Disordering the lives of children
by
Curtis E. Hinkle
Founder,
OII
We
are no longer hermaphrodites. We are no
longer intersexed.
We are all men and women with disorders of sex development according to
many of the medical experts who have managed our lives over the past
decades. We now have a new Consortium
for the Management of Disorders of Sex Development and they are proposing to
manage the lives of future children born with this disorder. What are the risks involved with this change
in terminology? I think there are many.
Is
intersexuality normal? No.
However, it is totally natural and not life threatening in most
cases. There are so many different
phenomena in our natural world that are not normal. Our world is filled with people who are not
normal in one way or another. However,
what criteria do we use to judge whether these natural phenomena are disorders
or not? What criteria do we use to
determine if a natural variation in the human population is good, bad or
neutral? I don’t have the answer to
these questions because there seems to be no precise answer. It varies with the person making the
judgments. I feel that there are two
main questions to ask before judging behaviors, variations and other phenomena
in the natural world. Are they harmful
to society and if so why? Do they pose a
serious risk to the individual and if so why?
If the reason for the risk to the individual is simply society’s
reaction to the issue and not any real threat to that society, then is it the
individual who should be deemed disordered or the reactions of those judging
the individual? I think that it would be
most likely that the problem is within the one judging the individual, not the
individual being judged.
Now
that the managers of disorders are ready to start treating children with these
disorders of sex development, I have a few questions about how this pejorative
terminology will actually be explained to the child and the consequences of
such pathological views that will be used to explain not only the physical sex
of the child but the implications this will have on all aspects of the child’s
life associated with sex, those being their gender identity, gender role,
sexual orientation and actual health needs.
Once
a parent is told that their child has a disorder, they most likely will assume
there must be some treatment to either cure or manage this disorder. The consortium is not holding out a cure
because this is not something that can be cured or needs to be cured in my
opinion. However, they will become
managers along with the parents. Are
they becoming managers just of the child’s body which is the initial reason for
the diagnosis? No, they are becoming
managers of all aspects related to sex in the child’s life, their gender and
their orientation. What starts out as a
physical disorder to be managed is now viewed as a possible psychological
problem with other disorders that could become evident if the child does not
comply with the gender imposed and also we have the undercurrent of
homophobia. Some of these managers may
inform the parent that their child is more likely to be homosexual as a result
of the disorder which could make a lot of parents think that the homosexuality
is also a disorder, part of the original diagnosis when told their child has a
disorder of sex development.
There
are many people who do believe that homosexuality is a disorder and they are
involved in research to prove it. They
may not use the word “disorder” at this time but when links are made with intersexed children, it would be much easier to introduce
this concept of homosexuality being a disorder also. Once you decide that certain variations of
sex development are disorders, then most behaviors closely connected with that
group could be viewed as part of that disorder.
When
would a manager of the child’s disorder reveal to the patient that they had a
disorder of sex development? How could
this be done in such a way that the child does not feel that puberty, identity
and other essential aspects of their lives would not be disordered also? I don’t think there is. The very term “disorder” implies that
compliance with the protocols will be essential not to be disordered, not to
have a disorderly life and that the managers are the only ones who have the
solution. But they are not living in the
body of the child. They are not living
in the mind and heart of the child.
Children do not have the words or the experience to understand sex,
gender and orientation.
When
speaking with children, one needs to keep it simple. This is why I like Dr. Hazel Beh’s and Dr. Milton Diamond’s suggestion that we use the
term variation. It is easy for a child
to grasp that boys and girls come in all varieties. They can look around them and see that there
are all kinds of boys and girls but that each kind or variety is not
necessarily a bad thing or a good thing.
We are just all different. What
is damaging to a child is to feel that they are not just a different kind of
boy or girl but that they are a disordered or defective boy or girl. This has very serious implications for the
child and could make their future development even more stigmatic and
traumatizing while interacting with those in control of their bodies.
Every
feeling the child has could be internalized as part of the disorder and
something else that needs management and which is shameful. Not feeling like other boys or girls, not
looking like other boys or girls and not having a sexual orientation that is
like most other boys or girls could be and most likely will be interpreted by
the child as part of their original diagnosis, part of their disorder of sex
development. .
Welcoming
children into our lives is a wonderful gift for many of us. Watching them grow and holding out a helping
hand not only enriches our lives but builds character and strong bonds which
overall helps society as a whole. Let’s
give intersexed children the assistance they need to
live in a world that does not understand them and make sure we do not simply
manage them and further damage them with pathological, pejorative terms which
make them not only feel different but defective and defective in one of the
most essential parts of what our society has deemed all people must be to be
fully human – their sex.