Anna So

y the time Howard Devore, a psychologist and sex therapist who has written about his experiences, was 10, he had already had 10 surgeries on his genitals. Doctors told him not to use the same bathroom as other children or to let other children see him without his clothing. Many of his surgeries were performed during school vacations, and he had to return to school when he wasn't fully healed so that no one would suspect that he had a problem. Devore had been born with ambiguous genitalia.

After extensive medical tests, the doctors assigned him to be male, but he urinated from the underside of his penis. The doctors performed 16 operations in total on his genitals, even though there was no medical problem caused by the location of his urethra, because they felt that it was necessary for Devore, as a male, to be able to urinate standing up. Tubes were inserted into his body; he endured painful skin grafts, and the surgeries resulted in fistulae and constant infections. It seems that the doctors believed that if Devore could not urinate in the masculine way, he could not be a full-fledged man. The assigned sex thus dictated the kind of gendered behaviors to which he would have to adhere, and in turn, this gendered behavior dictated how his genitals would have to look and function.

People often think of sex and gender as independent of each other. Sex is a “material reality”: the genitals, penis or vagina; the chromosomes, x or y; and the hormones, estrogen or testosterone, which determine your physical traits make you a member of the male or female sex. Gender, on the other hand, is the set of expectations that society associates with a given sexual “material reality”; it is made to seem naturally associated with your assigned sex, including the way you talk, the way you walk, what you wear, and how you urinate. Initially, it's useful to think about the characteristics of sex and gender as separable, but discourses in gender theory à la Judith Butler expose not only the way in which sex determines gender, but also the fact that a categorization of physical characteristics is constructed as sex.

In America, if a child is born intersex (with ambiguous genitals), the doctors will initially try to determine its “true sex” from the child's chromosomes, but will then rely on the appearance of the genitalia, considering especially the capability to perform “normal” penetration during heterosexual sex, for the final assignment of sex and gender. Most intersex babies are determined to be female, because ambiguous genitalia are often seen as “underdeveloped phalluses.” The implication is that these infants cannot be men if they will be incapable of performing heterosexual penetration in the future. They undergo “reconstructive” surgery and are raised as girls. In the case of intersex infants, it's easy to see how sex is not “natural,” since it is determined by doctors according to subjective standards and heterosexist norms.

Many people have no objection to the way in which intersex children's sex is medically determined, because it adheres to society's concept of inherent sexual and gender distinctions. Transsexual or transgender individuals are made into spectacles, because they are determining gender for themselves. Society's illusion of a natural sex/gender binary remains intact, because people like Devore are told to hide their sexual ambiguity.

I would define the term transgender or trans as someone who does not identify himself, herself, or hirself (gender neutral) with the gender associated with his, her, or hir assigned sex at birth. This includes pre-operative, post-operative, and non-operative transsexuals who feel that their physical bodies do not match their gender; people who are gender queer; and those who don't want to identify themselves as a man, woman, male, or female.

There is a general lack of vocal support for trans rights by non-queer and non-trans identified people. By contrast, the issue of gay marriage has garnered political attention even from those who do not identify themselves as part of this group. Comparing homophobia to racism, or gay rights to civil rights, requires an assumption that same-sex attraction is somehow visible and an inherent characteristic of an individual. Homophobia is blamed for the discrimination that is directed towards LGBTQ (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer) identified people, but homophobia is not solely about sexual orientation. One must account for verbal or physical assault on one who may be heterosexual, but whose attackers associate the victim with a sexual orientation based on their perception of the victim's gender. Gender is visible to the public, while the sex of the person or persons one is attracted to is not. Therefore, many hate crimes are perpetrated based on a tight association of gender with sexuality.

In our society, the way in which a person inhabits and negotiates hir gender is read by most people as an indicator of an individual's sexual orientation. In mainstream society, a masculinely-gendered person is often assumed to be attracted to women, and a femininely-gendered person is assumed to be attracted to men. Any little discrepancies in gender behavior cause “gaydars” to go off. To make gay marriage more palatable to a broader segment of society, sexual desire is presented as essential and independent of almost any other characteristic of the individual, especially gender. An argument made for the legalization of same-sex marriage is that a gay couple will operate similarly to an ideal heterosexual couple, only with different sexual orientation. Males will still be legible as “men” and females will still be legible as “women.” Again, this argument maintains the gender binary, while disregarding the reality that an inadequate adherence to the gender is often the cause of discrimination and violence against LGBTQ people.

Issues that affect non-gender normative people who are not economically or racially privileged are frequently disregarded by the larger LGBTQ community. There is no push for reform of policies that determine which prison one goes to according to birth sex, subjecting transgender individuals to violence and abuse. Homeless shelters and public restrooms are also segregated according to sex. The boundaries of sex and gender are enforced by the law, the police, and other citizens, most often against people who do not have access to private facilities. The basic human right to physical safety needs to be guaranteed before other legal rights can even be considered, so why is the LGBTQ community so vocal about equal rights when it comes to gay marriage, but silent when it comes to advocating for those who face discrimination and abuse within a community that claims to include them?