Nostrxs Intersex

Klassifikasjon

Fanzine

Essay
English

Aurora Jonathan Goga about Nosotrxs, Intersex

Although I am not intersex this fanzine resonated with me because the treatment of intersex and nonbinary bodies are two sides of the same coin. Intersex bodies are forced to undergo surgery and medical procedures, whereas nonbinary bodies are denied necessary access to hormones and surgery by the Norwegian healthcare system. The fear of non-normative bodies overrules our rights to bodily autonomy and bodily diversity.

Hana Aoi writes “Que dejen de ser cómplices y se unan a la resistencia por un mundo donde la diversidad corporal sea reconocida, no patologizada” [Stop being accomplices and join the resistance for a world where bodily diversity is recognized, not pathologized] (26). Trans Norwegians have been using the slogan “Verdig helesetilbud nå!” [Dignified healthcare now!] against the mistreatment of binary trans people and the refusal to treat nonbinary trans people at Rikshospitalet, and the lack of regional trans healthcare providers. The desire to be treated as an autonomous human being by medical practitioners is reflected in the fanzine’s calls to “fin a la mutilación genital intersexual” [Stop mutilating intersex bodies] (40).

Even though the laws have been changed to use gender neutral and inclusive language, access to dignified and self-determined healthcare seems to be exclusive to binary endosex people. Intersex people’s medical decisions are made for them at birth, and nonbinary people are never given the choice. Not all nonbinary people want medical transition, but those who do are often forced to seek treatment illegally or in other countries due to lack of access in their area. The medical treatment of genderqueer and intersex people is still heavily tied to obscure laws and unclear rulings from various departments and organisations.

The Norwegian law that establishes the right to self-determination in healthcare states that it applies to everyone residing in the kingdom. It only specifies patients and users, never men or women. The diagnosis of gender incongruence was likewise updated to include nonbinary people and avoid correlations to mental illness, as is recommended by WHO. Norwegians are often praised for their public healthcare and human rights protections. And yet intersex children and nonbinary adults are denied the right to choose. We are treated as inept and disruptive because our bodies and/or our identities do not fit neatly within two binary categories. The legal-medical reality is that non-normative bodies are criminalised and pathologized.

Cuando los cuerpxs son señalados como patológicos pierden toda autonomía corporal, y son sometidos de forma violenta a procedimientos quirúrgicos de corrección corporal para adaptar la anatomía a las formas normales, verdaderas, correctas. Obligados a medicarse (de por vida) para que su cuerpo sea parte de lo válido, despojado de toda posibilidad de decidir, despojado de toda posibilidad de elegir, despojado de todo valor, arrojado al grupo de personas sobre las que se duda de sus capacidades políticas, personas que no merecen estar en los espacios de construcción de sentidos sobre sus propios cuerpxs y vidas. (31)

[When bodies are marked as pathological, they lose all bodily autonomy, and are violently subjected to surgical procedures for corporeal correction to adapt the anatomy to normal, true, correct forms. Forced to take medication (for life) so that

this body becomes part of what is valid, stripped of all possibility of deciding, stripped of all possibility of choosing, stripped of all value, thrown into the group of people whose political abilities are doubted, people who do not deserve to be in the spaces of construction of meanings about their own bodies and lives.]

NTBK at Rikshospitalet refuse to treat nonbinary people, regardless of government mandates, updated diagnostics with the purpose of including nonbinary trans people, or international research showing the necessity of access to trans healthcare for nonbinary people. Rather NBTK claims that they lack adequate research while refusing to do any of their own. The diagnostic criteria they use to diagnose gender incongruence never specify the need for conformity to societal norms or adherence to binary gender. The focus is on the patient’s experience of gender over time and their ability or willingness to live as the gender they identify as. Intersex and nonbinary people face similar issues with this last part.

We are not recognised legally if we wish to openly exist outside the binary of male/female and masculine/feminine. There is no singular way to experience gender, so how can a medical team determine whether you’re living as your gender in all facets of life? How can helsenorge claim that when determining the medical treatment of an intersex infant that “utredningen fører alltid fram til hvilket kjønn barnet har” [the medical examination always determines the child’s sex/gender]? The Norwegian language conflates sex and gender into one word: kjønn. This makes the distinction between body and identity unclear. Therefore, intersex experiences and nonbinary experiences can be seen as two sides of the same coin. The first existing outside the binary expectations for sex, and the latter deviating from binary gender. Both are pathologized and treated as unworthy of bodily autonomy. The communities are largely unseen, as exemplified by this fanzine from Argentina. It was chosen for this exhibit because there was no similar material in the Queer Archive, even though intersex people exist in Norway.

As an endosex nonbinary adult I cannot speak for the intersex experience. This fanzine speaks from and about personal and collective intersex experiences. I can only speak from the other side of the coin, as an adult who does not fit the binary but is denied the right to decide whether and what surgery would give me the freedom to live and be me, simply me. Therefore I will end with the introductory words of Hana Aoi: “A mi, intersex, me guía hoy el deseo justo de libertad para vivir y ser yo. Simplemente, yo.” [I, intersex, am guided by the just desire for freedom to live and be me. Simply me.] (2).

Glossary:

Endosex: a person whose innate sex characteristics fit the medical expectations for male or female bodies. The opposite of intersex.

Intersex: a person whose innate sex characteristics do not fit those associated with binary male or female bodies. While variance from binary reproductive organs or genitalia is often

discovered at birth, hormonal and chromosomal intersex conditions may be discovered later in life, if at all. The opposite of endosex.

Transgender: describes a person who identifies as a different gender than the sex they were assigned at birth.

Nonbinary: an umbrella term and identity under the trans umbrella. As an umbrella term: a way to differentiate binary trans men and women from genderqueer people who do not identify as exclusively male or female. As an identity: an understanding of gender that is separate from or which complicates the binary distinctions of male and female, masculine and feminine. Some intersex people identify with the label nonbinary as an identity which captures the full spectrum of sex and gender diversity without the associations to the transgender notion of transition between genders or incongruence between birth sex and identity.

NBTK: National behandlingstjeneste for kjønnsinkongruens. The department at Rikshospitalet/Oslo universitetssykehus in Oslo that treats adult trans people. The only state funded healthcare provider for trans people in Norway and the only place able to prescribe hormones as a reimbursable prescription.

Events

Production

2021

Potencia Intersex