Intersexed refers to individuals born without clear male or female distinctions. The Intersex Society of North America notes, "Nature doesn't decide where the category of 'male' ends and the category of 'intersex' begins, or where the category of 'intersex' ends and the category of 'female' begins." (The ISNA claims that one in one hundred people have one of the ten or more intersex characteristics. The Organisation Intersex International claims the frequency is one in twenty-five.)

ISNC points out that intersexed does not refer to homosexuality.

I wrote in The Why Files: When Can I Start Dating?

Confusion over sexual identity may be a result of a birth defect. Say, for instance, a male fetus gets the genetically prescribed dose of androgen at twelve weeks. It would develop into a perfectly formed boy. But what would happen if for some reason it didn't get the second dose of androgen [which creates a male brain]? It would have a male body, but a female brain. [I also wrote these brain differences in Different from the neck up.]

Some believe this is a possible cause for sexual confusion.

A study at Johns Hopkins has also revealed that many girls who are labeled tomboys have higher levels of androgen. And at UCLA they discovered that women who took male hormones for pregnancy problems had girls who thought and fought like guys.

That's why I have a great deal of sympathy toward those struggling with sexual identity. Nature may not have black and white categories for gender, but society certainly does. This is why I also noted in The Why Files

More than one-third of all guys and many girls go through a temporary time of sexual confusion.

But according to Dr. Wayne Oats, a psychiatry professor at the University of Louisville, that does not mean that you're homosexual. And homosexuality doesn't refer to the fear of being homosexual, to fantasies of homosexual behavior, or to (occasional) events of homosexual behavior, particularly in the early and preadult years.

Dr. Oats says that "homosexual refers to a person who has, after adulthood, chosen consciously and decided clearly that he or she wants to gain sexual satisfaction from persons of the same sex."

So, just because you have confusing sexual feelings at this time, doesn't mean you're a homosexual. Some adult homosexuals will try to convince you that you are. "Well, if you have those feelings, you must be gay. So, why fight it?"

Don't believe them. And if you have concerns, talk to somebody you can trust about it.

(For more on sexual issues, visit my Adult Site for Adults.)

Update: September 12, 2009
Medical reports on Caster Semenya have been leaked reporting that the runner has no womb or ovaries, but has internal male testes which are producing testosterone creating an unfair advantage in women's athletics.



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