The following table describes the status, the proposer and other metadata of this motion.
| Consultation: | FYEG General Assembly 2024 |
|---|---|
| Agenda item: | 6. Resolutions |
| Proposer: | écolo j, Vihreät nuoret |
| Status: | Published |
| Submitted: | 07/24/2024, 13:33 |
R6: Hands off intersex people's bodies!
Motion text
An intersex variation is a natural phenomenon : babies arrive in the world with
a body that does not correspond to the normative definition of woman or man.
This phenomenon touches one person in 60, or 1,7 % of the population.
It can take different forms: some of them are visible just after birth, others
appear during puberty (hairiness, breast development, menstruations for boys or
absence of menstruations for girls), others at adulthood (impact on fertility)
and others are invisible during the entire lifespan. Intersex variations can be
found in hormones, chromosomes, genital glands, reproductive organs or other
physical features. Actually, none of these characteristics can be linked to a
specific gender : for example, some women can have a Y chromosome, and oestrogen
is also present in men’ bodies.
Like other genetic variations, such as eye colour, intersex variations do not
generally cause medical problems.
As mentioned in the Political Platform updated in 2023, the FYEG is opposed to
non-consensual surgeries on intersex people. This resolution aims to clarify
this point.
Like female sexual mutilations, mutilations on people born intersex are based on
social norms, not on medical needs. We, Young European Greens, do not understand
the cultural relativism which justifies a legal difference between feminine
genital mutilations and mutilations on intersex people.
However, we salute the recent evolution in mindsets. In the past, an often
irreversible medical treatment was prescribed straight away at birth: “sexual
normalisation” surgeries, hormones... and as these children grow up, they have
to suffer through behavioural injunctions based on assigned gender. Now, certain
countries and doctors emphasize on vital emergencies, which allows intersex
babies not being “medically treated” at birth.
But in Europe there are still a lot of intersex babies’ parents who have to
assign the sex to the child through medical intervention. Babies are not gender
conscious: 40 % of intersex people who underwent a medical intervention do not
recognise themselves in the gender they were forcibly assigned. Moreover, they
are not informed on the risks they are exposed to: sterilisation, high pains,
psychological suffering, etc.
Furthermore, surgeries on intersex women and girls often aim to facilitate
heterosexual penetrative sex. This shows that by fighting against medical
treatment without medical necessity, we will be able to move forward the battle
for gender equality and against discrimination targeting people who don’t
recognize themselves in hetero-normative relationships (gay, bi, lesbian,
asexual, pansexual...).
Non-consensual surgeries can also be considered as conversion therapies1 for two
reasons:
Non-consensual surgeries contribute to and enforce compulsory
heterosexuality
They are a conversion to an imposed gender identity both medically and
socially.
Therefore, non-consensual surgeries aim to make intersex people look like
cisgender, just like conversion therapies do.
Finally, we insist: intersex rights are human rights.
We call our national and European representatives to:
Criminalize medical interventions without informed consent by the affected
individual;
Guarantee effective access to health care for intersex people and
transparent access to their own medical files;
Guaranteed access to justice and reparation for the victims of medical
violence;
Report the gender registration in respect of self-determination of
individuals, in attempting to delete the gender in national registers.
1. Conversion therapy is the pseudoscientific practice of attempting to change
an individual's sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression to
align with heterosexual and cisgender norms. Methods that have been used to this
end include forms of brain surgery, surgical or hormonal castration, aversive
treatments such as electric shocks, nausea-inducing drugs, hypnosis, counseling,
spiritual interventions, visualization, psychoanalysis, and arousal
reconditioning. There is a scientific consensus that conversion therapy is
ineffective at changing a person's sexual orientation or gender identity and
that it frequently causes significant long-term psychological harm.
Sources:
Reason
Although FYEG's political platform briefly mentions the interdiction of non-consensual surgeries on intersex people, we believe that this points deserve further development through a proper public resolution that explains the issues linked to this practice and that engages FYEG to actively fight against interphobia.
Supporters
Amendments
none