Nia Ramsey
Nov. 15, 2018.
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK –
Human bodies and lives are mutilated. Their happiness is stripped by the hands of doctors—of strangers. From birth, our children suffer physical, psychological and social abuse before they can even speak their own name. The very fact that there are people in this world and in this chamber that could support legalized child abuse is appalling.
Going against this bill declares that opposers are in favor of basic human rights. This may seem like a bold statement on the surface, but, it is an unfortunate truth.
An intersex baby will be subjugated to clitoral reductions and vaginal reconstructions and phalloplasty and nipple graft. Dear delegation, these are all forms of torture. Doctors cut and alter the body parts to fit a socialized and accepted mold of gender. However, gender is a social construct and sex has been vastly misconstrued as dimorphic when it has always been a spectrum.
A 2013 report by the United Nations special report on torture stated the gender normalizing surgery for intersex babies will cause “irreversible infertility and severe mental suffering of the individuals”. 1.7% of the population, as reported by the Human Rights Watch, are at extreme risk for the consequences of this drastic form of surgery.
Representative Courtney provided an example of an intersex individual who underwent the gender normalization surgery and was assigned male by physicians and who later went through a female puberty in which she is menstruating from her penis.
Many kids will freak out when their expected male or female typical puberty changes start happening to them. Now, imagine always being told you are one socialized gender and expecting those hormonal changes like the growth of breasts or voice changing, but, then one day you wake up and instead of growing hair on your face, you’re menustrating from your penis.
Another issue with opposing the bill is that it vastly underscores the traumatic social experiences the individual will come through.
It would make you feel abnormal and will more than likely be socially awkward and suffer from peer scorn and isolation. Gender Dysphora would pursue and the children could suffer identity crises. Their whole life would be ruined from the day they were born.
We cannot let this bill fail. Not now, not ever.