Northern Lights: Intersex people are not rare, but they are widely misunderstood

Intersex people are born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical definitions, including sexual anatomy, reproductive organs, hormonal patterns, and/or chromosome patterns.

Intersex people are not rare, but they are widely misunderstood. We are taught that sex is dimorphic. In fact, as many as 1.7 percent of babies are different from what is typically called a boy or a girl.

As the a United Nations highlight, awareness of intersex people, and recognition of the specific discrimination and human rights abuses that they face, has not always been in the public eye and it’s been left largely to the intersex community , supported by the work of human rights defenders to ensure this.

Of late in our area and in other parts of the UK, we have seen an increase in conversion practices being foisted upon individuals who come from this community.

These conversion practices have comprised primarily of exorcisms being performed on these people. Starting off at first, as ‘prayer sessions, ‘before moving into’ deliverance sessions’/‘exorcisms’.

One young adult male whom I have been of late advocating for, has a diagnosis of Klinefelter Syndrome and identifies as being intersex. He ’was told by his Church leaders that the purpose of this intervention, which he was being coerced into undergoing, and which comprised of several ‘deliverance sessions’ was to ‘rid him of the ancestral demons and sins that have made him intersex’ and to ‘rid him of the demons that are causing him to be intersex now’.

In reaction to this treatment, he began exhibiting self-injurious behaviours, which escalated to him trying to die by suicide.

He was subject to these exorcisms on the basis of Klinefelter Syndrome being a condition in which male babies are born with an extra X chromosome.

In another case, a young adult was at grave risk from being taken out of the UK by his family members, who were intent upon putting him through intrusive surgery to change his genitalia.

This was against his wishes. They felt it was necessary to protect him from the ‘jinn’ whom they considered had possessed him when he was ‘ being formed in the womb’ but now having moved into adulthood they sought to have this ‘jinn’ removed as preparation for him to be put through a force’s marriage.

We should remember that it is not only recent generations who are suffering and at risk but other generations too, for example I’ve also been supporting a member of the the community who is now in her early sixties whom throughout her childhood, like others, underwent a string of surgeries.

She developed PTSD and dissociative states, in order to preserve herself from the impact of being subjected to these interventions and also to onward clinical scrutiny.

She was regularly stripped and subjected to being photographed in a room full of medics during the 1960’s and 1970’s.

The fact she had been born intersex had been withheld from her by medics at the request of her parents’.

Only finding out in adulthood that she had been born intersex, she turned to her religious community for solace and support but was put through a conversion practice/exorcism instead.

This has left her further traumatised to this very day.

Intersex people are also at risk of discrimination and stigmatisation due to their physical traits.

This is contrary to the Equality Act 2010 which makes discrimination unlawful in many areas of public life including, among others, employment; education; getting or using services; or renting or buying a house or unit.

A recent case that I dealt with involved an occupational therapist refusing to treat an intersex person because the person’s biological characteristics made the occupational therapist ‘uncomfortable’.

The adverse impact of such discrimination and of the abuses of conversion practices upon intersex people and others subjected to these horrific practices is not to be underestimated and needs challenging head on.

Conversion practices, such as exorcisms, being imposed on an intersex person involves attempts to alter, discourage, or suppress their identity and/or their presentation.

To date, only a handful of countries and cities have implemented measures to prevent and address abuses against intersex people and I am proud to say that Sheffield, as a city finds such abuses abhorrent and unwelcome.

I am proud to say that here in this City, all reasonable and rights promoting people, organisations, public authorities and all others, welcomes and celebrates inclusion and values intersex people as part of our richly diverse Sheffield family and recognises that conversion practices are nothing short of being abusive, archaic and harmful.