Intersex surgeries performed on children in California were condemned by state lawmakers in a resolution passed on Tuesday.
The state now becomes the first to publicly denounce the “corrective” procedure performed on children who physiologically do not fall into the cisgender male and female categories, HuffPost reported.
The term intersex refers to a person born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that does not fit the typical definitions of what constitutes as female or male, according to Intersex Society of North America.
According to the Intersex Campaign for Equality, intersex people make up about 1.7 percent of the population, making it as common as having red hair.
Doctors have been performing irreversible surgeries since the 1950s on intersex babies in order for them to feature the attributes associate with male and female bodies, but as California resolution SCR-110 noted, these procedures have questionable medical justification.
“These surgeries are often performed before a child can even speak or stand, meaning the intersex individual is excluded from the decision whether to undergo these irreversible procedures,” the bill said. “There is evidence that these surgeries cause severe psychological and physiological harm when performed without the informed consent of the individual.”
Kimberly Zieselman, an intersex woman and executive director of interACT, explained that, “despite decades of patient advocates putting the medical community on notice about the harm from these procedures, many doctors continue to present these surgeries to parents as good options,” according to a statement by Human Rights Watch.
State Sen. Scott Wiener, who introduced the act, said California has been a longtime “leader for all people, and we can lead the way in supporting intersex children and their families,” HuffPost reported.
On Tuesday, he took to Twitter to announce the resolution had fully passed California’s legislature.
“This is the first time a state has gone on record supporting the intersex community & opposing these surgeries,” he said.
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