Parents of Intersex child sues MUSC...Gender is more than what is between the legs…Let this stand as evidence

By Sabrina Samone, TMP

The proof is in the pudding as some will say, for those cis-gender people who oppose Transgender people or think it is a choice that someone makes to change their sex.  Gender is more than what lies between your legs. Currently here in Charleston, South Carolina, parents Pamela and John Mark Crawford are listed as plaintiffs in a lawsuit against several doctors from Greenville Hospital and the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. According to the Civil Action Complaint filed with the United States District Court for the district of South Carolina, Charleston Division;  The Lawsuit challenges the decision by government officials and doctors to perform an irreversible, painful and medically unnecessary sex assignment surgery on a sixteen month-old child in state custody.

In late 2004, two twin babies were born in Greenville, SC, each with a weight less than two pounds.  After a few weeks the twins’ mother abandoned them and stopped visiting the newborns at the hospital. There was no father present either.  Eventually one of the twins, a girl, died. M.C., as the other minor is referred as, spent nearly three months in the Greenville Hospital. Unbelievably, medically trained doctors viewed the infant as a medical mystery because they could not determine if the child was male or female, totally uneducated in a medical condition called intersex, a condition that can even be Google.

In 2006, the Crawford’s had become the new adopted parents of baby M.C. According to the Intersex Society of North America, a rare intersex condition called ovotesticular disorder of sexual development affects only one out of every 83,000 babes.  According to the Post and Courier, court papers say physicians alternatively identified M.C. as male and female in medical records. Not once in any article regarding this issue does it states once, anywhere I’ve read that medically trained doctors were aware of a medical condition of intersex people.

Doctors at the Greenville Hospital was so ignorant of this condition, the child at some point had been transferred to the Medical University of South Carolina.  Surgeons took upon themselves to remove evidence of M.C.’s male reproductive organs at the unthinkable age of 16months old.  It is still unclear why the doctors decided on assigning the child as female rather than male. Though as Transgender we know that mtf SRS is more common and with less complications than ftm surgery and had these hospitals had any communication with any transgender organizations or intersex groups, they would have known this and to also know, the child will yet let you know in time, their choice in gender.

According to the Advocate, “God made M.C. the way he is, but with one unnecessary surgery, the state of South Carolina irreparably injured him,” said Anne Tamar-Mattis, executive director of Advocates for Informed Choice. The parents tried to raise their little girl as a typical girl, but it became obvious quickly that she preferred to be a he and now at the age of eight has become vocal and insistent on being referred to as a male.  Bringing to mind the plight of many intersex individuals as well as Transgender people, who mind and spirit does not match what is between their legs.

When will cis-gender society get it, even at the cost of ignorant doctors who took upon themselves to assign a sex, those assigned genitals became an unwelcomed birth defect, in the eyes of an eight year old boy. Now regardless of an outcome of a lawsuit young M.C., will live his life as a transgender man faced with the discrimination as many do, of our one track minded, bigoted cis-gender society?  A society that attempts to deny him from restrooms he was even born physically to use, forced to carry F for female on his birth certificate denying him chances and opportunities for work, because South Carolina does not allow any transgender person born within its borders to change gender on I.D. without proof of SRS and two letters of recommendation from psychologist. All because a society of ignorant cis-gender, Doctors decided in their eyes and in their minds what sex he was to them and as many Trans American’s know, society does not understand what makes a person male or female, it is not genitalia. 

I hope the pre-historic medical community of this state can learn from this, educate themselves and also educate our political leaders and society to better understand intersex and gender dysphoria people. Maybe the biggest lesson the whole country can learn about Transgenderism from this is, regardless what is or given between a person’s legs, their gender is determined in their mind. Need Proof? Follow this case.

Update:
Video of the Crawfords speaking about their intersex child who now insist on being male;

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