18/11/2024
Gay human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell publishes on his personal website an essay by Yvonne Grey, detailing her experiences as an intersex person who has suffered erasure most of her life. It is a shocking and uncomfortable read, as few institutions are not implicated in the violent suppression of Yvonne's true identity as what she later learned, that she was what the medical profession called a "true hermaphrodite". The NHS comes off extremely badly, with malpractice, violence, cruelty and sadism all in the mix. Yvonne writes "At last, I got the truth. Professor Green explained that l was a very rare type of person called a “Congenital Eunuch” or “True Hermaphrodite” – a person born with ambiguous genitals. This is different from Mixed Gonadal Dysgenesis (MGD), a condition that affects how the body grows and develops before birth and at puberty. People with MGD have gonads (glands) that may not develop fully, and they may not make typical amounts of hormones, whereas I had an ovotestis, which contains both ovarian and testicular tissue. Prof Green explained that my medical notes still had chromosome karyotype XXY (an anomaly) written on them but the truth was that I had XY (the male chromosome), despite having a female uterus and one oviteste (mix of a testicle and an ovary). He said that is why he classified me a “True Hermaphrodite.” But we still have a a long way to go to fully appreciate the struggles and put right past abuse of intersex people. Tune into Peter Tatchell's website for the full and sometimes emotional article by the brave Yvonne. https://www.petertatchell.net/lgbt_rights/my-63-year-struggle-for-inters...
