healthy lives with both sex organs.

Except of course when it causes sterility, you mean. That's kind of a big deal for some people.

Kastrada posted...

B. The implication that cleft lips being the same as Quasimodo is a bit problematic. Cleft lips can be just cosmetic issues whereas having a hunched back could severely shorten a life span.

You know what I mean.

Kastrada posted...

understand what you are saying about it hurting a child mentally but fixing a lip is less invasive and less tied to the brain than sexual organs. More so, fixing a cleft lip or palate will not cause undo harm to a child's mental state. Surgery on intersex babies has a 50% chance of being completely wrong.

Except I'm pretty sure intersex kids mostly just grow up identifying as the gender they resemble. By not forcing one gender onto a kid, you're actually forcing sterility on them. Is that a better option to you or something?
---

Are intersex people predominantly one or the other, or are they pefectly in the middle, and could be either one? Like, are they capable of getting a woman pregnant, but they could also be impregnated themselves? Or is it just more or less a deformation, and they otherwise have all the given features of either a male or female?

I have profound ingnorance when it comes to these people, so I apologize.
---

Dyinglegacy posted...

Are intersex people predominantly one or the other, or are they pefectly in the middle, and could be either one? Like, are they capable of getting a woman pregnant, but they could also be impregnated themselves? Or is it just more or less a deformation, and they otherwise have all the given features of either a male or female?

I have profound ingnorance when it comes to these people, so I apologize.

It's a variety of cases. Think of it as an umbrella term. Folks can be born with an enlarged clitoris resembling a penis or a micropenis conversely. Same with having XXY or XYY chromosomes.

The old term was Hermaphrodite but that was someone having both set of genitals, which is just one conditions amongst many.

In some cases they end up sterile.

Sephiroth1288 posted...

Kastrada posted...

A. I don't have the numbers of that but it's still pre-emptive surgery that isn't really necessary. People can and do have healthy lives with both sex organs.

Except of course when it causes sterility, you mean. That's kind of a big deal for some people.

Kastrada posted...

B. The implication that cleft lips being the same as Quasimodo is a bit problematic. Cleft lips can be just cosmetic issues whereas having a hunched back could severely shorten a life span.

You know what I mean.

Kastrada posted...

understand what you are saying about it hurting a child mentally but fixing a lip is less invasive and less tied to the brain than sexual organs. More so, fixing a cleft lip or palate will not cause undo harm to a child's mental state. Surgery on intersex babies has a 50% chance of being completely wrong.

Except I'm pretty sure intersex kids mostly just grow up identifying as the gender they resemble. By not forcing one gender onto a kid, you're actually forcing sterility on them. Is that a better option to you or something?

It's actually the opposite of what you said. Intersex people can have the ability to reproduce. "Corrective" surgery can lead to becoming sterile.
---

I just came here to say losing my foreskin as a baby is why I have self-esteem issues and no confidence with women and in life and why I am a failure of a human being.
---

@catboy0_0 posted...

I just came here to say losing my foreskin as a baby is why I have self-esteem issues and no confidence with women and in life and why I am a failure of a human being.

http://www.foregen.org/clinical_trials
---

Roshon posted...

Intersex people have surgeries performed on them as infants without their consent around the world.

for a moment i really thought this was a circumcision topic. like, when is that nonsense mutilation going to stop?
---

Kastrada posted...

It's actually the opposite of what you said. Intersex people can have the ability to reproduce. "Corrective" surgery can lead to becoming sterile.

No, people born with both sets of genitalia are almost always sterile unless they intervene before puberty.
---

Senator Scott Wiener

Tee hee
---