Intersexed people and sexuality

[SallyNow]

What are the morals and ethics surrounding those who are intersexed? Must they remain chaste? Do they go with their biological gender or their DNA gender? Or should they simply marry who they have a deep friendship and love with? Must they be trained to fit into either the "male" or "female" catagory or can they simply be themselves?

Please take time to educate yourself on the condition before commenting:
APA online brochure- and overview of what "intersexed" means
A BBC Article on Androgen Insesitivity Disorder

Please remember that this is a very delicate and complicated subject dealing with serious ethical issues. Thank-you.

 

[Robbie_James_Francis]

I can't address your question from a religious point of view I'm afraid...but my personal opinion is that intersex people should be allowed to live their lives however they want to.

From what I know of the Bible, I'd say Christianity doesn't prohibit intersex people from getting married to whomever they want, man or woman.

I would suggest that the existence of intersex people is proof that 'God' did not create us 'male and female' and hence the Bible contains about as many facts as Harry Potter, but I'm not allowed to try to convert anyone away from Christianity here in cyber-Saudi-Arabia (whoops, I mean Christian Forums), so I won't

 

[lawtonfogle]

I can't address your question from a religious point of view I'm afraid...but my personal opinion is that intersex people should be allowed to live their lives however they want to.

From what I know of the Bible, I'd say Christianity doesn't prohibit intersex people from getting married to whomever they want, man or woman.

I would suggest that the existence of intersex people is proof that 'God' did not create us 'male and female' and hence the Bible contains about as many facts as Harry Potter, but I'm not allowed to try to convert anyone away from Christianity here in cyber-Saudi-Arabia (whoops, I mean Christian Forums), so I won't

I go with the 'He created male and female, but he added a number of other things in to pop up later view.

 

[LittleNipper]

Things are what they are. It is highly unlikely that such a person would be able to both sire children and get pregnant. The likelyhood is that such a person would be steril or (parts exist but only one sex works). Sin is in the world, but because imperfection exists, doesn't make an excuse to do evil.

 

[HannahBanana]

Things are what they are. It is highly unlikely that such a person would be able to both sire children and get pregnant. The likelyhood is that such a person would be steril or (parts exist but only one sex works). Sin is in the world, but because imperfection exists, doesn't make an excuse to do evil.

What about the fact that such people contradict the part of the Bible that states that God "made us male and female"? How do you justify that with your Biblical literalism?

 

[Rebekka]

The existence of interesexed people is one of the reasons why I'm for marriage between two people who love each other, regardless of gender. I don't see why they should be punished with celibacy or loneliness for something they are not responsible for. The same could be said about homosexuals.

 

[PassionFruit]

That's the issue with sex and gender, it seems black and white but in reality it's not. Which is why I'm opposed to set gender roles, because everyone doesn't or want to fit into them.

 

[sidhe]

This just brings up a whole can o' worms. Namely, what is "male" and what is "female"? Or, as those denote biology, what is a "man" and what is a "woman"?

I despise the gender dichotomy, and decry it as a falsehood. Intersexed people can sleep with who they choose and identify how they choose, as can everyone else.

 

[Robbie_James_Francis]

Things are what they are. It is highly unlikely that such a person would be able to both sire children and get pregnant. The likelyhood is that such a person would be steril or (parts exist but only one sex works). Sin is in the world, but because imperfection exists, doesn't make an excuse to do evil.

Being intersexed is 'imperfection' now is it? Nice.

 

[SallyNow]

I can't address your question from a religious point of view I'm afraid...but my personal opinion is that intersex people should be allowed to live their lives however they want to.

From what I know of the Bible, I'd say Christianity doesn't prohibit intersex people from getting married to whomever they want, man or woman.

I would suggest that the existence of intersex people is proof that 'God' did not create us 'male and female' and hence the Bible contains about as many facts as Harry Potter, but I'm not allowed to try to convert anyone away from Christianity here in cyber-Saudi-Arabia (whoops, I mean Christian Forums), so I won't

I don't really see "He created us male and female" and the fact that intersexed people exist as any more of a test of faith than that humans were created, well, as part of evolution recieved two eyes, but not everyone is born with two eyes. Yet, they go on to live moral, healthy, fulfilling lives.

I also am one of those "wierdo" mainstream Canadian/European Christians who not see science and religion at odds with each other. Science deals with the facts, the hows and the whats, religion deals with the whys, with how we treat each other, etc.

Things are what they are. It is highly unlikely that such a person would be able to both sire children and get pregnant. The likelyhood is that such a person would be steril or (parts exist but only one sex works). Sin is in the world, but because imperfection exists, doesn't make an excuse to do evil.

I'm not sure what you are trying to say here. Are you saying that those who are intersexed are to remain chaste for their whole life? Or that because they often are infertile they therefore shouldn't be having sex anyways? Or are you saying that because they are born with a condition they are immoral right from the start? :o

As for what defines if a person is biologically male or female, well, it could based on DNA alone... or on brain structure... or bone structure... it's simply very complicated indeed!

 

[Rebekka]

I don't really see "He created us male and female" and the fact that intersexed people exist as any more of a test of faith than that humans were created, well, as part of evolution recieved two eyes, but not everyone is born with two eyes.

I don't even see the existence of intersexed people conflicting with God creating us male and female. Intersexed people are male and female, too. (Not "or", but "and".) Besides, at the time that the Bible was written, I suspect they didn't know that much about intersexed people.

 

[SallyNow]

I don't even see the existence of intersexed people conflicting with God creating us male and female. Intersexed people are male and female, too. (Not "or", but "and".) Besides, at the time that the Bible was written, I suspect they didn't know that much about intersexed people.

QFT.

It's kind of hard to explain the concept of intersexed people to those who do not understand what DNA is... or even know that it exists.

Intersexed people are born with a complicated biology which is, sadly, often only made more complicated by societal constraints.