YOUTH
NYC Open But Noncommittal on Intersex Outreach
Health offi cials point to “logistical,” “operational” issues in educating parents, doctors
BY MATT TRACY
Intersex advocates who
joined a City Council hearing
on October 28 made impassioned
pleas in favor of
a bill to establish an educational
and outreach campaign directed
at doctors and parents of intersex
children in the face of widespread
medical mistreatment.
But even as the de Blasio administration’s
health department
voiced positive words about the
legislation, those offi cials at the
hearing did not offer a direct answer
when City Councilmember
Helen Rosenthal, who chairs the
Committee on Women and Gender
Equity, asked whether the administration
supports the bill.
The legislation would require the
city health department to provide
doctors and parents of intersex
children with educational information
and resources that would
address medically-unnecessary
interventions performed on babies
who are intersex, or born with reproductive
systems or anatomy
unaligned with the standard defi -
nition of male and female.
The outreach effort would also
inform individuals that the medical
interventions can be “delayed
until the infant is older and can
voice thoughts about the procedure.”
The bill was proposed by out gay
Councilmember Daniel Dromm of
Queens in response to years of stories
emerging from intersex individuals
who say they have endured
unnecessary surgeries that not
only attempt to align them with a
gender they may not identify with,
but also negatively impact their
health later in life. Dromm said
during the hearing that he understood
the danger facing the community
because he grew up as a
gay man at a time when being gay
was considered a mental disorder.
“Sadly, much of the medical profession
has been profi ting off of
violating the fundamental rights
of intersex individuals, namely in
the form of medically-unnecessary
surgeries,” Dromm said during the
Bria Brown-King, the program coordinator at InterACT, said, “Parents need to be educated and doctors
need to be held accountable.”
hearing, which was held jointly between
the Committee on Women
and Gender Equity and the Committee
on Health.
Dromm later left the hearing
because he was feeling under the
weather. Rosenthal, who chairs the
Committee on Women and Gender
Equity, pressed the administration
on the bill, but was unsuccessful in
yielding conclusive answers from
the administration on the bill.
“Let me be a little bit more specifi
c with the question to make
sure we get this nailed down,”
Rosenthal said. “Do you support
Int. 1748 and do you condemn the
practice of unnecessary medical
procedures on intersex children
and infants?”
Chelsea Cipriano, executive
director of intergovernmental affairs
at the city health department,
prefaced her answer by saying that
the health department and the administration
at large is “interested
in developing additional expertise
in… this space,” and she acknowledged
that education would “go a
long way” toward informing parents
about medical interventions.
However, she then said, “We do
obviously have some fi scal and
operational issues right now with
launching a new campaign,” even
as she said “this is important
work” and that she looks forward
to “additional conversation.”
Jacqueline M. Ebanks, the executive
director of the New York City
Commission on Gender Equity,
ZOOM/ NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL
also chimed in, saying that “this
is an area that we should take
leadership,” but also did not offer
a clear-cut answer on the administration’s
position.
A spokesperson for the city
health department did not respond
to Gay City News’ questions asking
where the administration stands
on this legislation and what exactly
was meant when Chipriano cited
“fi scal and operational issues.”
The administration appeared to
have very few answers on the issue.
Rosenthal asked how many
intersex individuals are born in
the city every year and whether the
administration collects that information,
but offi cials said they had
to get back to her.
Lawmakers did get some answers
on how doctors currently approach
babies born with intersex
traits. Dr. Marisa D. Nadas, who
serves as the director of women’s
operations for department of OGBYN
at the city’s Health and Hospitals
Corporation (H+H), said the
team at H+H uses professional
society guidelines to inform them
when intersex babies are born.
“We really take a multi-disciplinary
approach in creating management
plans for these patients,
Nadas said. “We involve endocrinology,
we involve genetics, we involve
radiology… There are social
and behavioral specialists, as well,
and often times religious support if
that is needed in terms of the family’s
assessment of the situation.
We certainly use shared decisionmaking
with the families in making
the management plan…”
Advocates who spoke at the
hearing offered testimony that was
often raw, explaining the importance
of such legislation in light of
their own experiences.
Bria Brown-King, the program
coordinator at InterACT, a nonprofi
t organization advocating for
children born with intersex traits,
urged lawmakers to pass the bill
and explained that harmful and
unnecessary medical interventions
are conducted merely to “conform
our bodies to expectations.”
“We are not the problem, we are
perfect as we are,” Brown-King
said. “Doctors don’t want to talk
about the cases like mine or so
many others where surgery doesn’t
go as planned… they don’t want to
talk about these procedures that
have been deemed a form of torture
by the United Nations.”
Brown-King added, “Parents
need to be educated and doctors
need to be held accountable.”
Alesdair H. Ittelson, the legal
director at interACT, reminded everyone
that intersex youth are still
subjected to surgical interventions
without their consent, which Ittelson
said can lead to issues such as
chronic pain, sexual dysfunction,
and psychological trauma.
“This is absolutely female genital
mutilation but it’s not being
prosecuted because it’s performed
by white straight cisgender doctors
at fancy medical clinics at Cornell.”
said Ittelson, who then said medical
professionals have already been
called out for performing clitoral
reductions and using vibrators on
intersex children as young as six
years old.
Ittelson urged swift passage of
the legislation and called for an advisory
board consisting of intersex
inividuals who would oversee the
development and implementation
of the educational campaign.
Rosenthal, who is a co-sponsor
on the legislation, assured Ittelson
that the City Council will do its
➤ INTERSEX YOUTH, continued on p.17
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