The “I” in LGBTQIA+ stands for Intersex. It’s estimated that 1.3% of people are born intersex, which means they have a mix of male and female anatomy. That means 1 in 77 people you meet are intersex. You might find that surprising since many people recognize only male and female and won’t acknowledge anything else.
Sadly, many intersex children and infants are subjected to unnecessary surgery to please the parents. In one study, 81% of the intersex individuals had undergone surgery, often resulting in permanent issues. 50% reported depression. 67% reported sexual problems. Children reported significant disturbances, especially within family life and physical well-being (areas the surgical treatment was supposed to stabilize).
If you are not intersex, it’s important that you understand humanity is not binary. Not only is gender a spectrum that may have nothing to do with biological sex, but biological sex is not cut and dry either. We need to stop expecting other people to conform to our ideas of how they should be. If green and orange decided all the other colors didn’t really exist and needed to be turned into either green or orange, the vast beauty in the world, from resplendent works of art to the breathtaking magnificence of nature, would be virtually erased.
You are that beauty. You are that work of art. All of us, collectively, are that masterpiece. And it takes all the colors, all the hues, all the luminosity to make humanity truly beautiful and complete.
If you are intersex, there are a few things we want you to know, in the words of other intersex persons:
You are worthy, you are loveable. Your body is beautiful, you are beautiful. You don’t need to be fixed, there’s nothing wrong with you. You might sometimes feel as though you can’t get through this, and might have really dark thoughts; but there are others like you, and we can all get through this together.
