But what about intersex people?

By Patricia Weerakoon 

As Kamal said in a previous post, “[t]he biological basis of binary sex should not be contentious” because our embodied biology “demonstrate[s] that there are only two sexes.” 

But that invariably raises the question “what about people who are intersex?” Transgender ideology trains people to believe that the “I” in the LGBTQI acronym is evidence against binary sexuality. 

The brief answer is: no, it’s not. I prefer the term ‘disorders of sex development’ (some use the term differences in sex development) because it better represents what happens to people’s bodies and is therefore less confusing. 

There are two reasons why intersex isn’t evidence against binary gender, one scientific, the other to do with a proper description of people’s experiences. 

The scientific understanding of male and female 

The well-established, scientifically verified definition of man and woman is based on a person’s body structure – in particular, the purposes of a person’s genitalia in producing what’s called gametes. 

A woman is an adult human female. She naturally (as opposed to surgically, artificially) has a particular body structure. Her body possesses distinctly female internal and external genitalia: fallopian tubes, uterus, cervix, vagina, and, significantly, ovaries, which give her the ability to produce ova – eggs, which, if fertilised with male sperm, have the potential to develop into new human beings. 

A man is an adult human male. He (naturally) possesses a particular body structure. He has male internal and external genitalia: epididymis, vas deferens, seminal vesicle, scrotum and penis, and, significantly, testes, with the potential to produce sperm. If one of those sperm fertilises a female’s egg, it will initiate the formation of a new human being. 

The key point for us here is that there are only two kinds of gametes: sperm, and ova. There is no third type of gamete. Therefore, there is no other mechanism for reproduction. Even artificial reproductive techniques depend on fertilising a female ovum with a male sperm. 

Our internal and external genitalia develop in our mother’s womb in wonderful ways. We outline the processes in The Gender Revolution, and I’ll talk more about them in future posts. For now, I want to explain the following. 

Some people’s internal and external genitalia don’t develop in the proper way. They possess the genitalia, even in vestigial state. It’s just that those genitalia have not developed properly, therefore are not healthy, therefore may not operate properly. 

Intersex is a term used to describe a range of disorders of sex development (DSD) that occur during development in the mother’s womb. It includes congenital medical conditions associated with atypical development of internal and external genital structures of the reproductive system. Notice the nature of the technical language here. To recognise ‘atypical’ development implies the existence of a ‘type’ – a normal pattern of development which leads to the healthy operation of the genitals. 

These disorders are extremely rare. They occur in less than 0.018% of all live births. They can arise at chromosomal and genetic level or at the level of hormone production and action. It affects both males and females. Again, for more info, read TGR. 

But – and this is the key point – the bodies of people who suffer these disorders still possess adequate indications of being either male or female. Intersex is not a third sex. Rather, like any medical diagnosis, there are intersex males (e.g. Klinefelter’s syndrome) and intersex females (e.g. Turner’s syndrome). 

This is why I prefer the term disorders of sexed development (DSDs) to the term intersex. Intersex is not a third sex. It’s a situation where the sexual aspects of a person’s body has not properly developed. 

A very small number of babies are born with ambiguous genitalia (an enlarged clitoris, or micro penis, or fused labia; e.g. congenital adrenal hyperplasia) and need further testing to determine their sex. But most people with disorders in sex development still possess either a penis or vagina and are therefore recognised to be either male or female at birth. The disorder only manifests later, e.g. in teenage if females fail to menstruate. Some men and women only discover the disorder as adults when they want to have children but find themselves infertile. 

And this leads us to the second reason against intersex being evidence against binary sex. 

Intersex as biological not subjective 

Many people who are intersex don’t want to be associated with transgender because they feel it misidentifies them. 

Intersex is not a gender identity term. Gender identity refers to an internal, subjective sense of who or what you are. People who are transgender say that their subjective gender identity does not match their biological sex. For most individuals claiming either trans or non-binary identities, their biological sex is not in question. A transwoman is a biological male who self-identifies as a woman. A transman is a biological female who self-identifies as a man. Gender identity, being entirely subjective, is completely private, and therefore cannot be studied scientifically. 

Intersex, in contrast, is all about biology. It is a disorder of biological development and can therefore be studied scientifically. 

By the way – intersex is also not a sexual identity term like LGB. Intersex has nothing to do with sexual orientation or behaviour. People who are intersex could be straight, gay, lesbian or bisexual. 

Many intersex people object to being associated with transgender or being dragged into the LGBT++ bandwagon in general. They recognise themselves to be either male or female. They recognise that some of the sexual aspects of their body haven’t developed in a healthy way. All they ask is that we sympathise with any grief they experience because of those developmental disorders and support them as they seek to live an otherwise normal life as a man or woman. 

Intersex individuals born with disorders in sex development are people made in the image of God and precious in their own right. Their disorders are not their fault. They shouldn’t be mocked or marginalised any more than anyone else who has any kind of bodily dysfunction. 

But we also shouldn’t try to force all the people who have the different kinds of intersex conditions into one box. We shouldn’t force team them with transgender just because they are a minority. We need to understand how these conditions affect the particular individuals who experience them. We can then dispel myths, cultivate empathy for those living with these conditions, and develop a compassionate, scientifically-informed perspective on what it means to have a disorder in sex development and live as a person with an intersex condition.