Understanding Trans and Intersex Solidarity

What is intersex?

Intersex people are those born with variations in their sex traits and reproductive anatomy. They are 2% of the population (same as redheads!)

Is intersex the same as transgender?

Intersex and transgender are different categories. Transgender people have varying gender identities and may not identify with their gender assigned at birth. 

Intersex people are born with physical variations that makes it hard to categorize them neatly in binary sex categories. They may have been assigned a sex at birth that does not tell the full story of their bodies, or, later, their full identity. You can be an intersex man, intersex woman, intersex nonbinary person, or none of the above. Understandably, there are higher rates of trans identities among intersex people than among the rest of the population.

What does “sex” really mean?

There is no universal definition of the word “sex.” In general, when people talk about “sex” or “biological sex,” they refer to a long list of reproductive, hormonal, anatomical, and genetic characteristics. Those are commonly grouped into “male” and “female” categories. But there's much more natural variation in human minds and bodies than that. 

Experts – and the LGBTQI+ community – have long understood sex and gender as complex and intertwined concepts. As the existence of intersex people prove, sex characteristics vary enormously. There is no “sex-based” definition of a woman or a man that universally applies to everyone. For example, some cis women can’t give birth to children. Ohers may have different chromosomes or hormone levels than those traditionally associated with women, but don't visibly differ from any other cisgender woman. Other people may naturally have an appearance that doesn’t fit into existing gender norms. 

For some people, being intersex informs the way they experience their gender, which may live either inside or outside of the binary. Others happily remain in the gender they were raised as. Everyone’s story is unique! 

Since “sex” is complicated, and there’s no way to tell what someone’s chromosomal or hormonal characteristics are just by looking at them, courts have long recognized that laws against “sex discrimination” should apply to more than just someone’s sex assigned at birth. They should also apply to sex stereotyping, sexual orientation, and gender identity. This understanding was formally adopted into many areas of law under the Biden administration. Trump is now trying to undo those advances. 

Why are the struggles for trans and intersex rights connected? 

Over the last few years, we have seen an increase in harmful anti-trans rhetoric and legislation that has harmed trans youth and adults across the country. The same bills intended to target and eliminate transness also impact intersex people, especially intersex girls and women of color, who already face body policing in schools and sports. Attacks on intersex people are included in 75% of anti-trans bills. And policing girls’ bodies is simply wrong - whether they’re cis, trans, and/or intersex. Young women should be able to grow up safely and express themselves freely and confidently. 

Stereotypes about how people “should” look or behave based on their gender, whether that gender is their actual identity or just assumed, harm everyone – and they’re often based on racist assumptions. 

The fight for affirming and respectful medical care and bodily autonomy are central to our shared struggle. Intersex people face human rights violations rooted in transphobia, including medically unnecessary “corrective surgeries” to change the appearance of an infant’s sex, a practice specifically approved by most bills that aim to strip away rights to gender affirming care for trans teens. Some intersex people only find out later that serious decisions about their bodies were made for them by doctors or parents without their knowledge or consent. Everyone deserves to be informed of their options and give informed consent to their care. 

What are we fighting for?

We want self-expression and freedom for all! Banning trans healthcare while allowing nonconsensual surgeries on intersex young people is a deeply harmful barrier to our bodily freedom and our right to determine our own destiny. 

There are so many ways to be a woman, a man, or a nonbinary person - and everyone deserves to live as their authentic selves. Other people don’t decide who we are.

We all deserve to make decisions about our bodies and self-expression, and everyone should have the freedom to live authentically as themselves. And nobody should have medical change forced on them they do not want. Everyone should have access to medical care that they want and need.

Intersex and transgender rights are intertwined because nobody but us should be able to decide what our bodies can look like. We decide our own futures!