Name: What it means to be intersex | Susannah Temko
Uploaded: 2020-11-02T18:16:36.000Z
Duration: 14 min 5 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Transcriber: Leslie Gauthier Reviewer: Krystian Aparta

I have a confession to make, right off the bat.

but I'm a really big fan of "Harry Potter"

and was waiting way too long to receive my letter

inviting me to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry --

I was also waiting for an invitation to the Jedi Temple

or a tap on the shoulder to invite me to the X-Men.

and told that I am in fact part of a group of people

who are still largely invisible and misunderstood.

it will be the first time you've even heard the word "intersex."

It refers to people who were born with one or more

That's your genitals, your hormones, your chromosomes

that fall outside of the traditional conceptions of male and female bodies.

the most basic assumption we've made about our species --

what we're taught in schools that sex is binary,

Intersex people who fall outside of this false sex binary

have always existed, throughout human history.

Some of us don't even know that we are intersex.

and others turn up around the time when puberty is supposed to kick in.

some of us believe we are the only ones in the world.

which you may have understood to be typically male.

I was also born with gonads instead of ovaries.

Standing here on this stage would have been my worst nightmare

Intersex people are thought to make up to 1.7 percent of the population.

That means more, depending on where you are in the world,

we are swiping you left and right on dating apps --

If we are so common, why don't you see us?

We often think of disciplines like medicine and the law

may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's pill."

In truth, these disciplines that touch our lives are impressive,

just as we are not immune to the effects of that prejudice,

In medicine, intersex babies who are born with ambiguous genitalia

are routinely operated on without consent,

in order to make their healthy anatomy appear more "normal."

This is before they've even said their first words,

indicated a sexuality or a gender identity.

Many people are never told the truth about their intersex traits,

and those who are are instructed, often, not to tell anyone.

Secrecy is enforced and shame is a close shadow.

intersex people fall outside of categorization,

if you can imagine the number of forms you've filled out

specifically, the Gender Recognition or Equality Act.

And intersex people cannot correct the sex classification

unless they declare they are transgender.

these life-altering problems are starting to be addressed.

So why does this matter to those of you who aren't intersex,

who don't have variations of sex characteristics?

I imagine many people in this audience have,

Subtitles ListPlay Video

What it means to be intersex | Susannah Temko

immune

empathy

disorder

compassion