(intro: slam and discreet cough)
I wanna introduce you to my friend Eden Atwood.
(Lindsey) She's an amazing community member here in Missoula, Montana,
but working worldwide through what is called the Interface Project.
Hi Lindsey!
(Lindsey laughs)
Tell me about your sexuality.
(Eden) My sexuality is heteroflexible,
um, cisgendered but with an intersex identity as well.
What does "heteroflexible" mean to you?
Mostly heterosexual. I'm attracted to the opposite gender of my own, but I've had
some experiences that were lovely with women too.
What does "cisgendered" mean to you?
"Cisgendered" means that you are born
with a body and a gender identity that match.
And...what does "intersex" mean to you?
"Intersex" is a broad category for a lot of
conditions where a person's genital or
reproductive anatomy, or a chromosomal pattern,
doesn't fit within the typical definitions of male or female.
So it breaks the gender binary.
Absolutely. What's never been told, but has
always been the truth and will always be the truth,
is that there's all kinds of different chromosomal patterns.
There's XXY, there are XY females, which is what I am....
So I was born with pretty typically female external-looking genitals,
but I had testes inside my body.
One in 2000 kids is born with genitals
that you can't tell right at birth if the child
is male or female, and really tragically and horribly
what happens is, out of a great deal of fear and prejudice,
a scalpel is raised in order to "normalize"
the genitals and to force a gender identity on a child.
What's the solution?
Bodily autonomy; self-determination.
Those are the big things. Everybody should have it.
Everybody. Everybody.
Love your child, and be brave, and open your mind.
Choose a gender. Choose a name, choose a gender.
Know that you might be wrong, and that's true for any kid,
whether they have ambiguous genitals or not -- you could be wrong.
We know that's true because of the trans community.
And then let that child decide what they want to do with their body and their genitals.
(Eden) If you had to define "intersex" in a sentence, could you do it?
No, can't! Um...
I couldn't either, and I'm intersex!
(Lindsey) Because I don't want to use what it's not in the definition.
I don't want to talk about the binary to explain intersexuality.
So we're talking about a biological, chromosomal, genetic, (Eden: repro..) reproductive "between" male and female.
(Eden) Yes.
Because "inter" is referring to "between", not "inside",
(Linsey) so "intercourse" is NOT inside, it's between... (Eden) That's with an I for interpeople, not with an e.
A lot of very smart people have tried to work on this definition, and it's very difficult.
Intersex people and intersex allies...
I would like to know what your thoughts are on LGBTIQQAA2.
I don't know, I think it's all kind of...
I think we still need it, so that people know what
the...what the various things are, but we're gonna
have to keep adding and we're gonna have
to keep adding, and then finally, at a certain
point, we won't need that any more, because it will just be.
I think that the letters we call "alphabet soup" are
supposed to be a community that is inclusive,
and by pulling allies out -- saying that
they aren't sexual minorities and they don't
deserve that recognition -- is part of this
um, specified picture here, of letters,
that we are being exclusive, and it's a reverse discrimination.
I don't like it.
I agree with you. I think "us and them" mentality never pushes anything forward.
That always just creates more division.
And what if the letters, really, all they actually
mean is that you are an ally to every other letter
that's being represented, because
the L's are allies to the G's and the G's to the T's
and the T's to the 2's and the 2's to the A's...
(Eden) and what if...what if its bigger definition means that (Linsey) Ooohhh!
you are...your thinking is that you're inclusive for everybody.
(Eden) So in the alphabet soup, which letters do you grab for yourself?
The spoon.
The whole spoon. You're everything.
You...You're Shaka Khan, you're every woman. (Lindsey hums) It's too bad, wouldn't it be nice
if we could sing that song, but it's copyrighted.
Okay, I have utensils for our soup. Which one?!
Eden: Ima go with the fork.
Lindsey: Ready?
(Lindsey) Ummm! (Eden) Alphabet soup with a fork!