Intersexuality - Dealing with Intersexuality

Socio-cultural Attitudes - Legal Traditions

Personal identification

In virtually all countries, the law recognizes only two sexes - female or male. Either one or the other is recorded in the respective official documents – birth certificates, educational and health records, drivers licences, identification cards, passports, etc. For the law, a person is either female or male. There is no other option.
While the traditional simple and strict distinction is helpful for the vast majority of people, it can create problems for a small minority. Indeed, in some Western countries, the law itself has now allowed an exception: Transsexuals may have their personal papers changed after a successful surgical sex reassignment, but again, the change is only from femaleness to maleness or vice versa. There has been only one unique case in Australia, where an intersexual person succeeded in obtaining a passport recording his sex as “X” i.e. neither female nor male. This precedent might prove helpful to some others, but whether it would be a practical solution for all intersexes is more than doubtful. Considering the wide spectrum of intersexualities, one can assume that most of them are quite content with the choice between female or male. Their concern is somewhat different: Since many intersexes are unrecognized or misdiagnosed at birth and raised in a gender role that they may later reject, they want one factor to be decisive: Their sexual self-identification, not their physical sex. Even if, in late adolescence or adulthood, it is too late to do anything about the biological status, it should not be the sole criterion. What should be considered instead, is the inner conviction of being female or male. If this then requires a change in all personal documents, it should be made easier than it is today. In other words, most intersexes do not resent the narrow female/male alternative as such, but rather its inflexible application. If the law were to allow more leeway in these matters, many individuals could be helped who are now still encountering unnecessary problems.