#DSD males

[erebusvincent]

This is the kind of thing you’d do if you were covering something up. He’s a man. The IOC lets men compete against women. The IBA is the only entity involved in all this being honest with us. It’s the only one that hasn’t changed its story or obfuscated the relevant issue.

TRAs love to bring up DSD conditions when they’re trying to argue that sex is a spectrum (despite never being able to name a third gamete.) But when it comes to an actual man with a DSD condition, suddenly not only do DSDs not exist, but having certain organs (that there is no evidence this man has) determines sex again. This whole episode is so fundamentally unserious.

[watermelinoe]

just putting this out there but if you believe we should consider someone a woman if they were socialized female, will this also apply to the male children who are transitioned as toddlers?

[rabbits-of-negative-euphoria]

"Thanks to the Olympics, conservatives are finally realizing sex and gender is a spectrum!"

[coochiequeens]

Leftist journalists attended a conference that delivered news they didn't like and responded by walking out and attacking the messenger.

Ahmad Austin Jr. Aug 5th, 2024

Reporters were left stunned by the way the International Boxing Association handled a press conference about two Olympic boxers at the center of controversy.

The IBA on Tuesday held the presser to detail its decision to disqualify Algeria’s Imane Khelif and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-Ting from previous competitions. Both are competing in the Olympics, and their respective wins in the quarterfinals mean they are both guaranteed to win medals in Paris.

According to the IBA, the disqualifications came from test results that the organization believes prove they are men. Both competitors, however, have insisted they were born female and have identified as women their entire lives. Their passports also indicate that they’re female.

Both athletes, the IBA said, have XY chromosomes. Khelif was born with disorders of sex development (DSD), which can result in XY chromosomes and higher levels of testosterone. At birth, Khelif was observed to have external female genitalia and was assigned female.

Reporters in attendance described the conference as a “car crash” and the “most extraordinary news conference I’ve ever witnessed.”

Much of the presser’s backlash involved IBA chief Umar Kremlev. In addition to accusing the head of the International Olympic Committee of being a “sodomite,” Kremlev claimed that female boxing was being “soiled” as a result of the IOC’s decision to let the fighters compete with women at the Olympics.

Kremlev said that Khelif’s and Yu-Ting’s tests were both done at independent labs. The results, he continued, indicated they were male. A Daily Mail reporter asked if there was an independent witness during testing, and Kremlev admitted there was not. Additionally, he said they didn’t “verify what they have between their legs,” stating they didn’t know if it was the genitalia they were born with or “if some changes were made.”

Daily Mail described the conference as “shambolic” and noted several “lengthy” rants from Kremlev. His interpreter even struggled to keep up with the rants and many in attendance couldn’t even understand him.

As a result, Reuters cut its stream of the conference. BBC simply walked out.

There were also multiple protestors who showed up in support of the boxers. At one point, the IBA lost the room and most of the press turned around to talk to the protestors instead.

[maslows-pyramid-scheme]

The way I see it either imane is male or is female with high testosterone. Either way they shouldn't be allowed to violate woman's boundaries.

Something of note: imane is a name reserved for women and girls in North africa so I 100% believe she was "raised as a girl" and maybe she was thought as female since her birth. And there are no lgbt rights in Algeria so I don't think this is is a case of her changing her name or whatever.

I agree, but also, like -

If you have an active Y chromosome, you're male.

If you have an inactive Y chromosome, you're male, you're just experiencing a health condition that only a male can experience.

Khelif and Yu-Ting were both have Y chromosomes, and they were both originally disqualified for having Y chromosomes, and so I really don't think we should even entertain the narrative that they could be high testosterone females or that they were raised female or whatever else the media and IOC are pushing insofar as their participation in a contact sport is concerned. It's intentionally confusing for people.

On a side-note, isn't it interesting how quickly people have forgotten one of the original justifications of legal gender changes (for when individuals with DSDs are incorrectly identified at birth)? When people are talking about Algeria's lack of legal gender changes, they're not just talking about transgender people.

[scintillatingscotoma]

People with DSDs are still either male or female. Why are people sounding like gendies over this

[stressedbeetle]

very disturbed by the fact that when I googled "how many people have dsd?" the first site that popped up was a transphobic one. I didn't know it was transphobic at first but when I read more about it I realized it sounded just incredibly transphobic. So this is a warning guys

Stats for gender is run by "genspect" a transphobic and gender critcal organization that OFferS sUPorT tO pAReNts Of tRaNS ChILdReN

[headspace-hotel]

I forget why, but I was on the Wikipedia page for polycystic ovarian syndrome, and I started researching hirsutism in women, and I learned the following things in this order:

there's a diagnostic criteria used to evaluate how hairy a woman is

This is important because being too hairy is a diagnostic criteria of most disorders that cause hyperandrogenism

Disorders that cause hyperandrogenism can be diagnosed by...measuring how hairy you are (this is the main and most important diagnostic criterion for PCOS)

Disorders that cause hyperandrogenism are important because they are correlated with obesity, infertility, and...being too hairy?

I think to myself, wait, what is a normal range for testosterone in women? I find this article...which set reference ranges for "normal" testosterone levels in women...EXCLUDING WOMEN WITH PCOS?

Quote: "Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is another notable condition in genetic (XX) females, which is characterized by excessive ovarian production of androgens. This condition is included for comparison with DSD, as the affected females with PCOS are genetic and phenotypic females. The elevated levels of testosterone in these females can lead to hyperandrogenism, a clinical disorder characterized variably by hirsutism, acne, male-pattern balding, metabolic disturbances, impaired ovulation and infertility. PCOS is a common condition, affecting 7%-10% of premenopausal women."

So: the study claims to demonstrate a clear distinction between the normal range of hormone levels in "Healthy" men and "healthy" women...with "healthy" being defined in the study as...having hormones within the "normal" range.......................

So I researched what the clinically established "normal" range for testosterone in women is

THERE ISN'T ONE????

Quote from the above article: "Several different approaches have been used to define endocrine disorders. The statistical approach establishes the lower and the upper limits of hormone concentrations solely on the basis of the statistical distribution of hormone levels in a healthy reference population. As an illustration, hypo- and hypercalcemia have been defined on the basis of the statistical distribution of serum calcium concentrations. Using this approach, androgen deficiency could be defined as the occurrence of serum testosterone levels that are below the 97.5th percentile of testosterone levels in healthy population of young men. A second approach is to use a threshold hormone concentration below or above which there is high risk of developing adverse health outcomes. This approach has been used to define osteoporosis and hypercholesterolemia. However, we do not know with certainty the thresholds of testosterone levels which are associated with adverse health outcomes."

What the fuck?

What the fuck?

It's batshit crazy to make a diagnostic criteria for medical disorders by placing arbitrary cutoffs within 2-5% of either end of a statistical distribution. What the actual fuck?

"The results came back, you have Statistical Outlier Disease." "What treatments are available?" "Well, first, we recommend dietary change. You should probably stop eating so many spiders."

Another article which attempted to do this

Quote: "Subjects with signs of hirsutism or with a personal history of diabetes or hypertension, or a family history of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) were excluded."

"We're going to figure out the typical range of testosterone levels that occur in women! First, we're going to exclude all the women that are too hairy from the study. I am very good at science."

Anyway I got off topic but there are apparently race-specific diagnostic tools for "hirsutism." That's kinda weird on its own but when I looked more into this in relation to race I found this article that straight-up uses the term "mongoloid"

[radlymona]

I just want to confirm in light of my other post about athletes with DSDs at the Olympic Games- I'm not saying that Imane Khelif has a male-specific DSD and therefore shouldn't compete but there's no publicly available conclusive evidence (nor was Khelif even mentioned in the original post). I think that the situation with Khelif has completely ballooned in a rather terrible way. Even if Khelif is biological male I think there's a genuine trauma associated with being assigned female at birth, raised female all your life, only to be told on a technical level you're not female once you've reached adulthood. Whatever the situation is with Khelif, this is not a Lia Thomas situation.

My point is that had the IOC put in prior scientifically-backed regulations in place to determine female and male sports categories, this media storm would never have happened. Because the public would have trust that the IOC is acting in the best interests of its female players and would not let biological males compete. But that trust is pretty much gone atm.

The IOC fails female athletes as a whole when they're forced to compete against biological males with DSDs, and it fails female athletes with DSDs by not having guidelines in place around sex categorisation.

[maslows-pyramid-scheme]

Isn't imane intersex not trans

Yep.

But I do agree with the radical feminists who are drawing links between DSD athletes and transgender athletes (while not calling Khelif transgender), because the presence of both in female athletics is indicative of broader problems (the way sports are generally designed for males, the way sports bodies can't decide what 'female' means, the way that coaches and bodies are incentivised to push males in female categories, etc).

[hiiragi7]

I've been seeing quite a lot of discourse lately defining transness as "identifying as a gender opposite to/different from what society expects you to be".

This is incredibly vague, and I feel misses that, for many people like me, there is not exactly a clear gender in which society expects us to be, nevermind a clear "opposite" or "different" gender which we can identify with. Many intersex people have experiences in which one person calls us a "failed male" while another calls us a "DSD female". Many of us have been assigned, reassigned, degendered, reassigned again. In this sense, for many intersex people, it would appear that no matter which gender we are we would fall under this definition of trans if we so choose it; society so often does not expect us to conform to a singular gender, rather they expect us not to exist at all. Even for many intersex people who identify as cisgender, their gender and sex are constantly brought into question and suspected of being inauthentic, an imposter of a different gender/sex "pretending" to be cisgender. In this sense, any gender we choose is "opposite" of expectations, even cisgender identities, because we are intersex.

And yet, the discourse I have been seeing lately has been attempting to sort intersex people into easily digestible and simplified boxes based on AGAB ("AFAB intersex" and "AMAB intersex") and trying to claim what kind of intersex person is allowed to call themselves transfem based on their AGAB, as though this event at birth always determines what gendered expectations are set for you and where you can transition to after.

Which of my gender assignments should I refer to as my "assigned gender"? The choice made by the medical professionals at my birth? The choices made by my parents? At which time? By which parent? And why does it matter to people so much that I have an assigned gender to refer to when it's all so messy anyway? Why must I invent convenient acronyms to describe it to you for your judgement? Why is it not enough simply to say I know my own experiences and identity best and that it's none of your business? Why are you trying to decide for me what I should call myself?

All this to say, I wish people would stop making assumptions about and policing other people's identities. I will readily admit I don't always understand an identity, and this is a good thing; it means there is an infinite variety of us and an infinite amount to learn about each other.

I wrote this post with the recent intersex transfem & afab transfem discourse in mind, but it quite honestly applies to a lot of the very exclusionary and rigid attitudes I've seen in our community lately. Once again, why are we using the actions of oppression (for example, the action of nonconsensual gender assignments; AGAB) to define our trans identities, to the point of excluding each other within our own community? How are we helping each other in doing this?

(I do have similar questions regarding the divide in language between "AFAB transfem" and simply "transfem" - Why specifically the label of "AFAB transfem" rather than just "transfem", if the argument is that AGAB does not determine gender? Personally, I would like to move away from AGAB language altogether.)

I've never had a clear gender to transition from; I only hope that in the future the community will support people like me in using whatever language we find best to describe the gender we are transitioning to.

Trans is a word open to anyone who identifies as such. That's the best part of it.

[oarfishing]

Alright, I'm sick of seeing TERFisms on my dash, so here's a handy list of TERF dogwhistles and talking points to think about before you reblog a post.

I've seen a few of these before, but it doesn't hurt to make more. Especially when we're seeing a lot of radfem rhetoric popping up in LGBT spaces from people who might not know better.

SCREENNAMES: these are terms that commonly appear in radfem usernames across the web

rad or radical

fem or femme

vulva, clit, uterus, womb, ovary, vagina, etc.

febfem

anything along the lines of "angry woman"

xx or chromosomes

wombyn, wimmin, womyn, etc.

LGB

feminist

BIOS: things that show up in radfem bios

♀ or ⚢

febfem

female separatist

female, human female, adult human female

xx

something along the lines of "the scary feminist you were warned about"; being an angry woman, being sick of being silenced, being an evil woman, being an angry lesbian

detrans (NOTE: detrans people are absolutely not always transphobic)

dysphoric female

males/men do not interact

LGB✂️

misandrist

feminist (NOTE: again, very few feminists are actually terfs, but this is commonly in terf bios alongside some of these other terms)

TERMS: terms that radfems use in their circles

TIM - trans-identified male, a way of saying transfems, trans women, and other trans people

TIF - trans-identified female, same as above but the other way around, less commonly seen

DSD - disorder of sexual development, a way to avoid saying intersex and to categorize intersex people as "still male or female" (you might see "males with DSD" or "females with DSD" for example)

females or males instead of women and men

alternatively, women and males to dehumanize men

"peaking" or "peaked" - referring to becoming radicalized as a radfem or TERF

womyn, wombyn, wimmin, wo**n, and any other spelling that takes "man" out of the term woman

mentally ill men/women

sex-based oppression

gender critical

"TIRF" - trans-inclusive radical feminist (don't be fooled by the name, they're very much not)

TRA - trans rights activist, derogatory

sex-based rights

female separatism/"women's land"

WBW - womyn-born womyn

autistic girls/children

troon - (ridiculous) slur for trans people

RHETORIC: general ideological themes in radfem rhetoric

men are inherently more violent than women

women don't or rarely rape men

(woman on woman rape is ignored by almost all radfems)

being nonbinary is a way to "stop being" your assigned sex while still acting as your birth sex

lesbians are not attracted to men/penises and can never have sex with men/penises (otherwise, you're bisexual)

men can and will never be lesbians

there is no such thing as a bi lesbian, only lesbians and bisexuals. labels are rigid and sex-based

all of the world's suffering is driven by men

women would be better off separate

an all-female society is utopia

sex is binary, and intersex people are "glitches" or "still male or female but DisorderedTM"

men should expect to be feared by women

female/female relationships are safer and more pure than straight or gay male relationships

men and women are more different than similar

intersex people should not be allowed in sports

intersex people and trans men are never in men's sports

terrible world events wouldn't have happened if women were in charge

men are stupid and aggressive

being a man is not a positive thing

men's problems are lesser than women's

penises are disgusting and vaginas and vulvas are beautiful

trans women are performing at being girls

trans men see themselves as above lesbians

attraction is sex-based

porn is rape

porn is inherently violent

watching porn makes you predisposed to inflicting abuse

BDSM is inherently violent and misogynistic

transitioning children (whether socially or medically) are being abused

"bitch" and "cunt" are slurs against women

only gay men can say faggot and only lesbian women can say dyke

When you see a few or more of these together, RUN! It's a terf.

[strawberrycakefem]

Thinking that the existence of DSD/intersex conditions means you can't define biological sex in humans, is like thinking that since some humans are born without two legs that must mean you can't define humans as being bipedal.

Humans are define by being bipedal not because "all humans have two legs", but because humans are SUPPOSE to be born with two legs and the same goes for biological sex.

We know what the typical human sex development for male and female people is SUPPOSED to be and therefore can still determine if a person is male or female even if said person has a DSD/intersex condition.

[fabfem12]

While we are on the Imane Khlief, here are four lessons I have learnt:

I will stop using the terms AFAB and AMAB unless it has to do with male/female people with DSDs because I have noticed that we have co-opted these terms in the gender discourse, and we have totally forgotten that these terms are sex-specific. AFAB is a term used to describe MALE people whose sex was wrongly observed at birth. It is not a FEMALE exclusive term, female people are not AFAB. We are not Intersex/have DSDs; we, like other TRA, should stop co-opting DSD-specific language. It is really mudding the waters.

Either the Olympics is male and female or male and female (female and male DSDs). This essentially means that the female category is mixed sex forever; if it is the latter you want, you need to state that clearly. This is not to say that all male people with DSDs should not be treated with some level of accommodation; it is just saying that in this ONE facet of life, you cannot eat your cake and have it. It is sad, but being in the Olympics or a professional athlete is a privilege, not a human right. And all the women screaming that these male people with DSDs have female socialisation, if there is one thing 'women' (the social role, I mean) are good at doing is compromising. This, I think, is a fair compromise.

All our anger should be directed at the IOC and demanding them to bring back DNA tests to keep women's sports XX (female), not at radfems or at Imane or Lu-Ting. All of this 'he said' (IBA) and 'she said' (IOC) nonsense could have been avoided if institutions were not hell-bent on gaslighting women into thinking we don't exist as a sex class. Please read the post by @quinntheestallion on crazy-making. It explains this phenomenon very well. Women are responding to this angrily because, for the last decade, institutions have been making it their objective to gaslight women that we don't exist as a sex class. Also, if you see women's reactions and start getting angry at GC or Radfems for being upset or for 'not being nuanced enough or neutral' or whatever you want to say from your high horse, then you are siding with these abusive institutions that are psychologically abusing women. It's really hard to be 'rational' (not angry or erratic) when confronting an abuser.

All in all, whatever comes out of this situation, best believe that when the IOC brings back sex testing to ensure fairness for women in sports, it was not because of nuance or by having a detached/neutral position. It will be because of the ruckus caused by JKR and other GC and radfem women. Radfems, please be reminded that: “Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people oppressing them.” So all these 'bad', 'mean' women who don't understand the 'nuances' of socialisation or whatever (even though when you are playing sports you aren't playing with someone's socialisation) are the ones that will secure your daughters and granddaughters and even great-granddaughter, the right to single-sex sports.

[lilacsupernova]

*Note: Tumblr might say reblogs have been turned off for this post. They haven't!*

(Also: I have a deeper, updated dive coming soon!)

Some commentary on the Imane Khelif & Lin Yu Ting boxing situation

I read these two as male. Nothing has indicated they are trans-identifying but the image of Imane Khelif as a child might indicate him being raised as a girl due to having a DSD. This is irrelevant to whether he should compete as a woman though. Both athletes have XY chromosomes – which if untrue they could do a simple cheek swab to prove they're women (as if they wouldn't already know from not having periods etc.). This would only need to be done once, and is less invasive than regular doping tests all athletes do! If XY chromosomes are found (as they already have been), they should do as Erik Schinegger did in 1968 and refuse to compete in the women's category anymore.

Claims this is a big conspiracy where the IBA are lying due to corruption are illogical. The claim they only disqualified Khelif and Yu Ting so they couldn't beat Russian boxers is false. While it sounds like they are corrupt due to Russian influence, and they ordered the DNA tests, the tests themselves were performed independently and showed they had XY chromosomes. Based on this info, and their women-have-XX-chromosomes policy the IBA banned them from competing in the women's category. Think about it, how bold (and stupid) would it be to falsely claim these two aren't female, given how easily that claim could be disproved?

Plus, if we're going to throw around corruption claims, how about the IOC? Who we know are happy to allow men to compete in the women's category based on their baffling and nonsensical rules (including no presumption of advantage based on sex)? Who ended sex-verification screening in 2000? Something Independent Council on Women’s Sports (ICONS) co-founder Marshi Smith has condemned, saying it allows the Yu Ting/Khelif issue to even be a thing. The IOC who decided they could compete as women based on passport sex markers? (Which we know can be legal fictions). Who previously allowed Caster Semenya - a man with a DSD, XY chromosomes and undescended testes - to compete as a woman? Who allowed Semenya, Francine Niyonsaba and Margaret Nyairera Wambui to take all three medals at the Rio 2016 women's 800m? I see far more evidence for how corruption is affecting the IOC's view in this matter than the IBA's.

I will also remind everyone (including radfems) that all because a corrupt/'bad'/bad person said something, it does not necessarily mean what they're saying is false! We know the words of radfems/GC people/anyone can be disregarded and derided because they've been branded a 'TERF', but that does not indicate the veracity of their words! The strength of their claims / arguments do. (I wish I could find that meme about a priest saying the sky is blue or something like that). I'm not telling you to believe what I'm saying because I'm saying it; do your own research, think critically, and make up your own minds based on the evidence.

The boxers in question:

Lin Yu Ting is guaranteed a bronze medal at minimum in the Women's 57kg due to making the semifinals (both boxers who lose the semis get bronze, the winners compete in the final for gold). His semi is 7 August at 9.30pm (all times Paris time) against Turkey's Esra Yildiz Kahraman, and the final will be 10 August at 9.30pm (worth watching anyway to support the women!).

Imane Khelif is also guaranteed a bronze minimum in the 66kg Women's category. He plays Janjaem Suwannapheng from Thailand on 6 August at 10.34pm. If he reaches the final, it's 9 August at 10.51pm.

What other boxers have said:

Svetlana Staneva of Bulgaria protested by refusing to shake Lu Ting's hand and making an X symbol after she was defeated by him 5-0.

Angela Carini burst into tears and refused to shake Khelif's hands after choosing to forfeit the match due the fearing for her safety due the strength of his punches. She later issued an apology, which frankly I suspect she was pressured into in order to be allowed to continue to box.

Brianda Tamara from Mexico also alluded to the strength of Khelif's blows, saying "when I fought with her I felt very out of my depth. Her blows hurt me a lot, I don’t think I had ever felt like that in my 13 years as a boxer, nor in my sparring with men. Thank God that day I got out of the ring safely, and it’s good that they finally realized."

Caitlin Parker, the Australian boxing captain says "I don't agree with [Khelif and Yu Ting] being allowed to compete in sport, especially combat sports. It can be incredibly dangerous. It's not like I haven't sparred men before. But you know it can be dangerous for combat sports and it should be seriously looked into. Yes, biologically … genetically they are going to have more advantages. I really hope the organisations get their act together so that boxing can continue to be at the Olympics. It's the oldest Olympic sport. Women's boxing was only introduced in 2012 and I want to see it for the next 100, 200 years to come." (She competes in the 75kg semifinal on 8 August at 10.02pm).

Santiago Nieva, an Australian boxing coach, and Marissa Williamson, who could have met Khelif in the 66kg category disagree. Only the male coach is quoted, however.

Hergie Bacyadan, a female Filipina boxer who identifies as a trans male (but hasn't taken testosterone) on the other hand agrees with Parker, saying through a translator "in sparring it's OK, but if they have XY chromosomes in competition, they should abide by the rules."

Former women's world champion Mária Kovács has wryly remarked that in modern women's boxing "there is a 20 percent chance that one of the athletes will suffer a testicular injury." She also discouraged Hungary's Anna Luca Hámori from competing against Khelif. Hámori posted an AI picture on Instagram of a female boxer fighting a devil and referred to Khelif as a man, for which the Algerian Olympic Committee submitted a complaint to the IOC, and forced her to delete it and apologise to Khelif. She was then defeated by Khelif 5-0 in the quarterfinal, hugging him afterwards. (Similar situation to Carini?)

What others have said:

An open letter calling for the IOC the reverse its decision to allow Yu Ting and Khelif to compete, and to reinstate sex screening has been signed by the likes of: Sharron Davies, Riley Gaines, Martina Navratrilova, Fair Play for Women, Save Women's Sport Australasia, Women's Declaration International, and more.

Dr Emma Hilton, a developmental biologist, has done research which found "a male boxer's punch is 160% more powerful than a woman's". (Unfortunately the article doesn't cite which study, and I don't have access to her articles to determine which one it is). She considers "this decision to include two men (Khelif and Yu-ting) in women's boxing to be extremely worrying, both for the safety and well-being of the female boxers against whom these two men will be competing."

Lastly, the UN's special rapporteur on violence against women and girls Reem Alsalem has said Carini "rightly followed her instincts and prioritised her physical safety, but she and other female athletes should not have been exposed to this physical and psychological violence based on their sex."

Other commentary:

Here is some commentary from IreneBritUSA, Karen Davis of You're Kidding, Right?, Aja the Empress, Marshi Smith (co-founder of ICONS), Jennifer Sieland, Anna Slatz, Dr Colin Wright (an evolutionary biologist), Meghan Murphy and Mary Lou Singleton (upcoming), and Doriane Lambelet Coleman. Note several WoC are speaking out!

[maskedrealities]

A lot of the time growing up, I had a lot of people tell me I gave them gender envy. I had others asking me my gender, what was in my pants, getting with me to see if I had a penis or a vagina. Actively asking me very invasive questions because they couldn’t tell.

I am an intersex woman. I have F on every certificate I have. But I am built more androgynous. This causes me issues in my daily life.

I have had people tell me to “pick a gender and stay with it.” I’ve had others ask me if I used to be a male because my voice sounds like a teen boy’s but I look like a girl with shorter hair (I love short hair but I’d rather look masc with a shorter length). I’ve had people bully and belittle me because they couldn’t tell what gender I am.

It really causes me issues for going out in public. I fear being harassed again in public, asked invasive questions, be told someone wants to look like me and ask how I achieved it. How long I’ve been on testosterone or estrogen.

I’ve never been on either. It is something my body has done on its own. And the more that I grow older, my body has changed from feminine to masculine. I wanted to love myself for my more “feminine” features and yet those have gone away.

No matter what I want, I will always struggle to love my body because I have to get used to it again and again when I see a new change in the mirror.

Medical professionals hate me and don’t take me seriously. I’ve done something wrong just by living yet I haven’t done anything wrong at the same time. Although that’s something that will always be shoved down my throat because I “don’t look like a set gender” so I “need to figure it out and stay with it.”

Let me just be me. Let me be happy and love how I look. I’m not a dress up doll. No matter what, though, that’s what so many people assume of me.

I despise the binary for the pain it causes me and others. And I hate myself for being so desperate to be able to fit into this stupid category so the pain isn’t as bad.

I don’t have a DSD. I am intersex. I’m not something to fix, I am a being that deserves respect, too. Yet it’s so hard to get that.