Intersex Interviews

January 6, 2025 7:19 AM

Video interview with Roshaante Anderson. 14 minutes long. Content warnings for frank discussion of genitals, sex, and transphobia/intersexphobia. Intersex is a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male. Roshaante was born with a vagina and internal testicles. He did not find out he was intersex until he was 11 years old.

In this interview he takes us through growing up as intersex, why he chose to live as a man, and what sex feels like with both genders.

I learned I was Intersex at 21
Interview with Mimi Hall, 7 minutes long.

"Growing up, Mimi felt ashamed because she wasn’t like other girls. But a chance discovery at 21 changed that. Our sincere thanks to Mimi (she / they) for telling her story. Intersex is an umbrella term for a range of chromosomal variations. Variations are a natural biological event, estimated to happen in about 17 in every 1,000 live births. That’s 1.7 per cent of the population.
There are over 30 different intersex variations with varying degrees of impact. For some, intersex features are noticeable from birth, while others don’t realise until they try for children."

posted by Zumbador (10 comments total)

Much respect to Roshaante Anderson and Mimi Hall for these informative public discussions of being intersex. I do wish this didn't use the phrase "both genders," which is not inclusive of nonbinary trans folks (there are not only two genders, especially outside a colonized/ Western context), and could easily be replaced with a broader term like "multiple genders."

Additionally, since intersex =/= trans (though certainly there is a Venn diagram of overlap, especially for those who choose to identify as both), I'm not sure that using the transgender tag is appropriate for this post.
posted by wicked_sassy at 8:00 AM on January 6 [1 favorite]

wicket_sassy I wondered about adding the trans tag because of that exact reason, but I ended up adding it because right at the end of the video he mentions that topic. Although I should then probably have added tags for "lesbian" and other topics discussed in both videos.
posted by Zumbador at 8:10 AM on January 6 [1 favorite]

For those who don't believe in transgender individuals, intersex people are "aberrations" that shouldn't count in discussing binary gender essentialism, not proof that binary gender is a myth. It's one of the reasons why biologists have such a hard time convincing people that gender is never strictly binary while gender assignment often is. There is great pressure on doctors to "fix" visible intersex issues while the child is an infant rather than waiting to see if they develop a sense of themselves as one social gender or another.
posted by drossdragon at 8:31 AM on January 6 [7 favorites]

Transgender issues and intersex issues have areas of overlap, but are not the same. In some ways their common experiences are almost diametrically opposed; intersex people are often pushed at a young age into medical interventions with only parental consent, while trans people are commonly denied interventions they actively want even as adults.

One thing I think it's important not to do is to use the existence of intersex people as a sort of reductive proof that being transgender is ok. When I, as a relatively sheltered child, first started to become aware of gay rights in the 90s, I saw scientific studies of brain differences between gay and straight people at birth as foundational for gay rights.

Today, that foundation seems really shaky to me. You didn't need to have been born gay or bi or ace or whatever describes your sexuality for it to be valid and moral. Similarly, the fact that many people don't fit neatly into binary sex classification is not required to justify being transgender. Furthermore, it's easy to accidentally minimize intersex peoples own experiences by looking at them as existence proofs.
posted by Pemdas at 9:03 AM on January 6 [15 favorites]

estimated to happen in about 17 in every 1,000 live births
Thanks for the update. Last time I saw the stat (admittedly pre 21st century) it was 2-4 per 1000.
posted by house-goblin at 11:18 AM on January 6

Both rates seem accurate, depending on what conditions are included.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 12:01 PM on January 6 [2 favorites]

Famously 1.7% is roughly equivalent to the number of redheads in the population (1-2%) ....
posted by mbo at 6:14 PM on January 6

I was wondering what people thought of the videos themselves? So far the discussion has mostly been about the YouTube description.

I thought the Roshaante interview in particular is impressive and fascinating. He mentions that he wonders wether his choice to present as male was influentced by the advantages of having access to male privilege rather than an innate sense of gender. And both interviews mention the corrosive effects of secrecy around being intersex.
posted by Zumbador at 3:51 AM on January 7

I was wondering what people thought of the videos themselves?
Best of the web. Both people are great humans and everybody should watch them and hear what they have to say.
posted by house-goblin at 9:08 AM on January 7 [1 favorite]

Blume is another intersex youtuber.
posted by Ansible at 1:48 PM on January 7