This statement outlines interACT’s position on the language used to describe intersex persons and their traits.
Background:
In 2005, a group of 50 experts on intersex, including two intersex activists, convened in Chicago to discuss the current state of intersex medical care. From this meeting, a “Consensus Statement on the Management of Intersex Disorders” was produced and published in Pediatrics, the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. One of the most controversial components of this consensus statement was the formal introduction of new nomenclature: disorders of sex development, or “DSD” for short. The authors of the consensus statement justified the need for this new terminology by suggesting “terms such as ‘intersex,’ ‘pseudo hermaphroditism,’ ‘hermaphroditism,’ ‘sex reversal,’ and gender-based diagnostic labels are particularly controversial” (Lee et al. 2006, 488).