The beginning of a French intersex revolution?

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The French intersex movement has just won its first battle.

For the first time in France, a High Court in the central western city of Tours has ordered the civil registry to change the birth certificate of an intersex person.

The reference to gender will be changed from “male” to “neutral”.

The ruling was delivered on 20 August 2015 and made public on 13 October by the newspaper 20 Minutes. The Public Prosecution Service has already appealed, but the case nevertheless constitutes a small revolution.

“It is a great step forward that recognises the right of intersex people who, until now, have been invisible within French society,” rejoices Mila Petkova, the plaintiff’s lawyer.

The court ruling, respecting the plaintiff’s wish to remain anonymous, indicates that X, aged 64, has a “rudimentary vagina” and a “micro penis”.

He “was born with an ambiguous sexual identity” and has never produced “any sexual hormone, be it male (testosterone) or female (oestrogen),” writes the Chair of the hearing.

In France, 200 babies are born every year with undifferentiated genital organs. They are very often operated on within weeks of their birth. The doctors and parents, shaken by this difference, think that this will facilitate their integration within society and their personal development.

But these operations, serving no therapeutic purpose, are often counterproductive. Perceived as a mutilation, they lead to physical and psychological disorders.

Camille (not his/her real name), aged 38, can testify to that. Born with a “micro penis”, his/her parents registered him/her with the local civil registry after three weeks.

“They thought it would be easier to orient me towards the female side. Then, the doctors said I should be operated on because there was a risk of cancer, but it’s not true, they just wanted to put me in the right box,” Camille tells Equal Times.

Camille first underwent surgery at the age of three to “reduce the clitoris” and “enlarge the vagina”. Then, he/she was taken to hospital on a regular basis to “dilate the vagina” to make it “penetrable”.

Another painful episode came at the age of 12, when Camille started hormonal treatment to develop his/her breasts and body hair. Still, no one had as yet put a name on his/her situation.

“I could see that I wasn’t like the others, but I tried not to think about it too much,” recalls Camille.

To try and fit in, he/she chose the “androgynous” punk scene. It was during that same period that he/she found out the truth in a letter that was not address to him/her.

“It came as a real shock when I saw the word hermaphroditism. I went to see my doctor, who said to me: ‘You think to much, Camille.’” Years of self-destruction followed. Now, Camille has accepted his/her “ambiguity”.

It was on joining the French-speaking communities intersex organisation l’Organisation internationale des intersexes - Francophonie (OII) that Camille finally understood that he/she was not alone.

The association has been calling, since it was founded in the 2000s, for “an immediate end to medical and endocrinal mutilations,” explains Vincent Guillot, the founder of the movement in Europe.

 

An unacceptable situation

The movement is not alone. In 2013, the Council of Europe denounced, in a resolution, the “unacceptable situation” of intersex people being “subjected to unnecessary medical or surgical treatment”, victims of a “climate of incomprehension” towards them.

“Intersex children should be counselled and supported in what they want to be, and should be able to choose their administrative gender,” advocates Vincent Guillot.

But until now, the French government has always ignored the OII’s demands. “The Health Ministry refuses to receive us. We have been made to understand that this matter is clearly not one of the government’s priorities,” regrets its founder.

To defend its rights, the intersex movement decided to turn to the United Nations Committee against Torture, in front of which France will have to appear for a hearing in spring 2016.

In August 2015, this Committee already demanded that Switzerland “prevent unnecessary medical and surgical interventions without the person’s consent”.

Unlike in France, other European countries already recognise a third gender.

Such is the case in Germany, where, since 2013, parents have the option of registering the gender of their new born as “undetermined”.

In 2015, Malta also passed one of the most progressive laws in the world, providing all citizens with the right to “the recognition of their gender identity; the free development of their person according to their gender identity; to be treated according to their gender identity and, particularly, to be identified in that way in the documents providing their identity therein; and bodily integrity and physical autonomy”.

 

This article has been translated from French.