#''Not all intersex people want to be included in LGBTQIA+.'' as one too. I rarely ever see this coming from intersex people and I have

[wanderingandfound]

Second time in about 48 hours that I have gone into the search mines to bring out a specific pride flag for my blog only to be met with either long or thoughtless posts about how x flag is the most inferior or y flag is the most superior while shitting on other flag designs. Like, I am all for making as many flags as you want — the more the merrier no monopolies here. I would just like for people to keep in mind:

Which communities (including geographical and cultural!!!) specific flags come from and why they were created.

You do not need to be represented by every single stripe for the flag to be applicable to you.

If a flag is featuring a specific identity there's probably a reason for that, I don't care if it's ugly.

Please cite sources and inspiration! Flags represent communities and usually come from community involvement and influence.

Seriously unless a flag was made purposefully to demean or alienate others it's probably fine. You don't have to use it or prefer it and you can be annoyed with it but it doesn't mean it's the end of the world.

[duckprintspress]

Intersex Awareness Day: 6 Book Recommendations!

October 26th is the annual Intersex Awareness Day! Considering how many millions of people in the world are intersex, it’s depressing how rare it is to find books by intersex people or that feature intersex characters. Our crew of contributors to these recommendations list knew of six we’d recommend. As always, representation may be explicit or implied, so is potentially open to interpretation. Note that some intersex people consider themselves queer and some do not. We opted to include these books under “queer” for the tagging and shelving systems we use, but we do so with the understanding that not all intersex people are queer and that being intersex doesn’t automatically mean a person is queer. The contributors to the list are Nina Waters, Meera S. and an anonymous contributor.

At 30, I Realized I Had No Gender: Life Lessons from a 50-Year-Old After Two Decades of Self-Discovery by Shou Arai

At age 30, Shou Arai came to a realization; they had no gender. Now they were faced with a question they’d never really considered: how to age in a society where everything is so strongly segregated between two genders? This autobiographical manga explores Japanese culture surrounding gender, transgender issues, and the day to day obstacles faced by gender minorities and members of the LGBTQIA+ community with a lighthearted, comedic attitude.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of 1974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver’s license…records my first name simply as Cal.”

So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and three generations of the Greek-American Stephanides family who travel from a tiny village overlooking Mount Olympus in Asia Minor to Prohibition-era Detroit, witnessing its glory days as the Motor City, and the race riots of 1967, before they move out to the tree-lined streets of suburban Grosse Pointe, Michigan. To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction. Lyrical and thrilling, Middlesex is an exhilarating reinvention of the American epic.

Nabari No Ou by Yuhki Kamatani

Apathetic schoolboy Miharu Rokujou is content to meander through life in the sleepy village of Banten. But his quiet existence is shattered when the Grey Wolves of Iga, a powerful ninja clan, attempt to kidnap him in broad daylight. Only then does Miharu discover that the ultimate power of the hidden ninja realm – a power that can do both great good and great harm – is sealed within his body. As battles erupt among rival ninja clans seeking to control him, Miharu must overcome his apathy and learn the ways of the ninja if he wants any shot at survival.

Ring by Kōji Suzuki

A mysterious videotape warns that the viewer will die in one week unless a certain, unspecified act is performed. Exactly one week after watching the tape, four teenagers die one after another of heart failure.

Asakawa, a hardworking journalist, is intrigued by his niece’s inexplicable death. His investigation leads him from a metropolitan tokyo teeming with modern society’s fears to a rural Japan – a mountain resort, a volcanic island, and a countryside clinic–haunted by the past. His attempt to solve the tape’s mystery before it’s too late – for everyone – assumes an increasingly deadly urgency. Ring is a chillingly told horror story, a masterfully suspenseful mystery, and post-modern trip.

The Day of Revolution by Mikiyo Tsuda

Kei Yoshikawa is a feisty young boy, troubled by problems at home and annoyed at school. One day after a sudden fainting spell, Kei is examined by the doctor and given shocking news – he is actually supposed to be a girl!

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire

Wicked is about a land where animals talk and strive to be treated like first-class citizens, Munchkinlanders seek the comfort of middle-class stability, and the Tin Man becomes a victim of domestic violence. And then there is the little green-skinned girl named Elphaba, who will grow up to become the infamous Wicked Witch of the West – a smart, prickly, and misunderstood creature who challenges all our preconceived notions about the nature of good and evil.

What are your favorite books with intersex representation? Please do tell us, we’d love to read more!

You can view this rec list as a shelf on the Duck Prints Press Goodreads profile! Or shop the three that are in print and available on Bookshop.org by visiting our affiliate shop.

Want to get these rec lists, info on new releases, and more, right to your e-mail inbox? Sign up for our mailing list! Want to be a contributor to these rec lists? Patreon backers who join our Discord and also join the conversation!

[trans-fax]

hey, you! show me the trans fax!

are you confused about trans stuff? it’s so complicated even some trans people don’t fully understand all the nuance. wild, right? never fear, because this is a new series of basic trans info that will hopefully help everyone on and off the LGBTQIA+ spectrum understand a little better. onward to the basics!

--

CISgender = someone whose gender corresponds with their assigned sex at birth TRANSgender = someone whose gender does not correspond with their assigned sex at birth

someone's Assigned Sex At Birth (ASAB) is determined by a) visual genital examination, b) surgical genital alteration.

visual sex assignment is not a scientifically or medically accurate way of determining someone's biology, much less their gender. sex assignment does not include any medical tests such as: karyotype (chromosomes), hormone panel, ultrasound or physical examination (to identify internal intersex conditions).

the most common sex assignments are Assigned MALE At Birth (penis, scrotum, no vaginal opening) or Assigned FEMALE At Birth (vulva + vaginal opening + small phallus. this phallus can be naturally small or surgically altered to be so). on rare occasions, an intersex child - or, a child with genitals that have a combination of the above features - will not be forcibly assigned male or female, but they're usually still assigned a gender.

your ASAB has very little to do with your actual bodily functions, and NOTHING to do with your gender!

[ vocab to remember: trans, cis, ASAB / AMAB / AFAB, intersex ]

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what is gender? some people think it is a literal extension of your genitals, but that's extremely far from the truth.

gender is hard to explain. it is a feeling that usually has very little to do with your biology (that is, your actual factual biology, not your ASAB). some people think gender is neurological, some think it is spiritual, but here's one thing it isn't: tethered to your genital appearance or reproductive abilities.

--

did you know that intersex people make up the same percentage of the population as redheads? that's a lot of people who have genitals that can't be described as a simple 'penis' or 'vagina!' there's also sex chromosome abnormalities - some people go their entire lives not knowing that their chromosomes are not a simple XX or XY figuration!

[ vocab note: the scientifically false assumption that (man = male = XY = penis) & (woman = female = XX = vagina) is called the gender and sexual BINARY ]

both intersex people and people with sex chromosome abnormalities can have ANY gender. a man who finds out he has Klinefelter's syndrome (two or more X chromosomes in addition to a Y) is not suddenly a woman, right? of course not!

apply this same principle to all people of all biological realities. you don't have to have a fertile uterus or two X chromosomes to be a woman. you don't have to have a functioning penis or a flat chest to be a man.

beyond that, you don't have to identify as a man OR a woman at all! many more people than you realize, historically and in modern society, exemplify gender diversity. judaism, for example, has six genders. six! indigenous americans can have two (or more) spirits in one body, which result in a person with no gender, or multiple genders that may or may not include man/woman. some people simply do not feel they have a gender.

anyone who is transgender but does not identify as solely a man or a woman is NON-BINARY.

you shouldn't tell someone that they have to identify as a man or a woman based on their ASAB, and you also shouldn't force them to pick one or the other. to do so ignores biological fact, cultural and spiritual history, and individual autonomy.

think about the people around you and the assumptions you make about them. did your nana really feel like a woman? did you ever ASK?

[ review & thought experiment: intersex people cannot be tied to a binary sex assignment. is it okay to tell people with in-between biology that they can't have an in-between gender experience? ]

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okay, so now... what about sexuality?

this one's easy. anyone can be attracted to the same gender or multiple genders. it doesn't matter what your gender is, or your chromosomes, or your hormone levels and what kind of puberty you went through, or if you're sterile or reproductively capable.

if you are a man with a penis, you can want to sleep with a man. if you are a man with a vulvovagina, you can want to sleep with a man, as well, and still be a man! a gay cis man and a gay trans man are both gay men.

meanwhile, a trans person who has an interest in multiple genders isn't confused. their gender is not related to the scope of people they find attractive.

here are some sexuality terms you might recognize from the LGBTQIA+ acronym. (it's a great idea to look up the rest of them on your own.)

gay, lesbian = a person who is attracted exclusively to their own GENDER (not sex!) bisexual, pansexual = a person who is attracted to MULTIPLE genders. remember that since "man" and "woman" aren't the only gender options, people with multiple gender attraction (MGA) can experience a LOT of personal nuance - try not to make assumptions.

[ vocab to remember: binary & nonbinary, gay & lesbian, bisexual / pansexual / MGA ]

--

before we go, how about reproduction?

that, too, is a simple answer. every couple on this earth will at some point face the question of whether or not they're going to have kids, whether that be through natural pregnancy, in vitro fertilization, a surrogate, fostering, or adoption. if you don't want children, that's an easy answer! if you do, it's not.

ALL couples face troubles with reproduction, not just members of the LGBTQIA+ community. you could have a straight couple who are both cisgender, but one or both partners could have a reproductive tract that does not function. one or both partners could be intersex, or have abnormal sex chromosomes, or have a hormonal disorder that affects sperm production or menstrual cycling.

when you look at it this way, the reproductive choices made by a couple where one or both are trans don't sound particularly strange, do they? people do what they must in order to have a child. for a cis woman - maybe she's a lesbian, maybe she is a single woman who wants to be a mother - that might be artificial insemination. for a trans man, the easiest option might be carrying his own child. a trans woman may choose to have sperm cryopreserved before she starts HRT and risks stopping sperm production.

no one's reproductive choices make them any more or less gay, cis, trans, or MGA.

--

do you have any more questions? i know this is a lot. we've been told so many things through our lives about sex, gender, and biology, but the more research is done, the less rigid the boundaries seem.

while it can be difficult to accept that the world is so much different from what you were told, the common ground uniting all of us should be mutual respect and kindness. please go forward in life keeping this in mind, and don't challenge people on their private biological reality, gender, or gender expression. also, respect people's pronouns!

you've reached the end of trans-fax basics. i hope it helped. :D