I would like to bring to attention, that to change one’s gender, if assigned wrong by the authorities at birth, in some states in America a person has no choice but to have genital surgery to match the typical genitals for the male and female binary.
To find out the laws in each state that determine gender at a government level, you can check here: National Center for Transgender Equality: Document Requirements. What you will discover if you go to the above link, is there are still several states that insist that transgender people go through the genital surgical assignment of gender. This is often the only way they are legally allowed to correct the gender on their birth certificate.
This is wonderful, if a person truly wants genital surgery, and has the money for it. But what if they do NOT want this type of genital surgery, or don’t have the money. Non-binary transgender and intersex people do exist and some of us don’t want these “bottom surgeries”. Worse an intersex baby often has no choice in America. There are no laws to protect them, and corrective genital surgeries occur each and every day.
The Double Standard in America:
Further, the other thing I find interesting about America is the double standard: In America female circumcision is considered barbaric and a tragedy when it occurs in other countries, and yet daily they are doing the same thing here, to some forms of intersex, in the name of “corrective” genital surgeries.
Yes, surgeons are literally cutting down or cutting off the clitoris or penis of some intersex infants. Simply because it does not fit the male/female binary, of what authorities say the intersex baby’s body should appear as, and the results are often disastrous and future sexual sensation and function gone forever. Pretty interesting for a country whose pediatricians are trying to change their beliefs around male circumcision, due to creating a new genital integrity policy.
Worse, in some states, their public bathroom laws are making it so that these surgeries have to be performed to even legally go to the bathroom of one’s true gender. This is because the only way to change one’s birth certificate is to have genital surgeries to conform one’s genitals to the typical male/female binary. So imagine what happens in that state when an intersex baby is born with genitals that make it hard to determine.
In America the birth of an intersex infant, it is often a Psychosocial emergency to do these genital surgeries as soon as possible. The psychosocial pressure even on transgender bodies to conform to legally change their gender through genital surgery is huge. The suicide rate among transgender is 41%, and this no doubt is a huge reason to why.
FIRST BIG PROBLEM in AMERICA:
Gender is not in one’s genitals, and never was; and yet this is the old mind set.
SECOND BIG PROBLEM in AMERICA:
The UNITED NATIONS DECLARES THAT WE STOP THE TORTURE, and America’s state governments are not coming to an agreement around what declares our gender.
Each State has Different Requirements for Gender:
Some states say genital surgeries are NOT a necessary requirement anymore to change one’s birth certificate. Yet, other states say “bottom surgery” is a requirement as noted here: National Center for Transgender Equality .
Worse, sad to say, at this time there are only two countries that protect intersex babies from the surgical assignment of gender. These two countries are Malta and Chile. It is time to stop the normalizing genital surgeries on intersex infants.
If America would get on board, it would be a domino effect, and other countries would want to follow. Nevertheless, genital mutilation happens daily. Millions of intersex people are not happy, and will never receive restitution. I personally know some transgender and transsexual people who are not happy with their surgeries too. So it is not just intersex people who have been violated.
Bottom line, it is time to stop the government controlled surgical assignment of gender. Self-determination should be up to the person, and this includes genital integrity. It is up to us intersex and transgender people to personally figure out for ourselves what creates a “real” man and a “real” woman. The self-determination of gender is a human right.
~.V.~
Mx. Anunnaki Ray Marquez 