Melissa makes a good point in her post on Intersex Issues when she acknowledged concerns about how to classify her post.

I spoke with Cheryl Chase, the subject of the article Melissa links to, and her partner about this very topic last November over lunch at a chinese restaurant in Oakland, CA. They and the organization Chase founded, Intersex Society of North America, are quick to make distinctions between transgender and intersex issues and experiences, but also agree there is commonalities in each community's struggles for equal rights.

While we shouldn't be conflating these two issues, I also do not think changing Transgender to Gender Identity is going to solve the classification issue we are having on bilerico.com.

See the excerpt below from this article on ISNA's site:

These two groups should not be and cannot be thought of as one. The truth is that the vast majority of people with intersex conditions identify as male or female rather than transgender or transsexual. Thus, where all people who identify as transgender or transsexual experience problems with their gender identity, only a small portion of intersex people experience these problems.

While I disagree with characterizing "all" transgender people as experiencing "problems with their gender identity," it is clear that ISNA would not consider gender identity as the appropriate umbrella term for intersex issues.

The struggles trans and intersex folks face come from the consequences of transgressing societal norms. I am uncomfortable problematizing gender identity and genital configuration. Rather I believe the "problem" we face lies with an intolerant societal response to diverse identity, expression, and anatomical realities.

Getting back to the question of classifications within the bilerico.com blog, I don't necessarily have a good answer. Perhaps we should be asking ourselves why an LGBT blog feels the need to have a "Transgender" category and a "Women's Issues" category at all. It appears to me to be saying, the rest of the categories are really about "gay" stuff and we need special categories for the "other" identities. Don't get me wrong. I don't want to remove these identity-based categories, because it helps with a certain amount of visibility to these often marginalized issues, but I do find it interesting and often difficult to figure out where to post things about Transgender that are also Hoosier Politics or Commentary or Life in Indiana, etc. Is the compromise then between lending visibility to marginalized issues and reinforcing their marginalized "other" status?

I think at this point considering the broader audience for this blog, we should expand the Transgender category to also include Intersex. "Transgender and Intersex Issues".

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