I have not seen this movie but I listened to this interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. It was heartbreaking. Alicia Roth Weigel, an author about her experience and one of three individuals featuring in the movie, described what she has endured in life. An amniocentesis showed that she had XY chromosomes so her parents were expecting a boy but she appeared to all appearances to be a girl when she was born. But she had undescended testes and no ovaries or uterus. Her parents took medical advice and had the testes removed even though it messed up her endocrine system later on. She did not even know there was a condition called intersex or that she fit that profile until she was 27 years old. She presents for all external appearances as a woman. But she was only told that she had extreme androgen sensitivity and to never reveal her condition to anyone even her brother. She was made to feel intense shame. It was truly heartbreaking to hear about what individuals like her have endured. Society can be so cruel because we are uncomfortable. She did say that up to 2% of individuals are born with at least partial intersex characteristics, which sounded high to me. She lives in Texas and actually needs hormone supplements, has her whole life for reasons she explains, but is now having a difficult time because of some of the cruel legislation that has been generated by the current moral panic. She also spoke about the hypocrisy of the fact that medical protocols encourage parents of newborns and young children to perform surgery on their children's genitalia to try to stick to one gender. The surgeries are performed before the children can obviously consent, who also require follow up hormone therapy. But parents are advised to follow this regimen. Yet in the case of transgender individuals, whose plight is often intertwined, hormone therapy and/or surgery of even much older children, much less adults, is considered improper. 'Every Body' Documentary Explores The Intersex Experience - Fresh Air
As a point of information this is a photo of Alicia Roth Weigel who according to a number of posters on this board is a man because she was born with XY chromosomes even though she has had external female genitalia since birth.
She is quite brilliant from listening to her, Ivy League educated, etc, but has also lived a life of intense pain. The things we do because of our own discomfort.
