Intersexion

The Intersex Society of North America estimates that at least one in 2,000 children is born with ambiguous genitalia—the internal organs of one sex and external organs of another—or a mix of X and Y chromosomes. Filmmaker Grant Lahood's Intersexion interviews a group of adults with these characteristics (from the U.S., Ireland, Germany, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand), who talk about how they've come to identify as one gender or another—or neither. Interviewees range from those whose mothers and fathers allowed them to develop sexual identities as they matured, to former patients of the infamous specialist Dr. John Money, a New Zealander who advised parents of intersex children to name and dress them as either boys or girls (and enforce stereotypical behaviors) in order to prove his theory that youngsters could be assigned sexual roles despite their physiology. Toddlers in Money's care received hormone therapy and underwent multiple surgeries, and subjects here describe these events, as well as the subsequent physical and emotional pain they suffered (a few only discovered their physiological and hormonal ambiguities in early adulthood). All of the interviewees seem to be grounded and well adjusted—sometimes angry or bemused, but otherwise no different from their sexually conventional counterparts. A documentary that goes a long way towards building a better understanding of a not altogether rare condition, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Puffer-Rothenberg)