Students, faculty and staff gathered Friday in the LGBTQ Resource Center for the Intersex Awareness Luncheon, the concluding event of Coming Out Week.
Associate professor Miriam Golomb spoke at the event to highlight biological and genetic issues facing the intersex community.
“I don’t want to medicalize what is largely a social issue,” she said. “But the biology, in this case, is relevant to the social issues. These are human rights issues.”
Golomb began the discussion with a recent case of gender identity questioned by society: Caster Semenya, the South African Olympic distance runner who was stripped of her gold medal from the 2009 IAAF World Championships after questions were raised about her gender.
Specialists labeled Semenya’s condition as Partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, meaning genitalia are often ambiguous. Golomb then compared and contrasted PAIS with Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome.
Because of cases similar to Semenya’s, many athletic organizations will now test testosterone levels in women. Those with levels close to men will be barred from participating in athletic events, Golomb said.
Researchers have not yet found a concrete link between the amount of testosterone in an individual’s body and that individual’s athletic performance, Golomb said. Just because an individual might have more testosterone in his or her blood does not mean he or she is capable of responding to it like Semenya.
“This is a tiny number of women,” Golomb said. “It’s not something that’s affecting the fairness of athletics.”
Because children born with ambiguous genitalia often undergo genital surgery soon after birth, Golomb directed the discussion to the ethics of such decisions made by parents on behalf of their children.
“We always think of changing the individual and not the society,” Golomb said. “Society is so uncomfortable with anything that doesn’t fit into the ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ box. Nature doesn’t fit things in boxes.”
Student Sustainability coordinator Ben Datema, who attended the luncheon, said his study of biology as a student gave him insight into human gender in comparison to that of other species.
“I studied biology as a student here and learned how the natural world works,” Datema said. “There are organisms that have traits across the whole spectrum. We have a gender binary in our society where we see men and women, and there’s a dark black line between them with no overlap at all. It’s an entirely artificial construct.”
People can oppose these social constructs by maintaining an accepting attitude, LGBTQ Resource Center coordinator Struby Struble said.
“We can all have more open minds,” she said. “We can get to know individuals rather than make snap judgments on individuals. This is a topic not regularly discussed, and people, especially in the LGBTQ community, are open to learning. We want to be open to everyone, and that requires education.”
Society now has the scientific knowledge to accept different groups of people despite biological and social differences, Datema said.
“Up until recently we haven’t known these things,” he said. “It’s sort of like society playing catch-up. Society lags behind the speed at which we attain knowledge. It’s frustrating to see people who are oppressed or ‘othered’ or excluded. They have been treated in a criminal way just because society has not caught up.”
