What Happens To Intersex Children When They Are Surgically Assigned The Wrong Gender?

This story about intersex children (once referred to as hermaphrodites) shows that we still have a lot to learn about gender identity:

Jim Bruce was born with XY male chromosomes but ambiguous genitals. Doctors couldn't be sure if he had a large clitoris or a small penis and were convinced he could never live a "satisfactory life" as a man.

So shortly after his birth in 1976, Bruce's external organ and testes were surgically removed and he was raised as a girl.

He struggled for years, preferring "rough and tumble" play and being attracted to girls.

"I was unhappy, but it was really difficult to ask questions," said Bruce, now a 34-year-old writer from California.

When he was 12, Bruce was given female hormones so his body would feminize. Then, at 18, he prepared for a vaginoplasty -- "designed to allow me "to have sex with my husband."

But he knew something was wrong and, battling depression, sought his medical records when he was 19.

"I knew that I wasn't a girl," he said.

What Bruce discovered was horrifying. "I was sterilized at birth -- and no one ever told me," he said...

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The article states that 1 in 2,000 babies are born with ambiguous genitalia.

Today Bruce works with Advocates for Informed Choice, a legal group to that promotes the civil rights of those who are born with sex variations.

A key quote from the article:

"Our chromosomes don't tell us who we are," said Dr. Arlene Baratz, a Pittsburgh breast radiologist who has two intersex daughters. "We expect XX is pink and a girl and XY is blue and a boy, but we know from children with gender identity conditions that is not always the case, even when their bodies are perfectly typical."