BY JADA SIMON
On November 8, New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation requiring the State Department of Health to conduct an outreach campaign warning families about medically unnecessary procedures performed on intersex individuals, people that have both male and female sex organs, especially intersex youth.
This legislation is meant to educate people on what it is to be intersex, and to reduce the harm intersex youth may face if they are forced to undergo these procedures.
“Every individual in New York deserves to be treated with dignity and respect by our medical system, especially our kids,” said Hochul. This new law is a significant step forward to raise awareness of the intersex community and ensure they get informed and compassionate medical care.”
This legislation is the first of its kind in the United States and was signed at the end of the annual two-week period set aside to acknowledge intersex individuals and the challenges they face.
Intersex Awareness Day is celebrated on October 26. From then through November 8, Intersex Solidarity Day, different organizations that advocate for Intersex individuals by bringing awareness to those challenges.
The Legislation, a combined Senate and Assembly bill, S.5399/A.5627, warms against unnecessary treatments to make intersex people fit into restrictive male-female binary categories, according to the New York City Governor’s website. “This campaign will also serve to bring awareness to the natural existence of people born with intersex traits and the risks that may accompany both emergency and non-emergent medical procedures recommended for them,” Hochul said.
According to the New York City Department of Health, most procedures performed on intersex infants and young children happen as a result of pressure put on parents by doctors, and are not medically necessary.
“There is no scientific evidence to prove that cosmetic or elective surgeries such as these help intersex youth,” according to the DOH’s Intersex Health Page. In fact, the DOH reported that “Intersex traits rarely need immediate medical intervention.”
interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth website, the website of a non-profit organization that advocates for the rights of intersex individuals, lists some of the surgeries performed by doctors to make intersex youth conform to gender stereotypes. Those surgeries include:
- Moving an already working urethra simply so a child can pee standing up, because that is “what normal boys are supposed to be able to do;”
- “Repositioning” or “reducing” a large clitoris for aesthetic reasons;
- Creating or deepening a vagina, because “girls are supposed to be able to receive their future husband;”
- Removing gonads (ovaries, testes, or ovotestes) that do not “match up” with the external genitals, but would have been a person’s natural source of hormones.
“An estimated 400,000 New Yorkers have intersex traits, which are natural variations in sex characteristics,” said State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal, at the signing. “In fact, these medically unnecessary operations come with a slew of potential negative impacts that parents must be aware of.
Some of the negative impacts intersex surgeries can have as reported by the DOH are:
- Feelings of shame or depression
- Issues with trust and intimacy in relationships
- Sterilization/fertility issues
- Chronic pain
- Scarring
- Issues with bladder control
- Loss of sensation in genitals
- Loss of sexual function
Assemblymember Rebecca Seawright said at the bill signing that this can encourage thinking before making a big decision, even more so now that intersex people and groups like interAct will be weighing in on the conversation.
“This education will be key to helping parents understand that surgery is permanent and can cause irreversible physical and psychological effects,” said Assemblymember Seawright. “The NYS Health Department will be required to consult with intersex people and advocates in developing these important health outreach materials.”