Intersex
Born with a body that does not fit the standard definitions of male or female.
Intersex describes people born with sex characteristics, chromosomes, hormones, gonads or genitals, that do not fit the standard medical definitions of male or female. It is a fact about a body, not an identity someone adopts and not a gender.
It is far more common than most people assume. The usual estimate is around 1.7 per cent of the population, which puts it on the order of red hair. Most intersex people are assigned a sex at birth like anyone else, and many only find out later.
The central political issue is surgery performed on intersex infants to make their bodies match one category or the other, before they are old enough to have a view. Intersex advocacy has been about stopping that for decades, and that is a separate fight from trans healthcare, which is about access to interventions people are asking for.
Intersex people can be any gender and any orientation. Some are trans, most are not, and being intersex does not make someone nonbinary.
The older word is hermaphrodite. It is a slur when applied to a person, and it belongs in this entry only so that it can be named as one.
Intersex is not a third gender, and not a kind of trans
The two get folded together constantly, usually with good intentions, and both groups lose by it. Intersex is about the body someone was born with. Trans is about the relationship between someone's gender and the one they were assigned. They are different questions, and someone can be one, both or neither.
Folding them together also hands an argument to people who want to treat trans identity as only valid when it can be traced to something physical. Intersex people do not exist to validate anyone else, and most intersex advocates have been clear about not wanting the role.
Saying it well
Say this
- I am intersex.
- An intersex person.
- Intersex traits.
- Intersex, which is a fact about my body and not my gender.
Not this
- Hermaphrodite
- So you are both
- Intersex is a kind of nonbinary
- Were you born with both?
Questions people actually ask
What does intersex mean?
Being born with sex characteristics, chromosomes, hormones, gonads or genitals, that do not fit the standard definitions of male or female.
Is intersex the same as transgender?
No. Intersex is about the body someone was born with. Transgender is about someone's gender differing from the one they were assigned. A person can be one, both or neither.
How common is being intersex?
Around 1.7 per cent of people by the usual estimate, which is roughly as common as red hair.
Are intersex people nonbinary?
Some are, most are not. Intersex describes a body, not a gender, and intersex people can be any gender.
Is hermaphrodite an acceptable word?
Not for a person. It is a slur, and intersex is the word to use.