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DiscussionGenuine conundrum about certain people with CAIS
I read this article in my native language (language minority in small country, don’t want to risk and dox myself so won’t link it). It’s about a woman who at fifteen when her period never came found out she had CAIS and is male.
She was born with a vulva, labia and vagina, was “assigned” and brought up as a girl. And she does look like a woman too, maybe a bit taller and slightly more masculine than many others. But I’ve actually met her (again, small community) and I never would have guessed she’s actually male.
I would never call her a man.
It’s obviously not the same if an intersex individual is born with a penis and brought up as a boy, and definitely not the same thing as a male person both inside and out who “identifies” as a woman. Had the woman from the article lived before chromosomal testing she would have been viewed as a barren woman. To me, it would be ridiculous to assume that she should be denied entrance to female facilities, because without the tests nobody would know. She looks like a woman on the outside, so obviously she can’t go to the male changing rooms either - despite being genetically male.
There are differences in each case of course, some male people with AIS or CAIS are brought up as boys but later identify as female because their genitalia never fully develops, and for me that’s different: were you socialized as a boy because you were determined to be one at birth - then you are one, regardless of genital size. But I digress.
It would of course be easier for us GC-people to be able to say that male xy-people are men and female xx-people are women, full stop. But I think we CAN accept that sometimes it’s not as simple as this while STILL pointing out that trans isn’t the same. A transwoman isn’t a transwoman because he was born with inner or outer male parts while the other half was female. Nothing about transwomen is female.
What are your thoughts?