Hermaphrodites of North America with Fall 1999 Attitude
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The publication of the Intersex Society Hermaphrodites of North America with Fall 1999 www.isna.org Attitude Focus on local activism Volunteers are working at the local level local Metropolitan Community Church. to make the world a safer place for inter- Contact [email protected]. sexed people and their families. You can help! To start a local group, contact Marge Witty, a professional psycholo- [email protected]. gist and instructor at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology, sponsored In San Francisco, Sam Ferguson, Kristi and organized an ISNA workshop in Bruce and Howard Devore started a Chicago. Therapists, activists, a Chicago speaker’s bureau. They have presented to Tribune reporter and others attended the medical students at Stanford, University showing of ISNA’s video Hermaphro- of California at San Francisco, and twice dites Speak! and discussion with David at Berkeley, and will soon present to the Vandertie and Angela Moreno. This laid the groundwork for the formation of Environmental Protection Agency attor- ney Hale Hawbecker lauded by employer an Illinois chapter of ISNA. Contact [email protected]. When Hale Hawbecker, an attorney with the Environmental Protection Agency, was preparing his talk on the applicability of the federal Female Geni- tal Mutilation Act to intersex surgeries for the 5th Annual Sexual Orientation and the Law Conference at Vermont Law School, he worried about how coming out as intersexed would affect his col- leagues’ opinions of him. The answer came last May, when the EPA awarded photo: Phyllis Christopher photo: Phyllis him an Employee Recognition Award for Howard Devore Ph.D., Cheryl Chase, Kristi Bruce, and Sam Ferguson speak to UC outstanding community service in recog- Berkeley medical students about their lived experiences of intersexuality. nition of his work with ISNA. Martha Coventry contributed an inter- Speaking to medical students around the sex perspective to a panel headed by psy- Bay Area wasn’t enough for Kristi chologist Walter Bockting with a Bruce. Kristi, who works at Borders mandate to improve the medical curricu- Books, knew that important new publica- lum at University of Minnesota in Min- tions about intersexuality weren’t easy to neapolis. Martha also addressed the find. They might be shelved in the medi- entire first year medical student class (of cal, psychology, gay/lesbian, feminist, or over a hundred) in June. “Afterwards the sociology sections. So Kristi took the ini- students came up to me, one after The past meets the future: intersex activ- tiative to organize a special display of another, to tell me how grateful they ist Mani Mitchell (right) is introduced to Kessler’s and Dreger’s books on inter- were for my talk. They were visibly John Money (left) in New Zealand. sexuality “Sales increased noticeably moved by the injection of such human- with the display,” says Kristi. ness into the curriculum. Physicians need Africa, and is in the process of forming to know the lived experience of their an Intersex Society of South Africa. ISNA Michigan, headed by Robin patients.” Mathias, participated in three Pride Mani Bruce Mitchell, the founder and events this summer, producing 100 addi- director of the Intersex Trust Aotearoa tions to ISNA’s mailing list. Parents are New Zealand, reports that the organiza- organizing, too. The Support Group for tion this year won NZ$15,000 of federal Parents of Intersexed Children had its funding. Like more than one other inter- first meeting in Detroit in July. Contact sexed person, Mani has chosen to change [email protected] for information careers—as a therapist she will be able to about either group. provide the kind of help for intersexed families that would have made her own life so much easier. Mani will obtain reg- istered counselor credentials this year, and continues her work toward the status of psychotherapist. Like Mani, Michael Walker is in the process of becoming a therapist. Michael Martha Coventry, a Minneapolis jour- completed his Ph.D. in 1998, and is now nalist, is writing a personal memoir. accumulating the supervised clinical experience that will earn him status as a Sally Gross co-authored “Lifting the therapist in California. His thesis is Volunteers prepare for ISNA’s participa- Veil on Intersexuality,” an article in based upon open-ended, face to face tion in Michigan Pride 1999. South Africa’s Weekly Mail & Guardian interviews with five adults born with in August. Sally, whose work in the anti- hypospadias, and includes an introduc- apartheid movement had kept her in exile tory chapter on his own experience. Until Would a group or church you belong to for many years, has now teamed up with such time as Michael refashions his the- benefit from learning about intersex? You a national organization which campaigns sis into a book, photocopies can be and your group can help ISNA reach new on gay and lesbian issues in South obtained from ISNA. people. Here's how: ✔ Include a brochure about intersex in a mailing to the group’s members. Often, Hermaphrodites with Attitude is published by the Intersex Society of North Amer- this can be done without increasing the ica. ISSN 1084-5771. Copyright. Entire contents © 1999 by Intersex Society of cost of postage and handling—the most North America. All rights reserved. You may reproduce and distribute this newslet- costly part of a mailing. ter in small quantities (under 50) at no charge, so long as you make no changes. ✔ Subscriptions HWA is distributed as a benefit to contributors to ISNA’s fundraising Write an article about intersex for efforts. For others, a one year subscription is $35. your group’s newsletter. We can provide samples for you. Address letters, submissions, and other correspondence to: ISNA, PO Box 3070, Ann Arbor, MI 48106. Email <[email protected]>. ✔ Talk about intersex and show Her- maphrodites Speak! at a meeting or event Letters are published only with the permission of the author. When you write, sponsored by the group. I please let us know if we may publish your letter. HWA 2 Ethics makes inroads; media take note Heralding the changes taking place in the zling thing that was wrong with their tucky” gave him some insight into what medical establishment of Chicago, on children. it is like to grow up different. In spite of June 20, 1999, the Chicago Tribune ran being trained to think otherwise, Dr. intersex at the top of its front page. “Daaboul would draw a pair of X’s. This, Daaboul now realizes the solution is not he would say, was what a normal to pretend that difference can be erased. The paper devoted over 2,000 words and female’s sex chromosomes looked like: Instead, children who are “different” the front page lead to Louise Kiernan’s XX. must be fostered and supported, their discussion of intersex and recent chal- experiences taken seriously. lenges to harmful medical treatments of “Then, with the heel intersexed people. The article featured of his hand, he would Dr. Daaboul has just our own Angela Moreno, as well as two erase the leg of one X. “We have relocated to the Pediat- physicians at Children’s Memorial Hos- That, he would say, ric Endocrinology pital of Chicago, the very hospital where was what had hap- been deceptive.” Department of Chil- in 1985 Angela’s clitoris was cut without pened to one of their dren’s Hospital of her consent. daughter’s X chromosomes. It was Oakland, California. He will carry to the incomplete, unfinished... west coast the message of reform. We are After participating in a course on medi- sure Dr. Daaboul’s big heart, sharp mind, cal ethics with Tod Chambers of North- “What he did not say is that the ‘incom- and lively spirit will help win more con- western University, pediatric endocrin- plete’ X was not an X chromosome at all. verts among his colleagues. I ologist Jorge Daaboul and medical ethi- It was a Y chromosome, the genetic cist Joel Frader, began to doubt the “stan- marker for a male.” dard of care” protocols which called for Make a wake-up call misleading patients and performing risky The article goes on to quote Dr. Daaboul: surgeries without the patient’s direct “Many of my colleagues do not believe The words of Drs. Hatch (next page) and consent. The Tribune article begins with we have been deceptive, and they would Daaboul (this page) make clear that one Dr. Daaboul’s recollection: resent my saying we have been decep- of the best ways to change medical prac- tive... But we have been deceptive.” tice is for former patients to contact their “With a Magic Marker and the swipe of physicians and tell them their experi- a hand, Dr. Jorge Daaboul can demon- When Cheryl Chase and Alice Dreger ences of their treatment. We realize this strate how he and other doctors used to met Dr. Daaboul and his team at Chil- can be a frightening and frustrating expe- lie to the families who anxiously awaited dren’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago, he rience, especially when your doctor may some explanation for the terrible, puz- told them how his own experience of write you off as a “bad outcome,” an being “the only Hispanic kid in Ken- “unstable personality,” or, worse yet, may not bother to answer you at all. But if you have the courage and the capacity to do so, consider contacting the medical professionals who treated you as a child. The best way to do this is to con- firm your doctor’s address and send them a letter. You might wish to enclose a copy of this newsletter. Tell your doctor exactly what worked and what didn’t work for you, how you would like to see practice improved.