GERMAN online publication taz.de reports on how the Greens are urging the German Senate to stop delaying acting on one-year-old reports and recommendations and stand up for Germany’s many oppressed intersex citizens.

The following note in the article about one of the most popular misconceptions about intersex stands out for us:

Der Hintergrund für dieses Missverständnis ist wohl, dass Intersexualität für eine Form sexueller Orientierung gehalten wird.

Google translation:

The background for this misconception is probably that intersex is considered a form of sexual orientation.

We see this quite often. For example, on those occasions when international organizations like the United Nations or the European Parliament consider the persecution of intersex people, it is as a small part of their consideration of LGBT persecution. More commonly nowadays, they are doing it under the banner SOGI, standing for “sexual orientation and gender identity”. But, intersex is neither “sexual orientation” nor “gender identity” so the inclusion of intersex appears either to be token or in support of human rights for non-intersex  and not intersex people themselves.

A plea for clear thought

Intersex is a range of natural biological variations and not some kind of sexual attraction or sex-linked gender role behaviour.

A plea for clear action

We call on the German government, and governments and international organizations everywhere, to understand that intersex is a matter of sex, not “sexual orientation and gender identity”, and to add the attribute of sex so that intersex people are included in their law reform efforts.Thus, an intersex-inclusive attributes formula of “sex, sexual orientation and gender identity”.