Gender assignment (#3): A sex-change I would approve

My friend Sandra gave birth in her early twenties to one of the .05% of babies born as hermaphrodites (now called "intersex"). The baby had horrifying birth defects. Some of the organs, or parts of them, were on the outside, including reproductive organs. The nurse didn't even know what to tell Sandra when she announced, "It's a ---"

Everyone present in delivery was in shock--and Sandra stayed in shock for most of her life.

But the baby was alive, and it was her baby, so Sandra chose a name which could go either way: Dana.

The doctor insisted it was Sandra's responsibility to decide which sex to "make" the baby. The baby's father didn't stay to help. He couldn't face the decision, the situation, or fatherhood of such a baby, so he split. Sandra never saw him again.

With no one to consult and her mind locked in fear and confusion, she couldn't think. Her heart cried out, How can I make a decision like this? That's God's responsibility!  But she couldn't hear anything from God.

The doctor explained that it was easier to form female genitals than male. So Sandra authorized surgery, signing papers to have Dana be female. Within a year or so she adopted Dana out to a couple who received her lovingly. They kept her on the pills supplied by the hospital to provide or supplement Dana's female hormones.


Dana grew up never feeling like a girl. Kids at school taunted her mercilessly. As she entered puberty, through no fault of her own, her voice deepened. She developed facial hair and musculature that led kids to label her "butch" and worse. She was miserable. Suicidal.

Sandra would go see Dana sometimes but Dana was no longer her responsibility. And Dana's parents doggedly contined to give Dana the female hormones and refused surgery.

Then Sandra passed away and I have had no way to hear how Dana is doing. I want to tell "her" parents, "Dana's gender assignment at birth was male! No matter how you dress or doctor Dana, he is male. He identified as a male all along and puberty revealed it!  It's coded in his DNA. Let him become who he is!"

I can't speak for every sex change applicant--the vast majority of cases cannot be Biblically valid. I think the man we saw outside a theater the other day wearing a fluffy pink dress and pigtails had to have been programmed that way either by expectations or sexual abuse, by nurture not nature.

But in this case, in the face of all opposition I would stand by Dana's right to an operation to gain congruence with his gender assignment at birth