01x03 - The Single Guy

[bunniefuu]

[Lyn]

I was born healthy, and they made me sick.

They look at these bodies and they think,

"Oh, that is sick."

People think

that intersex is definitely sick.

That's a disorder.

And that is wrong!

That's so wrong.

They've f*cked up my life so hard.

My name is Juliane LÃ♪ffler.

We're at the Germany BuzzFeed office

in Berlin.

I cover mostly LGBT issues.

Reporting about sexual minorities

shows the status of our democracy.

It shows how much diversity

a societyaccepts.

[Juliane] While Germany's intolerance

was infamous during World w*r II,

the culture here has changed dramatically,

over the last 60 years.

Living in Berlin,

it's part of my everyday life

to see people who don't fit the norms.

That doesn't mean that there's no

harassment or no discrimination.

That would be a lie. It happens a lot.

I experience that as a q*eer person.

But there's a general openness to,

you know, walk on the streets

the way you want to.

[Juliane] My latest interest as a reporter

is in the intersex community.

Intersex people are born

with ambiguous sex traits

that can't be defined

as simply male or female.

This can range from having

a p*nis and a vag*na

to having an extra sex chromosome.

This is not to be confused

with transgender,

which often relates to gender identity.

Intersex people are physically born

in between sexes.

There's no verified statistic

on how many intersex people there are.

But there are some studies

that estimate up to 1.7% worldwide.

And that's as many people

as have red hair.

I'm working on a really exciting story.

Intersex people have been

either ignored or invisible,

and they're about to be

legally recognized.

[Juliane] Recently,

after an intersex person sued

for the right to not be registered

as male or female,

the Constitutional Court in Germany

ruled that there must be

a third gender category

on passports and birth certificates

for intersex,

making it the first country in Europe

to mandate this.

So first,

I want to talk to an intersex person

and know what it's like

to grow up intersex

with no legal recognition until now.

[musicians play heavy metal]

[Juliane] What does metal music

mean to you?

[Lyn] I love this energy.

I love that aggression.

For me, it's not a negative feeling.

It's something to protect your limits.

[song ends]

How do you define yourself?

Ha! My gender is intersex.

So, I have the feeling I'm right

in the middle of everything.

So, when you explain it to people,

do you say, "I'm a hermaphrodite?"

Yes.

[laughs]

It's that easy!

[Juliane] So, how do I address you?

[Lyn] I say, "Say either Lynn or 'heshe, '

as a combined thing,

or 'he.'"

So that is what I claim now.

[Juliane] How were you raised?

When I was born, the doctor said,

oh, yeah,

I'm just a female with

disorder of sexual development.

That means that I had testes and ovaries.

And what they did is they removed

the testes and ovaries, and

they cut off the p*nis and kind of built,

from the skin they had left over,

some labias.

They tried to make

female-looking genitalia.

How many operations did you have?

Um, seven in total.

- And how old were you?

- Two.

And also, because it was so rare,

or I'm so rare, they made research.

They operated on me and some you know,

where students can watch, even.

And they were all looking between my legs,

and touching, you know,

putting the finger in,

and something like that, and, for me,

that is sexual violence, you know?

And I had it from eight to 17,

every third month.

And it was not a medical indicated

treatment. Their job was

to check the hormones.

It was not to look what my genitals

looked like, you know?

Or even touching them. What the f*ck?

[shaving machine]

What do you think

this law is going to change?

[Lyn] I hope that they establish,

you know,

the knowledge of intersex people;

that they exist.

It's really crazy to talk about all this,

you know,

because you think, why is it not natural?

I mean, we exist, don't we?

What do you think is the most important

thing that has to change?

The operation has to stop.

So that is the most important thing,

because it's violence.

It's pure violence.

[Juliane] The new third gender ruling

is still very limited,

but it opens the door

for further legislation down the line.

Which means, a ban on intersex operations

in young children could be on the table.

I want to find out

how common these surgeries are,

but there is very little research

on the topic.

Hello. This is JulianeLÃ♪ffler

from BuzzFeed News.

We spoke a few months ago,

and I wanted to see if Mr. [muted]

would be ready for an interview now.

Absolutely no chance?

All right. Understood.

[in English] Most doctors refused

to give us any information,

especially on camera.

I'm calling in reference

to a media request.

All right. You're saying he's the wrong

person to discuss this with.

[in English] I talked to the press person

from the doctor,

and she said the doctor

is not performing intersex operations.

And then she said,

"We're just changing a little hole.

It's not like he's changing

the gender of people."

But it was quite irritating.

[Juliane] Eventually, a medical expert,

whose hospital claims

to not perform these operations

on children,

agreed to speak on the record with me.

[Juliane]

Would you say intersex is a disease?

I think it's a disease,

because parents seek help.

So if you seek medical help,

then it's a disease.

There is also, often,

a surgical treatment.

Do you understand that

an intersex person claimed

they were castrated

when their gonads were taken away?

[Birgit] Yeah, because the gonads,

it's a fertility option,

and it produces all the sex hormones,

and if this is taken out, this is

In fact, it is a castration.

But this is really not very common,

that it is done.

Do you think there are doctors

who regret operations

they have done in the past?

[Birgit]

The results of these early operations

it is in 50 to 70%,

these are good results,

and the persons are happy

with this operation.

- But still 50% of persons are unhappy.

- Yeah.

This is the thing.

There is a considerable part

who is unhappy.

And for these persons,

they regret having done the operations.

How do you expect the new law

for a third gender

to affect medical practice?

This is a good question!

[chuckles]

I think we have to wait if this really

affects medical practice.

I think it's good just to have in

for the diversity of gender.

It's very important.

What if there would be a ban on surgeries?

I think it's not good to ban something.

But the idea of the ban would be to

protect intersex children and babies more.

Do you think that's a good idea?

It's better to talk to each other,

and to move forward than having a ban.

I think it's much more important to have

funding for competence centers,

funding for

specialists, for psychologists.

I think this would be a much better step.

[ringing tone]

- Hello.

- Hi, Daniel.

- This is Juliane.

- Hi.

I just talked to the doctor,

and I just feel, like,

being in this position of a parent,

like, when the child is born

and it's an intersex child,

this decision how to proceed

must be so hard to do.

[Daniel]

I think a family is definitely a key

to understand, like, all these struggles

- and problems.

- Yeah.

Because we want to know, like,

do you decide for an operation?

And if yes, which kind of operation?

[Daniel] Like, getting in touch

with a family now to talk to someone

who pushed for legislation,

I think that's something that would be

really good to have for our reporting.

All right. Thanks a lot, Daniel.

- Yeah, thank you, and good luck.

- Talk to you later.

[cow moos]

[whistles]

[sheep bleat]

I love the peace

and quiet here, and the landscape.

It's really completely different

from living in the city.

There are not as many people, just nature.

She always had

a special relationship with animals.

She?

Yeah

[in English] Sorry!

[both chuckle]

So the child always had

a certain way with animals.

[Juliane questions are in italics]

Christiane, when did you find out

that Maxi was intersex?

Three days after I gave birth,

the doctors came to my bedside

and they said that the baby's sex

couldn't be determined.

There was no p*nis. It would be best

to raise the child as a girl.

At first, I was really terrified,

because I thought,

"I can't make a boy into a girl."

I'm not God Almighty, after all.

I really thought about it a lot.

One day Maxi was playing with a little boy

on our terrace,

and the boy's father said, "What does Maxi

have between his legs? That's weird."

And I thought, if my child can't play

outside naked,

then something needs to change.

And after long and sad discussions

with Maxi's father,

we decided to have the sex reassignment

surgery on the child.

In other words, to remove the testes,

so the child would always be sterile,

and to create a vag*na.

[mother takes a deep breath]

Short break?

Yes.

When did you find out

that you were intersex?

At 18, I was told that something

went wrong at my birth.

But back then, the term "inter"

wasn't really used.

I was just told that something

hadn't gone right

and that my sex as a boy

wasn't discernible.

I couldn't explain it to Maxi. I was just,

I'd say, too cowardly to say.

Maxi, were you angry?

I do have a lot of feelings about

to judge what what had happened.

But I think it won't make it any better

[emotionally] Whoa.

Take a break.

[birds tweeting]

Do you have any advice for other parents?

Absolutely no surgeries in infancy.

Wait until the child

can decide independently.

Maxi, do you think Germany is ready

for a third gender?

The third option doesn't restrict

anybody's individual rights.

Anybody can be who they want to be.

And it's important

that we too can be just who we are.

And it's also my dream

that things continue to develop,

that we too can be just who we are,

that it's perceived as normal,

that intersex people exist.

We are an enrichment for humanity.

- I agree.

- Absolutely.

[Juliane] This third gender ruling

is clearly a big deal

for the intersex community,

but it is still just a first step.

I wonder how far

our politicians are willing to go.

I'm going to talk to Katarina Barley,

our Minister of Justice.

She's one of the most powerful politicians

in the country.

And she's also

the only high-ranking politician

who is talking about politics

for intersex.

It's a big get,

and it needs to be perfect.

And I really want to nail her down

on some questions I have.

So far, you're the only minister

who has commented

on the topic of intersex.

Why are you interested in the subject?

The acceptance of a person

as just the way they are

is an expression for a free, and open,

and livable society, in my view.

It seems like this topic is being ignored

and kept under wraps

as much as possible. How do you see this?

Many don't even know what intersex is,

including in the political landscape.

It's not a lack of goodwill,

but rather ignorance.

I'd like to talk about surgeries.

There will certainly be another draft

of a bill to implement a ban on surgeries.

The need to have people assimilate

and assigned a specific gender

has its roots in the Third Reich.

That wasn't the case in the past.

Hermaphrodites have existed

since ancient times,

and they were part of society.

And only since, as I've mentioned,

the Third Reich

did it become the norm not to leave

these people as they are.

The issue is that we're making

the decision for these people

rather than waiting

until they can decide for themselves.

And my point is that,

unless a surgery is necessary

for health reasons,

people should have the right to wait

until they can decide for themselves.

[Juliane in English]

Only one country in the world, Malta,

bans intersex operations in children.

Perhaps, Germany is on course

to follow suit.

[people chattering in German]

- Hey!

- Hi.

[Juliane] Germany has

a very vocal intersex community.

Advocates gather often,

and use their voices to comfort

and inspire one another.

There is an entire system in which we live

that's built upon the notion

of two sexes.

And being intersex and expressing that

confidently to others

questions this order completely,

of course.

And there is opposition accordingly.

It's just good to speak openly about it.

And that it's no longer a secret.

I don't feel like hiding anymore.

I've been hiding my whole life,

and that has to stop at some point.

It's probably a good thing

that the legislative branch decides

that there is a third option.

This gives everyone an opportunity

to get acquainted with the idea.

If we get to the point in ten years

when we can simply accept

this third option

then nobody has to have surgery

the parents of intersex children

don't have to be afraid

their child will be discriminated against.

There are intersex people. Period.

And they need support and deserve a spot.

And if we get to the point in ten years

where there's space for intersex people,

then Oh!

[all laugh]

I'd be over the moon! Yes.

[Juliane in English]

As Germany recognizes a third gender,

it will be interesting to see

how the country continues to evolve,

accepting all genders,

like men, women and intersex,

just as they are.