What do you understand intersexuality and transexuality to be? Has your study of these topics been useful to you? How?

This has been quite the enlightening topic. Intersexed individuals are known as hermaphrodites. There are three different categories of hermaphrodites: true hermaphrodites, male pseudohermaphrodites, and female pseudohermaphrodites. True hermaphrodites have both testicular and ovarian tissue, they posses one testicle and one ovary. Male pseudohermaphrodites have testes, no ovaries, but still exhibit female genitalia. Female pseudohermaphrodites have ovaries, no testes, but still exhibit male genitalia. I consider myself an open minded individual and try to find acceptance in all living creatures, Homo sapiens or not. But this new information has generated more questions than answers. How do these intersexed individuals lead a normal life knowing what they hide underneath their clothes? If a child is born with an ambiguous sex and the situation is not “corrected” what type of a life will that child lead? Will it be one of “psychological and mental trauma” like the doctors suggest? When reading the accounts of people who are considered intersexed, I sit and wonder what their life might have been like before they knew their genetic makeup and how much it might of changed once they were informed of the situation. Did they lead “normal” boy/girl lives of you show me yours and I’ll show you mine? After learning the truth, how did they feel? Devastated? Relieved? On some level did they understand they were always different, unique? Then I look back at the asexual life I lead as a child. Gender was never an issue for me. People were just people and their preferences were their own to make. In elementary school, I remember having a “gay” friend. One my parents didn’t approve of. I considered him a gay friend because he was a little boy who liked, and I mean like-like, other little boys. We enjoyed coloring Disney Princesses together. Back then those days were seemingly simple. But with all this new found technology we have found yet another way to discriminate, gender testing. We are now looking to atomic particles to further categorize our ever chaotic world. But the deeper you dig the fuzzier these distinctions become. You know, in the womb we are all female until certain hormones take affect that distinguish us otherwise. And sometimes that is not always the case, as can be seen with intersexuality. Now, in transexuality the individual believes their primary and secondary sex characteristics do not match their gender identity. For example take Stan the biological man, give him a warped sense of self, and there you have a transsexual. What do I mean by warped sense of self? Well, simply that he doesn’t see himself as everyone else sees him. He sees himself as an individual who has been placed in the wrong body. He considers every aspect of himself, except for his body, as that of a woman. I can only imagine what that must be like, to think you inhabit an incorrect vessel. For me, it would be like waking up the next day in the body of anyone or anything that isn’t me. Looking into the mirror and seeing a stranger look back. I would be left with feelings of inadequacies and frustration. That is how I imagine the lives of some of these transsexuals to be. And with a life like that, no wonder suicide presents itself as a way to opt out of all of it. No more confusion, aggravation, or hiding ones true self. Researching this topic has opened up my eyes to a world I barely knew existed. Some many different, unusual, exhilarating, wonderful people live on this planet. And I may not understand all of them but I have come to accept, cherish, and even love them. To express a sentiment similar to that of Martin Luther King, Jr.: I love them not because they are likable, but because the Big Man upstairs loves them. I’m not the religious type, but I do believe in the power love exudes. If there is a being out there that can love us unconditionally, despite our flaws, and I don’t mean those of us with genetic quirks or experiencing gender confusion, I mean those of us who hate, fear, and judge because there are others out there different from us, then we should be able to show that same unconditional love and acceptance to all of the Big Man’s creations.