The Osaka High Court has ruled that Japan’s family registration system only allowing “male” and “female” as gender options violates the equality principle laid out in the country’s constitution. The ruling, issued May 8, determined that the lack of a nonbinary gender option in the national system violates Article 14’s anti-discrimination protections.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission has welcomed a landmark court ruling affirming that Kenyan law does not expressly bar applications seeking amendment of sex or gender markers in official records, in a decision seen as a major step forward for transgender rights in the country. In a judgment delivered by Justice Bahati Mwamuye, the court held that blanket refusals by state agencies to amend sex or gender markers amount to continuing constitutional harm. [...] KHRC described the ruling as a significant affirmation of the rights to dignity, equality, privacy, and recognition for transgender persons in Kenya, saying the court had reinforced the constitutional obligation of public institutions to act lawfully, reasonably, fairly, and in line with the Bill of Rights.

definition: describes an intersex person who feels that their intersexuality is connected to/influences/is a key part of their sexuality*, and wants to center their intersex identity in their erotic life. (alt. "intereros" also sounds fun)

*i'm using "sexuality" to refer to everything to do w a person's sex + masturbation needs, habits, preferences, etc. (im also grouping this under "erotic life" bc i feel like masturbation gets left out of "sex life" & sex w another person isnt the end all be all of sexuality!). so not necessarily talking abt "sexual orientation." but if you are intersex & it feel it influences/is connected to your sexual orientation, feel free to use this as well if it speaks to you!

for me, my intersex variations affects my erotic life a lot, which also ties into my intergender identity and how i understand the parts of my body that are especially gendered/sexed. i can't really describe how i understand my body or my gender or my erotic life without talking abt my intersexuality. so i wanted a term for that! esp since intersex people dont have a lot of room to talk abt their sexuality without being medicalized or stigmatized or fetishized. its a part of human life for many ppl, and intersex ppl shouldn't be expected to always be interested in sex/masturbation on perisex terms & expectations. let us be horny (or not!) on our own terms!!!!!!

here are some flags i whipped up! im aroallo & ik ppl have a lot of different relationships w sex & how it relates to romantic love & stuff. so i decided to make 3 versions using both a heart & a flame symbol to cover all the bases :)

1: Some people have more than one urethra. (urethral duplication. sometimes even urethral triplication + etc) So it's not always just two holes down there.

2: Some people's urethras are located higher than typical. (epispadias)

3: Some people with vulvas do not have a vagina. (this can be as a result of many different things, and has many different names)

And more. Hypospadias is important to talk about, but y'know, there's more urethral, vulvar, and vaginal intersex traits out there that deserve to be mentioned too.

with vulval hypospadias, medically there's so little research that the definition is vague. but subjectively, i find the categories of this Russian paper from 2021 to be helpful enough in getting a picture of what it can look like (described as best I understand it from reading it thru google translate; tw for cissexist and perisexist language at the link):

vestibular / partial hypospadias is when the urethra is distinct from the vagina, but close to the opening / introitus (online amongst other people w vh, the rule of thumb ive seen is ~1 cm or less; this paper doesn't specify measurements for this type)

vestibulovaginal / subtotal hypospadias is when the urethra is close enough to the introitus (0.2-3 cm or less) that they are nearly combined, but it's still outside the vaginal canal itself

vaginal / total hypospadias is when the urethra is located on the wall of the vagina, past the introitus (this is also called a persistent urogenital sinus; that term and vulval hypospadias are often used interchangeably)

here's a diagram they use in that paper which I think shows the inner workings fairly well (top right is typical, top left is vestibular, bottom right is vestibulovaginal, bottom left is vaginal; the little shaded bean at the top is the clitoris)

some more images that might be helpful below the cut (you are very right, a lot of diagrams are. dubiously useful lmao)

And don't forget, there's also persistent cloaca, which means that the anus also merged with the urethra and vagina! A partial cloaca is when it merged with just the vagina or just the urethra.

Persistent cloacas are unfortunately operated on if discovered*, even when they don't need it. We made a post [link] about this if anyone is curious.

*Some people have partial cloacas that pass as a typical anus, where the vagina and anus fused, but the urethra remains peritypical. These means people with penises can have completely unknown cloacas, and people with vulvas can be diagnosed with vaginal agenesis instead of persistent cloacas. There are also people with persistent cloacas where the vaginal canal is split, meaning half of it opens into the anus while the other half opens in the typical location (for vulvas) or merges with the urethra (for both vulvas or penises.) This means that from the outside it looks like the person has persistent urogenital sinus, but internally they actually have a partial persistent cloaca.

Here are some (shittily made) diagram sketches we have made for persistent cloaca variants.

Note that these are very copy-pasted because they were never meant to be the final product, that the vulvas and penises can also have other intersex traits (ie; chordee), and that cloacas can occur with ambiguous genitalia too!

Typically, the urethra is between the clitoris and the vaginal opening, yes! there's always some degree of natural variances that are considered typical, but when you look at diagrams of the vulva, the urethra is placed roughly in the middle because that's where most people with a vulva have it. if you haven't seen it yet, this post includes some helpful diagrams that can help you get a sense of what's typical & basics on how vulvar hypospadias can look.

This is intersexism.

first of all, it's important to understand that "intersex" is as much a social & political term as it is a description of physical traits. in general, the more a person or group tries to apply clear and rigid boundaries to what congenital variations count as intersex and what don't, the more likely they are aligned with the cis-peri-sexist medical industry & it's goals of "normalcy." which is why most intersex people & activists & groups avoid definitive statements about what is vs isn't intersex, in favor of encouraging people to look at their physical + social experiences and how they relate to other intersex people and navigate intersexism, and come to a personal conclusion about what makes sense for them. it's complicated!

penile hypospadias has been considered by intersex activists to be intersex since at least the 1990s. this in large part because a lot of intersex activism involves fighting nonconsensual surgeries meant to "fix" children, and it is very common for children with penile hypospadias to receive surgeries to "fix" their urethra. but its not just about forced surgeries.

this is the definition of intersex that interACT uses in their variations glossary: a variation that "shows up in a person’s chromosomes, genitals, gonads or other internal reproductive organs, or how their body produces or responds to hormones; differs from what society or medicine considers to be “typical” or “standard” for the development, appearance, or function of female bodies or male bodies; and is present from birth or develops spontaneously later in life." On their FAQ they also write that "the word intersex also invokes a community ... We are united by 1. our experiences living with variations in our sex traits, 2. the belief that these differences are a natural part of human diversity, 3. the idea that people deserve their own choices about their own bodies"

this is the definition of intersex that Hans Lindhal, an intersex activist, describes in this video: "Intersex isn't a word that anyone can claim. It has to do with differences in sex anatomy and so, genitals, internal anatomy, hormones, and how those hormones express, etc. And intersex differences are usually significant or noticeable enough that they can cause stigma or violence in a person's life for breaking an anatomical expectation of what "male" or "female" is supposed to be like."

It may be confusing why a variation of the urethra is included, since when we think "genitals" we often don't think of that part. but its all part of the urogenital system! urinary variations also usually has some effect on a person sexually, and people with hypospadias often have other variations in genitals, hormones, chromosomes, etc. penile hypospadias often leads people to sit down to pee, which is seen as feminine, which is part of why its considered something that needs to be "fixed" to reinforce the binary of how proper "male" and "female" bodies function. the only time associated female bodies are studied is when a condition threatens their ability to have penetrative sex with a penis and get pregnant, so vulvar hypospadias either goes ignored or (esp if it comes w other variations that cause problems w penetration, as I do) are pressured to do dilation or get surgeries to "fix" themselves, and regardless are taught to see their natural bodies as inherently disordered male or female bodies, and anything other than seeking normalcy is seen as weird and bad.

“In 1989, a team armed with specialist crossbows collected skin samples from whales that would lead to a remarkable discovery three decades later. Those skin swatches came from southern right whales (Eubalaena australis), and when study author Carla Crossman of Saint Mary's University, Canada, got the chance to analyze their genes, she discovered something science had never reported in this species before.

Like humans, whales’ chromosomes most commonly express either XX or XY for female or male sex, respectively. One of the whale skin samples, tagged Eau10b, had molecular markers that suggested the animal was XX in initial tests, pointing towards the animal being a female.

However, a little something called the sex-determining region Y gene (or SRY) threw a spanner in the works, because it only exists on the Y chromosome, and yet upon further testing, Eau10b was positive for it. That didn't fit with the initial test's indication that Eau10b fell into the XX category.

Further genetic testing, including analysis for other markers, confirmed that Eau10b had both X and Y chromosomes, pointing to an XXY arrangement. This is an example of what’s known as sex chromosomal aneuploidy, where an individual expresses an atypical number of sex chromosomes, and it marked the first time it had ever been identified among southern right whales.”

Eventually, Jackie Blankenship found a community online, and today she understands herself differently. Intersex is not a disorder. And she didn’t need medical intervention, because her body was fine the way it was. Blankenship said, "We should look at it as kind of freakin’ magical that our bodies can be born different than what you think you know — and what science has told you — because we've done so little research.”

How much they will gaslight you when you bring up how any of your variations affect you

Intersex individuals who faced abuse, much like other oppressed minorities, may define themselves by that abuse, many failing to recognize other experiences and even other forms of abuse

If you have a variation, whether or not that is medically recognized by your doctors, that is having a variation.

I believe you may be referring to the variations glossary [link] by dhddmods, the doc version is here [link]

But let intersex people whose intersex identity is closely related to having a medical condition talk about it; don't forcibly de-medicalize us.

I've been recently trying to add more intersex people into my writing, starting with making some of my already present OCs intersex, my OC B.

The reason I want to make her intersex is because part of her relationship with her boyfriend K is based on someone I know whose genitals formed in a way that makes pentration extremely painful (they don't actually know what it is except that its not vaginismus and it fucks up their periods bad, docs tell them it doesnt hurt THAT bad and 2 leave :/). B doesn't like her genitalia being touched like my friend, so I was thinking about making her intersex on top of that? I am tangentially aware that some intersex conditions create shallow painful vaginal openings that cannot be pentrated without pain, and I was hoping to add that to her character??

I dont know much about intersex stereotypes aside from "no one actually two fully functional sets of genitalia," so im a little worried about accidentally playing into stereotypes? Idk if not wanting to be touched is a stereotype, so I'd thought I'd ask.

Also, I've been using InterACT Intersex Variations Glossary, and im gonna be honest. I have no clue which variation would cause what im thinking of (if im on the right track for this character at all). Im thinking of CAIS bc I think a shorter vagina would likely make pentration painful. I am going to keep researching but if you had any suggestions that would be,, greatly appreciated 🙏

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Vaginal hypoplasia (which causes a shallower and thinner vaginal canal) and endometriosis, PCOS and fibroids could make penetration painful (dyspareunia) and not wanting any stimulation is very common for people who experience pain regarding penetration and other forms of stimulation!

The PAIS spectrum has been known to cause vaginal hypoplasia so that may be worth looking more into!!!

I definitely understand the worry of not wanting to play into stereotypes, I definitely recommend hi hello hans videos on how to write intersex characters on YouTube [link]!!!

To answer your question about this making B an "evil" intersex stereotype- not at all!! In media, we often see intersex women with HIGH testosterone (hyperandrogenism) get depicted as overly aggressive, masculine and generally toxic, but both because she has androgen insensitivity and because taking on more "traditionally masculine" roles, especially in a non-toxic, gender subversive way, is in no way portraying her to be evil or stereotypical, is completely okay!

So many intersex people *do* fit certain "stereotypes" (I, for one, have hyperandrogenism and identify as a butch, I tend to take on more "masculine" roles in my relationships as well) so even the meer existence of an intersex person performing gender in a way that has been done before, or in a queer way isn't inherently negative, it's all about approaching it in a nuanced and informed way!

And I second you here, I feel like hormone blockers or surgeries are not good examples when it's about kids.

I'd only consider examples of adult cis people as good examples, since as you said, consent is the most important part here.

It's a double standard, when menopausal cis women to get estrogen with no issue, on the basis it's right for their body, or cis men get testosterone because they're unhappy with their t levels and it's right for their body, while trans people seeking either androgenizing or estrogenizing hrt are gatekept when they're adults.