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growing up with genitals that look like everyone else's. The problems with these ideologies is very clear. If a parent can love their child after months of diaper changes, genitals really aren't going to change that. And young children have no idea what they are "supposed" to look like "down there". There was less concern (especially in the case of assigned females) for sexual sensitivity. So long as a normal sized penis would fit into hir vagina, the doctors thought they had done their job. Success was also meant, of course, that the child identified as heterosexual.

These practices do continue to this day, although the field is changing. More doctors are being made aware of adult patients who would have preferred to remain un-cut in infancy. There are more visible support groups, some of the stigma has lifted, parents have more resources available to them, and more people are starting to hear the rights claims, especially as some intersex activist have begun appealing to groups that opposed female genital mutilation and have adopted the term infant genital mutilation in reference to surgeries on intersex infants.

Being intersex doesn't mean someone has a gender problem. Most people with an intersex condition identify as either male or female. Some do identify as trans or third gender (or simply intersex), but they aren't natural allies and despite provoking conversations about sex, gender, and surgery (as well as a history of medical abuse and stigmatization) they shouldn't be confused or thought of as in the same vein.

Emi Koyama has an incredible website called Intersex Initiative with more information, at www.intersexinitiative.com.

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