Anti-Transgender Legislation Affects Intersex Kids, Too!

State legislatures across the country are introducing bills that would criminalize or restrict providing healthcare to transgender minors. What many don’t realize is that in the rush to control transgender minors’ bodies, many of these bills also include specific exemptions allowing “corrective” procedures on intersex traits.

These bills attempt to set a standard for how individuals can feel good in their bodies, and what a “normal” body should look like, in regards to sex and gender.

Here at interACT, we support our transgender peers in their fight to access lifesaving, necessary care. It’s all about individuals leading decisions about their own bodies.

Tap each section to learn more.

Intersex and transgender flags crossing, with text that reads Bodily Autonomy is a Human Right
Illustration by Alex Yoon for Transgender Education Network of Texas, Intersex Awareness Day 2019

Transgender means having a gender that is different than what adults presumed based on visible anatomy at birth. Cisgender means an individual’s gender is the same as what was presumed at birth. Intersex is an umbrella term for many different variations in sex characteristics that can cause an individual not to fit the two usual paths of human sex development. Intersex traits can affect chromosomes, gonads and other internal reproductive organs, genitals, and hormone production and response. Some intersex traits, such as having a large clitoris, are obvious at birth, while others may not be discovered until puberty or later in adulthood—or not at all.

Some common intersex variations include Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (where an individual is born with XY chromosomes, internal testes, a vulva and vagina, and a hormonal response that converts testosterone into estrogen) and Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (where an individual is born with XX chromosomes, ovaries and a uterus, and genitals that may look more like a vulva, a small penis, or appear between the two). A person can be both intersex and transgender.

Intersex and transgender youth have a shared interest in autonomy around their medical decisions, and bills like these deny it to them both. For transgender youth, the ability to access affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormones, is crucial to their well-being. These bills criminalize a basic human right. For intersex youth, autonomy means preserving choices about alterations to their sex traits so that they can decide for themselves how they want their bodies to look and function. These bills go out of their way to take that decision from them.