An Intersex Story and Sport

As a child, my earliest memories were being taken to the "sick kids" hospital in Edinburgh. I wasn't dying, but I was and still am, a peculiarity, I'm intersex, or to be more specific I have an Intersex condition called Klinefelter's syndrome. I was a peculiarity in the Endocrinology department of the Hospital, but I was also a peculiarity because I was in the hospital for the condition in the first place. You see, most people with Klinefelter's don't find out until they're in their 30's or 40's, when they're trying to have kids. There I was, a kid, in the hospital, being poked and prodded, fully aware of what I was in the wide scheme of things.

When my mother was in her 16th or 17th week of pregnancy they decided, for no apparent reason to run a test of the Amniotic fluid surrounding me. This is usually to check the overall health of the baby, it can also be used to test for down's syndrome and other abnormalities, including Klinefelter's. Klinefelter's Syndrome (KS) is a genetic abnormality that occurs when an X Chromosome in either my dad's sperm or my mother's eggs failed to split properly resulting in a spare X chromosome (resulting in XXY Chromosomes). KS is quite common, in fact its one of the most common intersex conditions, occurring in around 1 in 500-650 men.

Intersex: Intersex is a term used to describe a variety of conditions in which a person is born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit typical definitions of male or female.

As for what differences I had vs the typical male population, well for one I didn't start puberty until I was 18 years old. That meant my balls didn't drop until I was 18, I was a squeaker well into my late teens, and had no interest in women, men or anyone else until I was 24. I also have a wide pelvis, I don't just have large trousers cos i'm thicc, I have big trousers because I've got those birthing hips. I also essentially got to pick my height because of a quirk of Klinefelters, the elevator pitch version is that because I was stuck in the "pre-pubescent" stage until I was given Testosterone Replacement Therapy at 18 (which yes, would have mean't i would have never entered puberty at all, without it). This pre-pubescent stage caused me to have elevated growth hormone levels that wouldn't come down naturally until my Testosterone levels increased, and since I don't produce any naturally, we'd be waiting until I was 6ft under.

In school, I wasn't interested in Sports much, but I did like Boxing outside of school and was also a keen hockey player (field hockey, I'm not Canadian). My teacher's and coaches were well aware of my condition throughout school, which is by en-large why they didn't bat an eye about me playing hockey with the girls, which for other boys would have been a dream, but for me it just meant that in the changing rooms I wasn't going to be bullied or tripped up with a hockey stick on the pitch. Again, I didn't have much interest in girls or boys, I just knew that girls weren't going to beat me up, so I was content. Also I was a bit of a coward and played "soft" with them, so I wasn't at an unfair advantage, if anything, even if I did play normal, they beat my ass.

So, Why am I talking about this, well quite simply as far as sports are concerned. Intersex defeat the argument against trans people in sports, Intersex people have existed since the dawn of history, and we've been in the new Olympics and the ancient Olympics, and people knew then what we know now, and they did not care. The argument that Trans people should not be in sports, specifically transwomen shouldn't play in women's sports, is completely and utterly incoherent when you consider that there are more Intersex people in the world than there are Trans people (2% vs 1% respectively). And we've been taking gender-affirming medications for a lot longer than trans people have, and we've been in sports longer than they have, and you transphobes did not care when people like me were training with female hockey teams, so what makes it different... a dress?

Intersex is not a gender identity, it is not a gender, its a sex... Inter-sex, literally meaning between the sexes. It is a sexual marker that is on someone's chart from birth (if they're fortunate enough to have had it noticed that early). I did not choose the marker, and the fact that I am male is my gender, that was a choice. But the fact of the matter is, is if I go off my medications for long enough, I will weaken, I will loose muscle tone and maybe according to misogynistic transphobes, I'll be weak enough to be considered a woman.

Because ultimately what the anti-trans in sports argument is, is misogyny. You are saying that women need to be "protected" which implies an inferiority of women in comparison to men, which is misogynistic. The entire argument undermines women in women's sports, basically stating that they aren't capable of achieving the same strength or athleticism in sports as men. And yet the people arguing this exact thing, claim to be Feminists? Two things in this instance can't be true, you can't want equal rights including the right to accomplish and be equally recognised for those accomplishments, while in the same breath arguing that transwomen will harm women in sports because women are weak.

My existence, as a teenage boy, on that hockey pitch, having my ass perpetually handed to me by 10 teenage girls despite me apparently being biologically "stronger" is a automatic counter to that narrative. Before you say "yeah but what about now, you've been on testosterone a while, wouldn't you beat them now?" No, I still play with them from time to time, and now they beat my ass harder cos they're grown and I'm still shit. The only way I'm getting close to winning, is if I have a handicap, that handicap being a 1 vs 1 vs one of their daughters, and even then, I'm still getting my ass handed to me.

Intersex people do not belong to a single gender, that's the point of it, if you paid attention in biology class regardless of when you went to school, you learned about me. We exist, and have always existed, my existence is not "woke" its been a common fact of history since Ancient Greece and Rome, even the ancient Islamic world had a word for Intersex people (khuntha). If Transwomen are not allowed in women's sports then Intersex Athletes are not allowed to be athlete's in any sports at all. Because practically speaking, intersex people could be unfairly advantaged in both men and women's sports, regardless of what they look like.

The anti-trans narrative boils down to a simple, misogynistic idea: women are weak, and trans women are strong, so they can’t be women. If you are a woman you should be weak and you should be a fragile little wallflower incapable of protecting yourself, and as someone who was raised by a family of women that narrative is complete and utter horseshit. Women are capable of being strong, successful, athletic, independent, creative and smart. That goes for transwomen and ciswomen, women are built in every shape, colour and creed and in my eyes are more than capable of being what they want to be, but something no one should be, should want others to be is weak.