Right now in Michigan, healthy intersex infants and children are subjected to irreversible, non-emergency cosmetic surgeries to alter their genitalia before they are old enough to consent. These procedures carry a lifetime risk of chronic pain, loss of sensation, and psychological trauma, all to fit an arbitrary societal binary. We demand that Michigan lawmakers and medical boards protect children by delaying all non-life-saving surgeries until the patient is old enough to choose for themselves

At 15 years old I had surgery to remove testes from my abdomen.  The reason? Risk of cancer, but the reality it had nothing to do with a cancer risk and everything to do with fitting societal norms.  What I wasn’t given were options, and I wasn’t told what would happen to my body after this surgery, which was a surgical menopause that I have to navigate the rest of my life. 

My story is not rare and sadly intersex babies and teens right here in Michigan suffer the consequences of ill informed doctors and medical teams. 

No one is saying to never operate on an intersex minor, all we want is to wait until adulthood unless medically necessary.