From Object to Subject: Intersex Activism and the Rise and Fall of the Gender Binary in Germany

Abstract

In several states, the universal gender binary has been challenged by the introduction of an official third sex. This article explains that paradigm shift in Germany by analyzing the successful introduction of a third sex category in 2018. Historical legacies of gender variance in the pre-modern and modern states are compared with the contemporary (re-)introduction of a third sex. I show that intersex activists and their transnational advocacy at the United Nations reframed the discourse from medical correction to legal protection. This study offers critical insights into the changing dynamics and meanings of gender, state power, and social movements.

Intersex Epistemologies? Reviewing Relevant Perspectives in Intersex Studies

“…Intersex studies also provides a review of the historical development of local, regional, and international human rights-based intersex activism over the last decades in different world regions (Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice 2016; Bauer et al 2020;Chase 2013;Crocetti et al 2020a;Davidian [2011Davidian [ ] 2013Davis 2015;Haller et al 2022;Karkazis 2008;Rubin , 2019Suess-Schwend 2022von Wahl 2021;Winter Pereira 2022). The reviewed authors analyze the demands of regional and international intersex networks, identifying the protection of the right to bodily integrity and cessation of non-consensual surgeries performed on the sex characteristics of intersex newborns, children, and adolescents as main demands (Ammaturo 2016b;Bastien-Charlebois and Guillot 2018;Bauer et al 2020;Carpenter 2016Carpenter , 2018aCarpenter , 2018bCarpenter , 2020Crocetti et al 2020aCrocetti et al , 2020bDavidian [2011Davidian [ ] 2013Grabham 2007;Guillot 2018;Mestre Martínez 2022;Monro et al 2019;Paechter 2021;Sterling 2021;von Wahl 2021;Winter Pereira 2022;Zelayandía-González 2023). Furthermore, they review the lobbying activities of intersex activist groups and networks in international and regional human rights bodies (Bauer et al 2020;Rubin 2019;Winter Pereira 2022).…”

Challenging cisnormativity, gender binarism and sex binarism in management research: foregrounding the workplace experiences of trans* and intersex people

“…However, registering an infant as “diverse” requires a medical certificate that confirms the infant as intersex, which continues to draw on a problematic medical model of defining what intersex is at birth. Notably, the diverse category is not available to transgender children or adults who wish to identify as such (Dutta and Fornasier, 2020; Von Wahl, 2021). While many countries have legally opened up comparable options for intersex persons and several countries have, additionally, enacted laws which prohibit or, at least, hamper surgical procedures on inter-sex infants (Bauer et al , 2020), it is still the case that binary, cisnormative and heteronormative regimes of sex, gender and sexuality, which dominate in many western societies, struggle to acknowledge formally and support diverse intersexualities.…”

Psychosocial Care for Infants, Children and Adolescents with Variations of Sex Characteristics: Results from a Pan-European Survey

“…Malta, Portugal, Iceland, Germany, Greece and Spain have legally prohibited medically unnecessary surgical interventions, but not all of them have de ned legal consequences if the prohibitions are breached (20,21). The legal restrictions on medical practices aim to support the implementation of improved medical care, including the provision of psychosocial support (22,23).…”