SOPHOMORE ISSUE
1 In Every 2000 People Is Intersex In Kenya, and most parts of the world, we only know of two sexes: male and female. There are no ‘ifs’ and no ‘buts’. But, there are people who identify as something other than male or female. Now, I am no guru in this nor am I an expert. But, I will give my five cents (adjusted for inflation) worth. I have had the privilege of meeting and interacting with intersex people and I somehow have some idea about their issues. Before anything else, lets get some of the definitions clear. According to Wikipedia, ‘’Intersex in humans refers to ‘intermediate or atypical combinations of physical features that usually distinguish female from male. This is usually understood to be congenital, involving chromosomal, morphologic, genital and/or gonadal anomalies, such as diversion from typical XX-female or XY -male presentations, e.g., sex reversal (XY-female, XX-male), genital ambiguity, sex developmental differences. An intersex individual may have biological characteristics of both the male and female sexes. Intersexuality as a term was adopted by medicine during the 20th century, and applied to human beings whose biological sex cannot be classified as clearly male or female. Intersex was initially adopted by intersex activists who criticize traditional medical approaches to sex assignment and seek to be heard in the construction of new approaches.’’’ Thus, we see that intersex persons are persons born with atypical or ambiguous genitalia. So that we can be at par, let’s break that down further. Atypical means: “Not usual in a normal condition; opposite of typical”. Intersex conditions are varied. But one thing is clear; the gender marker here (because of the
‘Intersex persons are viewed as a curse in male or female one, then it’s atypical. Ambiguous means: “Open to multiple interpretations; Vague and many societies… unclear”. If the genitalia do not resemble that of either male or female and looks like either, or, both, because “they don’t fit none, mixed, varied – you get my drift? - Then it’s ambiguous. It’s not clear. It’s vague. in”’
way we are socially brought up and taught) is the genitalia. Now if the genitalia do not look like the usual
The above basically points out the onset of intersex condition. Such children born intersex face a plethora of difficulties, some of which I will cite here in no order or form. Imagine a kid who is born with genitalia that resembles more of male than of female but under further scrutiny it is discovered that the kid passes urine through an opening under that which is supposed to be the penis? Parents freak out and wonder what to do. The doctor prescribes that an operation be performed on it immediately because “we don’t want it to be a social pariah”. The kid is assigned a female identity and the small penis is trimmed down to look like a clitoris and then what would have been the scrotum is opened up to look like a vagina. They cannot create a vaginal canal since the kid is too young. The said kid grows up and begins to socialize. In due course, it begins displaying more male characteristics than female. But since the parents want “a perfect family” and don’t want any embarrassment (considering intersex persons are viewed as a curse in many societies), they don’t disclose to anyone about the kid’s intersex condition and brush off the kids behaviour as ‘wanja kihii’ (in Kikuyu) or tom boyish behavior, a “phase that will pass”. CONTINUED ON PAGE 14
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