New Law Proposes Intersex People Decide on Surgery, Rather Than Parents

"I would have waited to see how I am as a person, to see if I find love, to see if I find my life, but unfortunately I did not have that option."

In the coming days, state legislators will begin discussing a proposed law that seeks to give a voice to people born with intersex genitalia so that they are the ones able to decide if they want a gender assignment operation performed, rather than their parents deciding when the child is born.  

Some organizations are opposed to the law because they do not want the government to interfere in the medical decisions that parents can currently make regarding assigning gender to children.

But some who live it think about the life-changing decision differently.

Just a few months ago, Alexandra Magallón's life took an unexpected turn.

"I found out I was an intersex person when my parents had already passed away," Magallón said. 

Being an intersexual, Magallón was born with some biological characteristics considered feminine and other masculine, but because she was operated on at birth, she had no way of knowing.

"Those questions you have that you want to ask your parents cannot be done because they have died: 'What happened? What did the doctors say? When did they make the decision?'" she said.

For this woman, who grew up as a man until she made the transition at age 18, it is important to support proposals like Senate Bill 201. A Democratic senator proposes that intersex-born people be the ones to decide if they want to undergo surgery to define their sex or not.

"Parents do not have to decide for the person because they remember that there is a process of adolescence, and we do not know what decision the person is going to make on their own," said Karla Thalía Flores, a health educator.

Flores works as a health educator in the Bienestar organization. She said she knows how difficult it can be for intersex people to search for their identities. 

"A transition of a man may need a lot of family support," Flores added.

But as a family doctor told Telemundo 52, parents often see themselves between a rock and a hard place.

"Not everything that is offered has to be done if they have doubts. Better to wait, consult with their families and say, 'Am I going to make the right decision for my son, my daughter?'" Juan Silva, a family physician, said.

Unfortunately for people like Magallón, it's already too late.

"I would have waited to see how I am as a person, to see if I find love, to see if I find my life, but unfortunately I did not have that option," Magallón said.

Telemundo 52 contacted an organization of urologists in pediatrics that opposes the proposed law. The organization says the proposal is unfair and discriminatory toward men born with conditions such as hypospadias. It's a relatively rare condition where the opening of the penis is not located at the tip, but rather the underside. According to statistics, it affects about 20,000 men each year. 

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