'Intersex' Birth Certificate Issued By The State Of Colorado
May 10, 2020 | News | No Comments
DENVER, CO – The state of Colorado’s vital records department this month issued a birth certificate to a person with a gender described as “intersex.”
Click Here: new zealand rugby team jerseys
Anunnaki Ray Marquez was born in Denver in 1967, but now lives near Jacksonville, Florida. It took 15 months and letters from a doctor, a psychologist and a judge’s ruling from the Clay County Court to convince the vital records department to issue the document Sept. 17.
“The Vital Records Office at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment received an application with adequate supporting materials such that we could issue a birth certificate identifying the individual as intersex,” confirmed CDPHE spokeswoman Jan Stapleman.
The term “intersex” is now used for bodily variations that include a variety of dual sexual traits – hormonal, chromosomal, reproductive and genital – that were formerly referred to under the umbrella of “hermaphroditism” a now-discouraged term that many intersex people believe is stigmatizing.
Anunnaki’s genitalia were non-conforming as a baby, but Anunnaki feels lucky doctors did not insist on corrective surgery, as is the case with many intersex children. “I am very ordinary for an intersex person, but compared to [a woman] I’m different,” Anunnaki said in an interview. As a child, Annunaki spent two years in therapy being taught to “act like a girl. I had to be taught I was not a boy.”
Annunaki has been married 29 years to the same husband, and gave birth to children, and had four miscarriages. “My pelvis is too narrow, my cervix isn’t able to dilate. I had to have two C-sections,” Annunaki told them magazine.
To counter male hormonal and physical traits, such as facial hair and male body attributes, Annunaki spent decades taking medical treatments of feminizing hormones and blockers to “medically make me appear female.” But in 2014 the choice came: “Either commit suicide, or appear as I really am, not male or female: My body is both.”
Annunaki got advice and support from Sara Kelly Keenan, who received an amended intersex birth certificate from the vital records department in New York City in 2017.
Anunnaki is careful to distinguish between biological sex and gender identity. After years of family therapy, Anunnaki has facial hair and presents as a “gay man,” but remains married.
“People often confuse biological sex with gender identity and they are two very different things. An intersex person can have a gender identity of male, female, both or neither,” Huntington Beach California-based psychotherapist Dr. Kristie Overstreet wrote in a supporting document to the Colorado Vital Records office.
Anunnaki has gone public with the quest for a birth certificate in part to raise awareness for the campaign against “unneccesary” childhood medical surgical intervention on intersex babies. The United Nations has announced a campaign renouncing the surgeries and the state of California has now banned the surgery.
Coincidentally, also this week, Fort Collins resident, Dana Zzyym, who underwent several surgical procedures before age five and identifies as intersex, won a legal victory when a federal judge ruled that the State Department cannot deny a passport to someone who refuses to declare whether they are male or female.
Anunnaki went through years of confusion and secrecy growing up. Now an activist, Anunnaki wants make sure others are given hope.
“We’ve been erased and taught that we didn’t exist, and that’s why parents perform [unnecessary] surgery on babies, before they can consent, so they can be binary– boys or girls,” Anunnaki said.
“I want intersex people to know that we can be happy, we can be married and have a family.”
Image via Anunnaki Ray Marquez
Stay up-to-date with Colorado news with Patch! There are many ways for you to connect and stay in touch: Newsletters and Email Alerts|Facebook
