1. Thinking about the conditions of the intersex population in a sociological perspective
The roundtable discussion by Creighton and company and the article by Christopher
Blackwell et. al. on the discrimination against members of the LGBT community provide a wide
approach in touching the issues of the LGBT population, particularly their striving for social
equality. By incorporating theories from different fields of knowledge, the panel in this
roundtable squeezes the possibilities that can be forged in the realm of studies about the intersex
population. On the other hand, Blackwell’s discussion used a social justice perspective to
investigate the issues of the LGBT.
While this is usually treated under the sociological framework, particularly those that that
concentrate on gender studies, I recognize that this should not delimit the lenses that can be used
in these kinds of study. In my own outlook regarding this issue, I put utmost respect to the
formulations in the new feminist tradition, particularly those of coming from the post-structural
tradition (Judith Butler primarily comes in mind), albeit one that needs advancements to include
the particular case of the intersex. Still, I believe that Butler’s ideas can still find its way to
application in the cases of the intersex. Butler is stern in affirming the primacy of culture over
nature, of performativity over biology, of gender over sex. Hence, she maintains that difference
between gender and sex which leads to her elaborate abstractions on the topic. This is where she
put the emphasis in her discussions. While sex is biologically determined, gender is constructed,
negotiated, perhaps conditioned but never fixed and is always up to alterations because of and
influences from external factors. Here, an important addition provided by Butler is the hint of
human agency he afforded to the individual. Given the posed performativity associated with

2. gender, as if an act, a thoroughgoing process, Butler undervalues, if not discards the pressures
emanating from the outside of the individual, i.e. the calls of the society, which is where the
issues of discrimination and exploitation ingerminate among the genders. Also, exporting the
propositions made by Blackwell in their article, equality for the LGBTs can be achieved only if it
is anchored on the principle of justice. In that sense, LGBTs must be accorded with the same
right as that of the heterosexual community. Blackwell lists the right to military service, marriage
and retention of rights over children as some of the rights that LGBT people must also have.
Altogether, the issue of intersex, while suitable to be approached on a hard-scientific
basis, even on a clinical level, must also be assessed and looked into based from the perspective
social science offers regarding gender studies, as Blackwell did. Despite the inclusion of the part
“sex” in the term “intersex,” I believe that we should still keep in mind the differentiation of
gender and sex as posited by Creighton and her confreres in the roundtable disscssion and how
this gains weight vis-à-vis the intersex issue. For me, the idea of gender must earn special weight
because ultimately, no matter what genitals we have, no matter what ambiguities or deformations
we may find in what is between our legs, the pressures and expectations from outside ourselves
continue to impinge heavily on the way we perform our everyday lives. In turn, our
performances are largely based on how do we perceive ourselves, what labels are being thrown
to us by the society and what are the expectations and conducts being required from us by the
social institutions that prevail in the society. More than the biological manifestation of our “sex”
via our sexual genitals, I affirm that the practice of intersex and ways of dealing with the
experiences of the intersex population must always be anchored to the ongoing in our society and
the process of valuation it gives to phenomenon like this.
References:

3. Blackwell, Christopher, Janice L. Ricks and Sophia Dziegielewski. 2004. Discrimination of
Gays and Lesbians: A Social Justice Perspective. Journal of Health and Social Policy 19,
no.4
Butler, Judith. 1993. Bodies that matter: on the discursive limits of “sex.” New York: Routledge.
______. 1999. Gender trouble: feminism and subversion of identity. New York: Routledge.
Creighton Sarah M. et al. 2009. Intersex Practice, theory, and Activism: a roundtable discussion.
GLQ 15, no. 2: 249-260.