I love reading. Since childhood, books have been a wonderful solace and escape. From the adventures of fairy tales, to discovering science fiction, and everything in between. Growing up, I didn’t see any intersex representation on television, in films, or books. There was nothing to reflect my existence as a person who was born with physical variations in my sex characteristics. I didn’t even know there was a word to describe me. My lesbian sexuality, however, was reflected in films and books, albeit not always in a positive light (The Killing Of Sister George). But I knew we existed. As a teenager, I read The Wanderground by Sally Miller Gearhart, which appealed to my love of sci-fiand all things feminist. And eventually I found Pat Califia’s erotic fiction. But intersex narratives were not to be found. Now I know there was plenty being written about intersex in textbooks. This narrative routed intersex in a medical context, pulling us into narratives of damage and brokenness, of people whose bodies must be fixed in order to be accepted by society. Narratives which continue today, and which deeply affect the parents of intersex babies.
The recent Raising Rosie: Our Story Of Parenting An Intersex Child by Eric and Stephani Lohman is a remarkable, moving and inspiring story, which I highly recommend. When pressured by clinicians to allow their intersex child’s healthy genitals to be cosmetically altered, they refused. Instead, they are raising Rosie to know her body, and to have confidence and ownership of it. In 2016, at a conference, I was lucky enough to meet US sociologist Professor Georgiann Davis. She is now the board president of inter- ACT Advocates for Intersex Youth. Georgiann’s book, Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis, is a fantastic book which succinctly explores how intersex is defined, experienced and contested in the US today.