#and yes i consider intersex a part of the queer community if they want to be considered queer personally | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

heckacentipede · 11 months

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small reminder this pride season that in the natural world you will find examples of animals changing their sex [such as the peacocks, or those lions], or being multiple sexes [such as bilateral gynandromorphs], or similarly being what you want to call "naturally nonbinary" or "naturally trans".

it's fun to use these wonderful creatures as trans and nonbinary iconography, but please! don't forget your intersex siblings in your excitement. those are intersex animals, not trans or nonbinary

sincerely, a perisex bigender constantly bummed at the missed opportunity for cool pride art

#intersex #nonbinary #trans #pride month #queer #i haven't made much pride art at all #but maybe I'll start just for this #please don't stop creating pride art with these animals #just try to be mindful that these animals are intersex #and yes i consider intersex a part of the queer community if they want to be considered queer personally #a lot of gender marginalization experiences overlap with how they experience gender and sex #not to mention intersex specific violence #catfriend

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orphee-aux-enfers · 9 months

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I. Don’t understand how being against homophobia and misogyny and informational suppression is cultural relativism? Yeah I have a #USAmerican raised Christian bias but I think not being bioessentialist and anti-intellectual is. Normal???? Genuinely don’t understand

Okay so. My guess from how this was written is that you are either a child or just into your 20s. I'd expect much different wording and approach if you were older. So. I'm going to try and be as gentle and clear cut as possible.

1) Orthodox Judaism is actually quite diverse and also different from Christianity, even fundamentalist Christianity .

2) What you're witnessing is not necessarily indicative of the actual community values; you are interpreting without insider perspective, or seemingly any actual knowledge. You're also ascribing motive to actions that may or may not be there.

3) many orthodox Jews, myself included, are queer and trans and embraced by our community. Every person of authority I've spoken to on the matter says that my incredibly queer, t4t marriage that gets read as gay no matter what, still gets the mitzvah of sex on erev Shabbos, and that includes my main community of Chabad.

4) many books are screened before being given to children by all people everywhere for a variety of reasons. Just because you don't fully understand the reasons as you are not yourself Orthodox Jewish doesn't mean that they are automatically something to be hated due to your preconceived notions.

5) Assuming a group is inherently homophobic, misogynistic, etc. Simply because you don't understand them as you are not part of their community is in fact a bad behaviour, yes. Don't do that. Most of the time, in most communities people are at worst confused.

6) As for misogyny... It's important to know the ways in which Judaism actually structures it's sex roles. No one has different sex roles because they're lesser, which misogyny implies. And every SINGLE person I have ever met observes mitzvos based on sex due to actually desire, not coercion. But for example, married women cover their hair as a way of making their marriage even more holy. Men meanwhile are told to cover their head at all times so they are mindful of G-d at all times. What does this imply at first glance? Why, that women are capable of remembering G-d at all times and the men are silly and must forget G-d if not reminded! Do we think this is all to the interpretation?

So. Before you judge our community so harshly... Perhaps also consider the last century of human history alone. We are being killed and hurt at alarming rates again, especially in the USA. Is it any wonder we don't stop in the streets to justify our existence to you?

Lastly, an oversharing of my personal details because as I am currently safe and well at home, I feel I ought to give you opportunity to understand that you aren't seeing/understanding the complexity of sex roles in Judaism

7) so, yes, orthodox Judaism has gender/sex based roles. It also is, in my experience, pretty flexible to meet individuals. I was coercively assigned female at birth. I was however by Jewish law, tumtum. In English terms, I had ambiguous genitals which could be surgically changed. My sister wanted a baby sister. And so, I was surgically "corrected" and raised female, until puberty and onset of hormonal problems that indicated that it wasn't just a genital mutation. I felt disconnected from binary gender, and at time, in part of my community having a label for me while the hospital I was born at had simply labeled me "incorrect", I came to embrace a masculine social standing. Because I was unable to be sexed as an infant, have masculine levels of testosterone and a lack of menses for years at a time, I have to adhere to both male and female sex based mitzvos. Religiously, I am operating with the strictest possible adherence, but this is all written and debated, as are all of the other sexes in Judaism. I am, however, allowed to exist as intersex in a Jewish community in a way that I am NEVER allowed to exist as intersex without a fight in the secular world, to the point that if it's not relevant I identify only as trans, because otherwise it becomes too complicated in the secular world. And this is genuinely because there is actually a space for me to exist in, as there are six Talmudic sexes.

Being trans and intersex is "allowed". Being queer is "allowed". Some communities differ, but I've lived in seven, and all of them have been more accepting of me being queer, trans, and intersex, than any secular space, including liberal and leftist spaces. At WORST, I am met with curiosity because I am new to the community. I think, perhaps, too many people in this world mistake curiosity with hatred.

#antisemitism #can i summon jumblr for some support with the tag pls #jumblr #long post #based on tone I'm also assuming youre one of my followers not the harrassing anon #hence the answer

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androgynousblackbox · 2 years

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Things that bother me as a pan/bi person from the bi community (and everyone in general)

The titite is somewhat clickbait because many of the things I am going to talk about are stuff I have seen from people all over the rainbow and even outside of it. It’s not especial of the bi community at all. But I know, I just know many of you out there are never going to read about pansexuality or a pan’s person experience or, god forbid, panphobia unless somehow I also make it about you or make it seem like I am going to join the ever so useless and worthless “bi vs pan” discourse. Also, I am pissed because I keep seeing videos from bi people making videos talking about the entire mpsec experience, getting shit incredibly wrong and just fucking never including a pan perspective or really any input at all from anyone who isn’t bi already. So consider this also my opportunity to vent. If you never did any of the things I am about to talk about, congratulations, this is not about you. If you did any of them and never thought before about how it could ever be bad, it’s okay, now you know. If you think me, as a bi person, cannot talk about my own community about the issues I see inside of it, goodbye. Let’s start, shall we. 1. Always bringing out “the history of how pan is problematic actually” whenever anyone as much mention the existence of pan Let’s put it this way: bisexuality wasn’t always understood and defined by everyone as it was on the manifesto (published by the renamed Bi and Pan Network, funny how everybody forgets that!). If someone says it was, they are lying. There was a moment in which bisexual women and lesbian were one and the same. There was a moment in which bisexual was a biological term to talk about intersexual. Queer is literally a slur that we decided with time to take as our badge of honor. Literally every single word that queer people use for themselves had complicated histories and, yes, problematic ones too. But we don’t bring out how bisexual “is actually about being intersex” whenever bi people talk, we generally understand that telling to an openly queer person “you can’t use queer, that is a slur!” is on bad taste. And yet, some people feel way too fucking comfortable weaponizing their own understand of history whenever it comes to pan people and then making it our own problem, as if we have to respond to memes from the fucking 2012 about “hearts, not parts” in order to defend our right to exist as pan people now. I would never even think making every single bi person responsible for every single shitty thing a bi person has ever done, so why is okay to do it for pan people as a whole? Why I keep seeing long comments talking about “the history” whenever someone just talks about being pan at all and nobody calls that out as the shitty move that it is? By the way, this has another face: when a pan person talks about having a bad experience with the bi community, a bi person or literally anyone else, for being pan specifically, and some person comes bludging their way through to talk in direct response about how they have met pan people wanting to force to identify as pan when they are bi, as if they expect this pan to shut up about their own issues in order to respond for those fucking randos that have nothing to do with them or what they were talking about..This is rude, just in principle, but also so fucking entitled? To expect and demand attention for your complaints AS A RESPONSE to someone talking about their own grievances? Imagine that you literally just hurt yourself impacting your toe against the table, said “oh” and someone comes crashing the window to tell you that OH BUT YOUR TWICE REMOVE COUSIN THOUGH, he told me I am ugly, therefore you have nothing to complain about! It sounds absurd because it is absurd, and yet, so fucking normal to undermine pan people’s experiences like this. 2. They have the history all fucking wrong

On one hand you have the people who will actually use the manifesto (again, published by the Bi and Pan Network, in case you forgot) to try to define pansexuality out of existence. “See, see! Bi ALREADY means attraction to all gender so we don’t need pansexuality and therefore pansexual people are actually biphobes for even implying that our identity is not enough for everyone!” That exact same manifesto you all use as your hammer of truth literally tells you to fuck off. “Many of us choose not to label ourselves anything at all, and find the word 'bisexual' to be inadequate and too limiting. Do not assume that the opinions expressed are shared by all bisexuals, by those actively involved in the Bisexual Movement, by the ATM staff, or the BABN Board of Directors.”

The people who literally wrote the manifesto are supportive of people identifying as pan, so what the actual fuck do you think you are doing pretending as if our mere existence is somehow erasure? Those exact same people would think you are a fool. Just imagine how you look right now, not that different. On the other hand, you have supposed “experts” who will tell you, with absolutely confidence, that pansexuality originated in Tumblr, that was born out of MOGAI (which shows too how they DO NOT understand MOGAI either because the point of it was to include everyone, even bi, so technically speaking bi, lesbian and gay are also under the umbrella of MOGAI) because they screenshotted one image of the flag coming from a tumblr user. This is very fucking easy to debunk information. If you do want to research the history of pan, it’s not difficult to find at all. But these “experts” couldn’t be fucking bothered to do a single google research because, what, who cares, right? The cherry on top is when, from these misinformation, then they come out with even more fucking wild assumptions that literally anyone can debunk: things like how “nobody does pan activist offline” or how pan people do not have an actual history or activist history at all. Those are all fucking lies that panphobes just keep repeating without ever recieving the backlash that they deserve. 3. Every talk about panphobia has to be a talk about biphobia actually, panphobia doesn’t exist I can’t tell you the amount of times I have seen pan people talking any particular way they have been targetted for being pan (erasure, discrimination, you name it), only for the response to be “oh but I have lived the same and I am bi, therefore it’s actually biphobia and we should be talking about that first!” Like how fucking ass way is that to act. An extension of this is on other things, like how people will say “I just define pan as bi with another name/it’s a microlabel for bi” and then are SHOCKED that you have the goal to call that panphobia. How can it panphobic if they recognize people can identify as pan? Shouldn’t be enough that they aren’t being attacked for using the label? The thing is, they do get attacked for using the label and saying “okay, but you are actually bi so it’s fine uwu” is just another form of erasure. Also another reason why many people prefer mspec as a umbrella term rather than “bi umbrela/bi spectrum”. Pansexual people, just like polysexual, omnisexual and trisexual identify as those term because those are the term that resonate with them, that describe their experience and just feel right to them. Can you not imagine for one second how insulting it is to have someone come and tell you that no, actually you are this other term you don’t want or have anything to do with, because we said so. Bisexuality is not a default identity. It’s a full identity on itself, just like pansexuality/polysexualy/omnisexuality are full identities on themselves that deserve their own recognition without being shoved with other group. 4. The belief that somehow pansexual people are “escaping” biphobia and are more accepted for being pan This is just blatantly, objectively, factually and logically wrong. It doesn’t make any fucking sense. Literally all the crap that bi people lived, pan people lived it as well but they also have to live with everything above and see it go unchallenged by very vocal bi “activists” who preach about how the rest of the LGBT+ community doesn’t support them and somehow never realize that doesn’t happen for pan people either. It’s not a competion, but if it was, why do you assume you would win by default? Being pan is not a escape of fucking anything except identifying specifically as bi. That is the only thing that changes, but the erasure, the discrimination, the people creating stereotypes about you, defining your identity without your consent, calling you names for using a label over another, treating you as an invader for coming into “monosexual spaces”, people considering you not enough straight and not enough queer? Pan people live all of that too, also from the LGBT+ community. And our bi siblings treating us as somehow the privileged bunch that don’t know what they go through doesn’t help shit. 5. All the faces of bi vs pan discourse

The mere fact that there is such a thing like battleaxe bis is frankly embarassing enough, it is embarassing for me, but then there is this whole attitude where we can’t even mention the existence of pan without bringing bi people first. The only time pan (bad) history is brought up is by talking about bi history. Pan people’s issues are rarely discuss with as much openness and support as bi people’s ones. I have yet to see a single “LGBT+ activist” on youtube making a single video about panphobia. But videos about bi vs pan discourse where they do literally everything I said above, and more, those even right now I keep seeing and I am so fucking tired that I am meant to see this as a good thing, as support, because see, they AKNOWLEDGE pansexuality exist, isn’t that enough? No, it isn’t. Pan people deserve more than that. We all do. They are not tag alongs, they are not a second thought, they are not just part of this fucking ridiculous joke of a discourse. They are an actual group of people who keep living and having issues even when June is over and peope move on. They are not “bi with another name”, “another name for bi”, “another face of bi”. They are full blown identities with our own long and complicated history beyond this fucking joke of a website, beyond your discourse, beyond the two pan people who told you “eh, shouldn’t you be pan if you like all?” one time in twitter or wherever the fuck, beyond any relationship with bisexuality as a whole. And it bother me so fucking much because it’s more about “bi and pan solidarity uwu!” rather than pan support, uplifting pan people, pan positivity, as if we don’t exist anywhere else and don’t have any other issues outside of this imaginery silly boxing match against bi people, who should be the people who understand pan people better than anyone else, should know exactly what it is to be redefined, ignored and talked over by other, but many, way too many, are not. Fuck, I have even seen “activist” criticizing how pan people don’t go out to support bi people or fight for bi issues (which is a fucking lie, again, think the Bi and Pan Network) and yet have their entire body work being about bi people, bringing up pan just to say how injust is that have that label force on them when they are bi, just bi, entirely bi and not a flavor of pan. But pan people want to do the same for themselves, talk for their own shit for once and get accused of throwing bi people under the bus. It’s like people treat us as cojointed twins, but only one of them is generally accepted as their own individual while the other is kept in that same position no matter what they do. This is not to put down the bi community. I know we can be a welcoming, understanding, warm and open community. But we need to do better because right now, we are not doing that and this shit, this exact shit, only harm us all and won’t ever help us in the long run. Do better.

#andro is venting #panphobia mention #biphobia mention #queer stuff #lgbt+ stuff

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draconym · 3 years

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would you consider an asexual spectrum bird? as an aegosexual individual, I don’t feel fully represented by the plain asexual flag (tho there‘s nothin wrong with it!) and i’d love to see an aspec bird, as well as a queer platonic bird! ofc i understand if you don’t want to or can’t find a bird to match!

much love, El <3

Yes! Absolutely! I'm open to doing a lot more birds. And I like the requests! (As someone who doesn't pay a whole lot of attention to The Discourse, I have learned a lot of new terms through pride bird requests.) But there is kind of a process to adding a new bird that can take a while:

1. Is there a flag that's commonly used and recognizable?

I've gotten a bunch of requests for microlabel birds, and often times I can't find a flag that community has created. I think this is an a-spec flag I've seen before? I'm not sure. It's a great flag, and I love branching out from the "Lots Of Horizontal Bars" look.

But it's often difficult to figure out if there's a consensus on which flag people prefer. A lot of these flags are very new!! And that's not a bad thing. I love that so many of us want to follow in Gilbert Baker's footsteps and create flags for our community. But, uh ... here are the image search results for "a-spec flag:"

It can be kind of hard to know where to start sometimes. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

2. Can I find a bird with the same colors of that flag?

Can I be brutally honest for a second? I think a lot of our flags have too many colors. And a lot of those colors are highly specific down to the hex code. I know I'm a boring person with bad opinions regarding this but I can't help but be influenced by more traditional vexillology and heraldic convention: I think three colors is enough for most flags and five is too many, and I also think we have enough horizontal bars and we should start considering other geometric shapes.

Nature has made a lot of different birds but there are, unfortunately, a finite number of birds and an nearly-infinite number of possible flag color combinations. And we keep putting purple on all our flags when there just aren't that many purple birds. What I'm trying to say is: maybe we should start choosing flag color palettes based on existing birds, because that would make this project easier for me. :P

3. When can I find time to draw this bird?

I work three part time jobs and I have ADHD so my executive function is, maybe, not excellent. I, too, wish it did not take me months to draw new birds.

Please don't let my rant and vexillogical snobbery deter you from requesting a pride bird. I'm just saying, I know it's taken me a long time to make these, but it's not cause I don't enjoy making them. I've got a list of other birds I do want to get to (intersex, demiboy, demigirl) and I'm always adding to it.

#pride bird #vexillology

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vampish-glamour · 3 years

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Hiya! I'm new to your wonderful corner of the internet, and I hope you don't mind if I ask a lot of questions lol. Firstly, what do you think of pan vs bi? The only satisfying answer I have gotten as to the differences (besides subjective stuff like feeeeeeling like you value their gender or whatever) is that a pan person would f*ck intersex/enbies, while bi people wouldn't. I'm curious what you think. Second, do you think that the LGBs are ever going to have a satisfying split from the Ts/the gender fandom? What kind of steps would we take to accomplish that?

Hi, and welcome! I don’t mind questions at all. 😄

I’m strongly against the concept of pansexuality.

I believe that the label is rooted in biphobia and a misunderstanding of bisexuals.

The main arguments for the difference between bi and pan (off the top of my head) are as followed;

Bi means two, pan means all. Bisexuals are only attracted to two genders but pansexuals are attracted to all.

Bisexuals take gender into consideration when it comes to attraction. Pansexuals don’t.

Bisexuals care about parts, pansexuals care more about somebody’s personality. (“Hearts not parts”)

Bisexuals won’t date trans people, pansexuals will.

These are all either based on a misunderstanding of sexuality, or of bisexuals.

For the first one, I do agree that bi means two. But it means the two sexes, because sexuality is based off of sex (hence it being called SEXuality).

In the same way homosexual means same sex attracted, heterosexual means opposite sex attracted, and asexual means attracted to neither sex... bisexual means attracted to two/both sexes. And since there’s only two sexes, “pansexual” meaning “attracted to all sexes” is functionally the exact same thing as bisexuality.

Even if you believe in more than two genders (which I don’t), the attraction is still based off of sex characteristics... and on a biological level, there would be no difference in how a pansexual experiences attraction and how a bisexual experiences attraction.

For the second one, there are many bisexuals who don’t care about gender. There are many who have a preference. To say that all bisexuals have a preference is a misunderstanding of bisexuality. And, to say that preferences dictate sexuality is a misunderstanding of sexuality. Preferences or no preferences—it doesn’t change what sex(es) you are attracted to. If you are attracted to both sexes, you are bisexual. Your preferences or lack thereof don’t make or take away from your bisexuality.

For the third one, I just find this argument disgustingly biphobic, and in general an arrogant thing to say—that only one sexuality, pansexuality, cares about one’s personality over their body. Especially when the idea that bisexuals and homosexuals are obsessed with sex is a stereotype that has been fought against for years.

And once again, it’s a misunderstanding of sexuality. A straight woman who is more interested in sex than a guy’s personality isn’t suddenly a different sexuality. So why is this the case for bisexuals?

I believe it’s to escape the negative stereotypes that cloud over bisexuality. The idea that bisexuals are sex crazed and greedy, and only care about genitalia. It’s not a coincidence that pansexuality makes its entire brand off of distancing itself from these negative stereotypes.

It would be like if a bunch of homosexual women started calling themselves “samesexual”, and claimed that they’re different than homosexual women/lesbians because unlike lesbians, samesexuals aren’t predatory.

That sounds insanely homophobic, yes? If we can accept that creating a whole new “sexuality” to distance oneself from negative homosexual stereotypes is homophobic, we have to accept that creating a whole new “sexuality” to distance oneself from negative bisexual stereotypes is biphobic.

And the fourth argument, there’s not much to say here other than that this is plain transphobia. It separates trans people from cis people, placing trans men and women into a separate box away from “man” and “woman”

On top of this, being attracted to or not being attracted to trans people does not make a whole new sexuality, because trans people are not a third sex.

It’s also another misconception about bisexuality—because never have transsexuals not been in the bisexual dating pool.

Onto the next topic;

I don’t support “drop the T”.

This isn’t to say that I don’t think separating LGB and T for certain causes is helpful. For example; fighting for same sex marriage is an LGB issue, while fighting for accessible and affordable medical care for gender dysphoria is a T issue.

To be fair, I’m almost of the opinion that the large grouping itself isn’t really necessary, considering how different the experiences of homosexuals, bisexuals, and transsexuals are. But, I can understand why they’re all lumped together for a rights movement, especially because homophobia impacts everyone in the LGBT acronym. So since it’s here and it’s been here for a while, I’m in support of the full acronym being LGBT.

But as far as completely dropping the T goes... I believe that the push for this comes from a misunderstanding of transgender people, likely from the terrible representation they are given from people who aren’t actually transsexual.

Because the Ts and the gender fandom are two incredibly different groups, and although the distinction isn’t made often... it’s incredibly important for exactly this reason—that they get mixed together and it leads to hatred of trans people.

Transgender people/transsexuals are people who experience gender dysphoria. The goal of most trans people is to live a normal life as the gender their brain recognizes them to be. They have medical and mental health needs that are important to their quality of life. This is the crowd where you’re likely to find people who simply want to live their lives in peace.

The gender fandom, at least who I think you’re referring to, are people who don’t experience gender dysphoria, and often treat gender as an accessory, a performance, a fashion or political statement, etc. This is the crowd where you’ll find the neopronoun users, the obscure labels like “genderfluid”, and are unfortunately typically the people who get the spotlight over actual trans people.

Please do not confuse the two!

Look, I get it. Watching the second group run around and make LGBT people look like a joke is painful. But it is not the fault of transsexuals. Many trans people are just as annoyed as everyone else is, especially because they are directly being misrepresented (shown by how you and many others consider them to be one and the same with things like MOGAI).

So I won’t be advocating for dropping the T.

However, I do fully support from separating from MOGAI (or the “queer community” as many of them like to say), and I think the way to do that is to make a clear distinction between LGBT people, and QIA+ people. And making it clear that the T only includes dysphoric trans men/women.

It’s not about dropping the T. It’s about dropping everything after the T, and restoring the T to its original meaning.

We need more LGBT people to stand up against how the “queer community” is representing us, and to make it clear that the acronym is LGBT, and that the LGBT movement is a civil rights movement, not a “let’s all party and share our pronouns” movement.

Thanks to the “queer community”, LGBT people aren’t taken seriously. Thanks to the “gender fandom”, transsexuals are seen as a joke and a burden to the LGBT community. Both the “queer community” and “gender fandom” need to be separated and made distinct from the LGBT community, and this should be done with all four letters, not just three.

Tl;dr:

I’m against the pansexual label, and I believe it is inherently biphobic and often transphobic.

It also perpetuates harmful stereotypes about bisexuals and homosexuals.

I don’t support the “drop the T” movement.

The T gets a lot of misrepresentation, and I believe that misrepresentation is part of where the “drop the T” movement comes from.

It’s important to make a distinction between the LGBT movement and the modern day “queer community” if we ever want LGBT people to be taken seriously again.

#asks #anon #q slur

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hello-nichya-here · 3 years

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I don't know why you're so homophobic and biphobic you don't want anyone who's same sex attracted to have their own community. Also why are you erasing intersex people? We have our own community and it makes no sense to shoehorn us into the LGBT because you don't respect us on our own terms.

Ah yes, I, a bisexual woman, am deeply biphobic.

Here's two little things you should learn: no comunity is a monolith (there are intersex people who say being intersex IS an LGBT identity, and I welcome them, specifically, as part of the comunity) and two different comunities can get sort of "combined" due to similar experiences and overlaping members (plenty of intersex people are trans, bi, pan, ace...)

And I really wanna know what the fuck you mean by "You don't want same sex attracted people to have their own comunity". Are you aware that some trans people are straight? Are you aware that asexuality and aromanticism are a thing AND are part of the LGBT+ comunity? Are you aware that having one larger comunity that includes as many people as possible doesn't stop anyone from forming smaller comunities within a comunity?

If someone tells me they're LGBT+ (like people identify solely as queer) I believe and accept them. If someone tells me they're not LGBT+, but face some similar issues (like polyamorous straight, cis people who cannot get married and depending on the laws can even be legally punished) I say our comunities should help each other out. Intersex people fit BOTH groups, and the overlap between Intersex and LGBT+ has been around for a loooooong time.

The reason why I made a post supporting the right of intersex people to say they're part the LGBT+ comunity is because someone I love is intersex and had been dealing with a lot of prejudice on what should be a safe space for them. I don't see how that's a bad thing.

If you don't consider yourself LGBT+, I totally respect that. But it doesn't mean you can pretend your experience is the "correct" one, and it doesn't give you the right to call me a bigot. Next time, try not using big words you don't know the meaning of and try not to ignore larger social and historical contexts.

#asks #tumblr fuckery #lgbt rights #queer rights #intersex rights

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himbo-the-clown · 4 years

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I feel like... Hm. Discussions about intersex people and whether or not we should be part of the queer community are very...lacking in nuance. In a very simple way. Intersex people should not be forced to identify as queer or be part of the queer community. Intersex people should also have space made for us in the queer community should we choose to claim it.

The history of intersex people and the queer community is long, complicated, and very much entwined. The queer community did active harm to intersex rights for many years, so it's understandable that some intersex people wouldn't want to be part of the community. The queer community also doesn't broadly make an effort to learn about intersex people or be inclusive of intersex experiences, and intersex people often get misunderstood because of our connection to the queer community, so many intersex people don't want to be part of the community because of that. Some intersex people want to be part of the community because we hold various queer identities. Some intersex people enjoy the feeling of community that comes from being welcomed as queer, especially if we consider intersex to be our gender identity or part of our identity. Some intersex people like being able to bond with queer people over shared negative experiences in a binary-centric society that tries to police our very existences.

Rather than a hard yes or a hard no, intersex people should be allowed to individually choose without perisex people assuming all intersex people have the same desires. I should be allowed to call being intersex one of my queer identities, and intersex people who don't consider themselves queer shouldn't have to. I should be allowed intersex pride within a queer context, and other intersex people should be allowed to discount themselves from queer contexts. We don't all... Have to make the same choice. We don't all have to be treated as a monolith.

And perisex queer people can and should respect this, they can and should promote intersex spaces and intersex pride in queer spaces while not forcing all intersex people to partake. They shouldn't be telling people that intersex people are or aren't queer, they shouldn't be policing things like positivity and pride art that includes intersex people. They can and should make spaces for us without forcing all of us to enter those spaces.

#intersex #דיברתי #actuallyintersex

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daringdarlingdt · 3 years

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Had an internalized aphobia moment today... I genuinely questioned like “yes, I know I am asexual, and I know it’s a thing that 1% of the population is, but should it really be considered an orientation? Like right there in the word it requires being oriented toward something... which is exactly what asexuality isn’t.”

And then I was like don’t be silly, you are lgbtq, it is an orientation, you love being lgbtq, you’re just letting the stupid exclusionist shit get to you

And my argument back to myself is something along the lines of “but it’s not really the things that exclusionists are saying... like aphones are all about how harmful asexuality is to queer spaces, and how it’s not even real, everyone feels some sexual attraction or on the flip side that not feeling sexual attraction isn’t unusual and everyone at some point doesn’t feel sexual attraction so aces aren’t special and don’t need their own label or whatever.”

But even in there is the implication like even if you are “asexual” it shouldn’t be considered an orientation, but just like a medical thing or classification or something? Like it shouldn’t be included in lgbtq because it’s different than who you love it’s just about how you love or if you’re even able to.

And I’m still thinking about it now at 1:00am when I should be sleeping... how wonderful

And I know that this isn’t true. Like for example being intersex is largely a medical thing, it’s a physical trait, but it’s still 100% true. But some self-destructive part of me is questioning if being ace makes me “queer enough”

It’s probably the same part of me who tried to convince me that I only identify as ace because all my friends are lgbtq and I always wanted to be queer too so I could be a part of the community that all the people I fit in with were. Like I found asexuality because it was a way into the queer community. And I know that’s not true either because I don’t feel sexual attraction, and beyond that I’ve been questioning my romantic attraction and whatever. But I still worry sometimes

I was lucky enough that before I found out I was ace I never thought there was something wrong with me or that I was “broken” (like most aces do) but this whole thing is really fucking with me

Anyways I hope this doesn’t send any fellow aces into a spiral like the one I’m currently in. I know what I’m saying is false and hopefully you do too. You’re valid, and lgbtq and ace enough and queer enough and I love you

I’m also sorry for the length and incomprehensible rant-y-ness of this it was meant to be short but once I started I couldn’t stop and now I’m almost crying.

#the soundtrack #to my #mental breakdown #include such show tunes as #you will be found #from #dear evan hansen #from now on #the greatest showman #and #show yourself #frozen 2 #asexual #ace #actually asexual #ace problems #internalized aphobia #broken

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aaronexplainsitall · 5 years

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Do you think cishet ace people are discriminated again / belong in the lgbtq+ community?

In answer to both questions, yes, I do. This is something I used to think about very differently but have since changed my mind. I will also say that this is a really loaded question, so if anyone wants to have further discussion about it please try to be respectful.

Let’s start by defining the term “cishet ace people” because I think there’s a lot of confusion there. The term refers to people who experience romantic attraction towards people of the opposite gender but do not experience any sort of sexual attraction towards anyone of any gender. I don’t generally like the split model of attraction (that we all have sexual and romantic attraction and that they are not always to the same group of people or in the same way) because of its history, but it’s useful here.

Historically (and particularly religiously), sex for reproduction has been seen as the gold-standard of the human endeavour. When we think about the ideals of personhood as we see them in most mainstream religions, we think about a man and a woman joined in marriage with children who will continue their religious beliefs.

The one thing that unifies all of the LGBTQ+ community is our inability to conform to that expectation. For people who experience same gender attraction, we cannot fulfil marriage between a man and a woman and therefore cannot procreate. For trans people, they will not provide a satisfactory idea of ‘man’ or ‘woman’ as laid out by religious groups and can often not procreate. Ace people, similarly, do not have sex and therefore will not procreate through sex in marriage (if they choose to get married at all).

Moreover, the expectation that sex is pleasurable or desirable is pervasive. It’s everywhere in the media that we all consume, it’s a constant dogma that even most ultra-religious people would parrot (although they’d argue that it should be within the confines of marriage). This can and does lead ace people to believe that there is something wrong with them for not desiring sex, it can lead them to have traumatic sexual experiences, and it can result in them having sex where enthusiastic consent is not given.

Do I believe ace people experience the same sort of oppression as the rest of the community? No. But gay people experience different oppression to lesbians, who in turn experience different oppression to bisexual people, who in turn experience different oppression to trans people, who in turn experience different oppression to intersex people and so on and so forth. I’m not interested in getting involved in the oppression olympics, but I do believe that the argument that ace people shouldn’t be a part of the community because they don’t experience oppression is incorrect.

There is no universal LGBTQ+ oppression, so holding ace people to this imaginary standard and then allowing them to fail to meet it (because it doesn’t exist) is a straw-man argument that exists, in my opinion, with the sole purpose of being exclusionary.

I’ve also seen it argued that they shouldn’t be a part of the LGBTQ+ community because they don’t require the same resources as us, and I don’t agree with that either. None of us have identical resource needs - gay men rely heavily on the community to provide resources for HIV/AIDS awareness, management and treatment, but lesbians rely heavily on the community to provide crisis resources in the event of corrective rape. None of us have identical needs and so to exclude ace people because they don’t either is inherently contradictory.

I mentioned up top that I used to think differently and frankly, that’s because I wasn’t thinking at all. I used to buy into the narrative that ace people were fighting their way into the community to feel special or co-opt queerness but that was ignorance on my part and I wish I’d examined the facts before I jumped to a conclusion. If you feel this way at the moment, I’d encourage you to think critically about the issue and consider the historical social imperative to have sex and reproduce and then think about what the foundation of the LGBTQ+ community is.

tl;dr - People who don’t experience sexual attraction should and do belong in the LGBTQ+ community, irrespective of who their romantic attraction is directed towards.

#ace discourse

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intersex-ionality · 5 years

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Hello, I'd like your insight on an issue: Ever since learning about intersex many years ago, I've been in a state of "yeah I'm intersex- but not really", and I'm not exactly sure why. It's some irrational feeling along the lines of not having "the real intersex experience" (whatever that is) 'cause I didn't really feel it very important when I noticed my body wasn't "right" like I'd learned about, and I originally couldn't find any info on the differences so I just assumed I was dyadic anyways

Oh, I can sympathize with that feeling, actually, and I know that must sound a little ridiculous because I am quite open with the fact that I was subject to all of the weird awful Worst Case Scenario shit that people panic over when they hear the word “intersex,” but like.

Until I was 23, I didn’t know I had a DSD. I thought I was just, like. Badly put together. I thought that my lack of genital sensitivity was because I got unlucky, and I thought that my dilation procedures had just been a doctor raping me (I was subject to a lot of childhood rape, so it was the “logical” conclusion). I thought I had been put on hormones at age 12 because everyone was. With the way the conservative demagogues in my area talked about abortion and sex and birth control and the devil and god only knows what else, it seemed like the logical conclusion.

What I’m getting at is, even with the, like... the textbook version of what people often considered the “true intersex experience,” I didn’t actually “feel intersex,” until I looked at the word, thought about it for like 6 months, and decided, “no, fuck it, this is me, I will say it, I will be loud, I will be proud, and fuck anything else.”

I think it’s easier in a lot of ways for intersex activists to talk about how we feel alienated from normative ideas of sex and gender.

But a lot of us, most of us I would bet, originally felt alienated from each other and our little coalition of DSDs, too.

That’s actually one of the things that bothers me the most about those posts that I sometimes see gatekeepers make and well meaning but uninformed allies pass around, that say things like, “being intersex isn’t an identity, it’s a state of being.”

Nope.

Our underlying conditions, myriad and varied, may be states of being. But to be intersex? That’s to look at our history and our activism and our communities and actively choose, actively say, “yes, that’s me, I’m a part of this.”

In a lot of ways, it’s similar to being queer, as opposed to being “a member of the LGBTQ+ community.”

There is no state of being that is “intersex,” and there couldn’t be. There are too many DSDs, and too many edge cases that aren’t DSDs and yet are still so obviously and organically intersex identities.

So, yeah, you’re not alone in feeling like intersex wasn’t really applicable. And it doesn’t have to be applicable now, if you don’t want it to be. There's no point in using labels if they don’t describe you.

But there’s no harm in using labels that describe your aspirations (whether political, self acceptance, or anything else), either.

#tabbyseraph

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adhd-hippie · 5 years

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Why I think Asexuals & Aromantics belong in the LGBTQIA community

1. We don’t have a choice. Those of us who identify as aspec in one way or another do not choose to feel this way.

2. We do face discrimination. I do acknowledge that asexual and aromantic people do not have the same history as gay and trans people nor do we suffer like the intersex community suffers (if you wanna talk fucked up let's talk about the idea that “corrective” surgery aka genital mutilation is still socially acceptable if a person is intersex).

We are however discriminated against, we avoid some discrimination because, for the most part, we’re able to pass. Yet passing is not the same as acceptance. The aspec community is a small community and so we’re largely unseen. We do however experience discrimination, for example, there are reports of corrective rape from asexuals and even though asexuality has been removed from the DSM-5 it requires self-identification to not be treated. This means that people who are asexual may be treated for a mental health disorder if they don’t state they’re asexual. That’s not good, especially considering that many people still don’t know what asexuality is. Not to mention that as a whole aspec people experience things like deterioration of relationships due to our identity, derogatory language, segregation, and bigotry.

3. We are an attribute to the LGBTQIA community. Our existence is a testament to the complexity of human sexuality and shouldn’t be ignored. Including aspec people can help foster conversations about attraction and how it is not something that people choose. Not to mention that more people participating and advocating for equal rights is always a good thing. Aspec people don’t want to take away from the LGBTQIA community we want to contribute to it.

4. We have always been around, we’re not new. Asexuality has been described historically in lots of ways and by lots of people from Kinsey and his group X, to activists in the 1970′s advocating for it as an accepted label. Aromanticism is somewhat newer but with the growing asexual visibility the understanding that romantic and sexual attraction can be experienced separately is just being explored. This doesn’t mean aromantics haven’t been around forever too. Think of the “confirmed bachelor” or “the spinster”.

5. Aspec people even if they’re heterosexual or heteroromantic are not straight. Straight people never have to come out, their sexual/romantic identity is never called into question, their feelings regarding sex and romance are commonly accepted and their identity needs no explanation. Aspec people don’t experience these privileges that’s why aspec people are not the same as straight people and the two shouldn’t be conflated.

6. Separate but equal is never equal. There are many people who believe that asexuals and aromantics should just create their own community apart from the LGBT community as they do not share their exact same experiences. We do have our own resources and are building our own community but we only make up 1% (asexuals) or less (aromantics) of the population and without help, we can’t do the things we need to do.

Again I fully acknowledge that the aspec community doesn’t experience the same degree of hate as the gay and trans communities but it doesn’t necessarily follow that we don’t need help. As mentioned before asexuality is still viewed by many as a mental health disorder and without clear self-identification can be treated as such. Basically, If you’re not completely happy with your asexuality you can be treated with therapy and drugs for something that isn’t actually a disorder.

Aromantics aren’t included in the DSM, but many anecdotal stories from aromantics show that the mental health community misunderstands aromanticism and views it as a disorder. How are we going to get the DSM to make a proper distinction between asexuality and sexual disorders and prevent aromantics from being treated for mental health issues related to their romantic feelings if there isn’t visibility, advocacy and funding for studies on these identities? How are 1% of people supposed to do these things on their own?

_______________________________________________________________

Personally, I don’t want to ever make it out like I’ve had it just as bad as my gay and trans friends. I haven’t, I know that. I have a trans friend who came out to their mom and is being deadnamed and misgendered DAILY, I have a lesbian friend who isn’t able to kiss their girlfriend at said girlfriend’s home because their girlfriend has to remain closeted for their safety. I have a friend who’s gay mom was ousted by their original church (luckily they found a new one and went with their church to pride this year) and I know a trans woman who was beaten up just last year for being “a man in a dress.”

I don’t share these experiences, I never could, but that doesn’t mean I’m not struggling. I’m in therapy because I don’t have a sense of belonging. I struggle to feel like I belong anywhere and part of that is because I’m aromantic and can’t relate to HUGE portions of modern human culture (love songs, movies with love stories, art, poetry, etc.). I’m not out to my parents because I don’t want to deal with their discrimination. Yes, I’m lucky I can pass but if you think passing isn’t limiting you’d be wrong.

I’m aromantic, not asexual, and because of my parent's judgment and the fact that I live with them for free going out and having the type of relationships I might be interested in isn’t possible. Furthermore, my identity isn’t understood even when I do come out. People pity me, think I’m some kind of sad-sack who’s incapable of human emotion, and most worrying of all I’m somewhat concerned that my therapist thinks I need to be treated for my aromanticism.

We’re all suffering and we’re all struggling to be understood by a largely ignorant majority who just doesn’t get it. I’m not here to take away from the LGBTQIA community I’m here to help! I have been fighting for years as an ally to bring to light the suffering of my queer friends. Now I’m here as a part of that community fighting even harder and even more passionately because the LGBTQIA community aren’t just friends, now they’re family.

_____________________________________________________________

*I didn’t include agender because I wasn’t sure if I should. If you’re agender could you please enlighten me, do you see yourself as part of the trans community/identity or not?

Links:

On asexuality in the DSM

http://www.asexualityarchive.com/asexuality-in-the-dsm-5/

On asexuality historically

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25771710?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

https://www.kinseyinstitute.org/research/publications/kinsey-scale.php

Johnson, Myra T. (1977). Asexual and Autoerotic Women: Two Invisible Groups. The Sexually Oppressed. Gochros, Harvey L., Gochros, Jean S. New York: Association Press. ISBN 978-0809619153. OCLC 2543043.

On aspec discrimination

https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/without-prejudice/201209/prejudice-against-group-x-asexuals

https://acelauren.wordpress.com/2017/02/24/arospecawarenessweek-day-6-amanormativity/

#aspec inclusion #asexual inclusion #aromantic inclusion #aspec pride #asexual pride #aromantic pride #asexual/aromantics are LGBTQIA #aros are lgbt #ace are lgbt

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peter-author · 4 years

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A New (Demand for) Underground Railroad

In history classes you probably learned about the Underground Railroad in the mid-1800s. Slaves were handed, household to household, moving north from the American south to safety. Today we see the obviousness of the slaves wanting freedom. What we forget to assess is that there was no means for a pathway to that safety and freedom. They could not do it alone. Now, you may wonder, why didn’t they simply walk north, run away north? Many did or tried to, but at the time a slave was not considered (by many) as a real human. In fact, you have to remember that our Constitution counted them only as 3/5th of a human. Putting aside the reward for capturing a runaway slave, even people who did not want a reward didn’t, at that time, see the African-Americans as real humans, they saw them as possessions to be returned or, at best, turned from their door to avoid legal problems.

The Underground Railroad was, then, a secret society, breaking all sorts of laws: The laws of those states that allowed ownership of slaves as well as the community and church laws that did not recognize African-Americans as deserving freedom or protection. The people who risked their lives, their farms, their very right to belong to their community, volunteered to be a part of the Underground Railroad--great Americans all. They understood the basic values of the real America, the morals of humanity, the true Christian teachings they followed at the time. Many of the way-stations of the Underground Railway were run by people who had no kinship with African Americans, many were probably still put off on the basis of color as a personal preference for their own family, but they all had a common understanding: the slaves had a right to be free and safe as real Americans. And the Underground Railway helped move perhaps 100,000 slaves to freedom and safety.

In our global inter-connectedness, a new need for an Underground Railway has emerged for LGBTQI (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex) people. In Canada, Toronto to be exact, the Rainbow Railroad started operations and is moving people from extreme danger to safety. Yes, they no longer have to secret people in the dead of night, but endangered, persecuted men and women are being taken to safety from countries around the world to Canada and other countries, where they can start life in the open, free from violence and oppression. Gay men and women are being chastised openly in public, have their homes torched, get beaten up, have death threats – and I am not just talking about Uganda or Saudi Arabia – I’m talking about modern, westernized countries and states, Barbados, Taiwan, Korea, Texas... the list is long and deep. Remember that, in all, presently there are still 70 countries where it is illegal to be gay... and that does not include communities and religions with dangerous biases and anti-LGBTQI propaganda.

The sad fact is that not all people can afford to move, to take themselves and their families to safety. That’s the Rainbow Railroad’s mission—often with sponsors like United Airlines, VISA, and Uber—and charitable organizations like The Camus Foundation in NYC. The Rainbow Railroad has a huge task, no less daunting as the Underground Railroad of 170 years ago: To assist and safeguard people seeking safe haven from state-enabled violence and persecution in countries where being LGBTQI is criminalized. Want to know more, want to help? Go to www.rainbowrailroad.org.

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a-polite-melody · 6 years

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Are there actually people on this hell-site who are upset at acespecs celebrating Asexual Awareness Week because “there are other, more important things going on that actually oppress people”?

Really?

Actually?

Am I upset that the Trump Administration is trying to eliminate trans-ness and intersex-ness by trying to change the legal definition of sex to being only male or female and unchangeable?

Abso-fucking-lutely.

I’m a nonbinary person who’s biggest issue with dysphoria is social. Being perceived as female triggers extreme suicidal thoughts and want to self-mutilate. I absolutely understand how awful this would be for trans and nonbinary people, in at least one aspect: how this can bring the numbers of trans and nonbinary suicides up even higher than they already are and decrease our expected lifespans to even shorter than the small number they are.

There are many other ways this, if it passes, can harm trans and nonbinary people. And intersex people, too, though I don’t feel qualified to talk on that part because I’m not very well-versed in intersex issues and I don’t consider myself to be intersex (I have what can be considered an intersex condition, but I don’t really feel right claiming the label intersex, so I don’t want to talk over intersex people (((like how non-queer people who could theoretically call themselves queer shouldn’t speak on queer issues))), but I digress).

And while I don’t live in the US, that doesn’t stop me from being incredibly angry and wanting to spread the word. Because even if I personally can’t do anything tangible, I can at least help people who can vote in the US aware of the issue. I haven’t yet reblogged anything on it because, beyond when I add to things or when things are within a day or two in terms of time sensitivity I run my blog on a queue. But I have reblogs queued up. And I’m going to queue more. Because this is an atrocity that I want to do everything in my power to stop.

BUT GUESS WHAT?

It’s also Asexual Awareness Week.

It has been planned to be this week for a while. Acespecs didn’t suddenly decide, “oh, we should have Asexual Awareness Week right this very moment!” on October 21st. It was planned to start that day long before now. Acespecs aren’t trying to “steal the spotlight” from other issues. It was coincidental that these two things happened at the same time. It’s not anyone’s fault.

And implying that Asexual Awareness Week be, what, cancelled? Because this news dropped right around the same time as it started?

It’s petty.

It’s just using another awful event against people within the LGBTQ+ community as justification to be assholes to aspecs and try to force them out of a community they’ve been in for much longer than exclusionists want you to believe.

And I highly doubt that any other celebrations of any other identity would be dropped because of this. What if this happened during pride week? Would you want all pride to just stop?

No. The only reason there’s this much backlash is because it just happened to be asexuals, and they’re your target for your anger at everything.

Yes, something awful is happening. But that doesn’t negate other things. That doesn’t mean that everyone has to drop everything and give 100% of their time, energy, and focus on that one thing. Especially when so many of us have so much fatigue about... everything going on in the world. Let people have good things, even when bad things are happening.

And if you’re angry, how about directing it at the actual thing you’re angry at, rather than continuing to antagonize people of a minority orientation over something that doesn’t involve that orientation. That would be infinitely more productive.

But wait. That would ruin your double standard. Because, you know, aces aren’t worrying about this transphobic shit going on (I can assure you, they absolutely are worrying about it) because they’re too busy celebrating, but it’s totally cool for you to not be worrying about that transphobic shit in favour of directing all your energy toward bullying asexual people to score some “woke” points to add to your social capital among your exclusionist pals, because that’s all that seems to matter.

#my post #ace discourse #I'm tired of this #asexual people aren't the issue here #it's fucking Trump and Pence and the rest of the administrations' transphobia #stop blaming asexuals for shit #they didn't do any of this #stop using external horrible issues to demonize aspec people even though it has no connection

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starfieldcanvas · 5 years

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wow I really just had someone reblog a post onto my dash complaining about how “a swarm of boring straight couples and 14 year old girls” who "occasionally" think “ruby rose is hot” are making the term “queer” into a market demographic for the profit of capitalists

since membership to the “queer” subculture is defined by adherence to a lifestyle that you can opt in and out of, eg. a certain unified mode of dress and consumption of a certain kind of media (which costs money) rather than a specific certain shared kind of love/attraction as a point of relatable discussion and activism (which doesn’t cost money) ...

ahhh yes, because recognizing and welcoming more identities than just L G B and a binary T is exactly the same as defining our community as a mode of dress and a pattern of media consumption. someone who realizes they don’t fit the cisheteropatriarchial mold of gender and sexuality is certainly not a person we can find political solidarity with if they aren’t oppressed specifically on the basis of same-sex attraction! impossible!

surprise surprise, she’s a TERF and SWERF, so she doesn’t even acknowledge the T! Guess it’s just LGB for you fuckers, huh? And who wants to bet you’re extra suspicious of bisexuals and their “passing privilege”?

I’m getting progressively more infuriated hearing people insist that in order for a demographic to be legitimately considered marginalized, there have to be strict limits on who’s included in said demographic. have you ever known an oppressor to triple-check whether someone’s really in the right demographic before getting on with their bullshit?

it’s obvious where this logic pops up in TERF rhetoric – “if we admit trans women are women, all productive discussion of sex-based oppression will be IMPOSSIBLE!” – so it’s no surprise they turn right around and do the same thing with LGBTQIA+ stuff. “If we admit that nonbinary/intersex/a-spec/agender/etc people should be recognized as part of this community, then all productive discussion of sexuality-based oppression will be IMPOSSIBLE!!” Perhaps, like many, TERFs apply the same standard to disability: wheelchair users count, crutch users count, if you only use a cane you’re on thin ice, and if all you’ve got is a slight limp, you’re out!

to me it just seems like a massive, MASSIVE failure of imagination. productive discussion will be impossible? are you sure? have you tried? because it seems pretty doable to me!

plus it’s just, like, shitty thinking in general. if the model you’re currently using to understand social issues stops working when you’re asked to take new information into account, you have to change your model. you can’t just yell at the universe to go back to pretending to be how you thought it was before. “plasma can’t be a state of matter! for years we’ve been teaching it’s just solid, liquid, and gas!" except plasma exists. it’s right there. time to change the curriculum. “the earth can’t be orbiting the sun! that would break all our star charts!” except it is orbiting the sun. time to draw new charts! get with the fucking times, assholes!

#i usually come to tumblr to get away from transphobic drama on twitter #i'm tired #lgbtqia #dove.txt #trans central station #enby si #oh and i'm reeeeal tired of 'you're probably 30' being a tumblr insult #tumblr's been around for a decade!!!!#of course some of us are pushing 30!!!

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wrangletangle · 6 years

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I'm confused about how it can be arbitrary to define sex as binary. Obviously intersex people exist, but it's not normal for our species and usually hinders the person's reproduction (purpose of sex organs). Aren't you implying that very consistent anatomy should be ignored because of few anomalies? Isn't it okay to recognize it as an abnormality, but one that generally doesn't harm the person and shouldn't be "fixed" without their consent? Abnormal =/= bad but a general binary definitely exists

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that I accept that you’re genuinely confused and not baiting. (For the record, you sound like a top ten list of queerphobic dog whistles, but you could possibly be doing that by accident. It’s happened before to well-meaning folks over-exposed to bs.)

No argument about “normal for our species” is EVER going to fly with me. Ever. Lines about reproduction have been hurled at queer people for far longer than I’ve been alive, and they’ve always been wrong. We find more and more queer animals in the wild the more years that go by. So nope, no armchair biology here. Actual biologists would laugh long and hard because:

All the species we’re most closely related to use sex as a social bonding tool

Numerous individual mammals and birds have been observed in queer relationships

Sex organs are messy things and some species happily switch ‘em up

We don’t all need to reproduce in order to continue our species

Plenty of intersex people can reproduce, not that they need to in order to be considered “normal”

“Obviously intersex people exist” - how about 1.5+% of the population, close to the number of autistic people. Feelin’ it now?

Also, our lines are absolutely arbitrary. The US has a 2.5 standard deviations rule. This refers to the size of the penis/clitoris at birth. It’s literally a size rule that determines whether doctors will offer or even strongly encourage surgery on an unconsenting infant in order to force their visible external sex organs to conform to an imaginary gender binary. (These offers are often accompanied by scaring parents that their child will be an unhappy outcast forever if they don’t do surgery now now now.) It says nothing about chromosomes, internal organs, hormones, etc. There are a whole lot of ways to be intersex, and a lot of them show up during puberty (which is another common period of forced surgeries). So yes, if you’ve never heard of micropenis, maybe you wouldn’t think it’s arbitrary, but it absolutely is. It’s forced conformity.

“very consistent anatomy“ AHAHAHAHA Omg, where did you get your science education? Human anatomy is in no way consistent, most especially in primary and secondary sexual characteristics. I have read treatises from the 19th century talking about women with 2-inch clitorises, so this isn’t some BGH-driven wild side - it’s normal. I have seen women (not on hormones) with beards. Vaginas come in a wild variety of shapes and sizes, some of them structured so that penetration is painful, some so it’s impossible. Cis women are often born with 1 or 0 ovaries. Uteruses are not uniform in structure or even presence - cis women are born without them sometimes. The urethra effing migrates, I stg. Boobs come in every shape and size, including virtually nonexistent. Body hair and hip width and everything else we associate with “female” varies so widely as to basically be useless as gender indicators, even among cis people.

But you know what? Even if all that weren’t true, I would never call someone “abnormal” or an “anomaly” for being a small population. Less than 2% of the world are redheads - do you call them anomalies and abnormal and say we shouldn’t adjust our understanding of hair color and genetics to account for them?

As for “hindering reproduction”, you can fuck all the way off on that one. First of all, involuntary sex assignment surgery is often what renders intersex people infertile - many intersex people actually are fertile if left the fuck alone. Second, there are a lot of things that can hinder reproduction, and everyone involved is still a human being. We don’t suddenly pretend they don’t exist because of that, or that everyone who can’t or doesn’t have kids is suddenly some bizarre outlier who shouldn’t be counted in our understanding of the world.

In conclusion: Do not come onto my blog and try to medicalize intersex people’s bodies or treat intersex people like freaks or call them abnormal. Intersex people are people, are part of the normal variation of human bodies, belong in our queer community, and aren’t going around calling you an anomaly. Even if, by throwing around fake biological assertions, you make yourself sound like a fundie.

Also no, the gender binary doesn’t exist and is made up. Go read a Queer History book on constructions of gender, I don’t have time to teach you a full college course on tumblr dot com.