A Girl's Shatted Dream
You may not be familiar with Caster Semenya. She is an athlete that just won a couple races and broke a couple running records. Questions were raised as to whether she was a woman.
Now rumors are circulating that they discovered that she does not have a womb or ovaries but does have internal testes. Such combined with female anatomy would label her a hermaphrodite. So how should that be decided by the judges? The general assumption is that they will deem her ineligible to race. Perhaps even strip her championship away.
What a harsh world to wake up to. Imagine if this was you, and you went to bed believing you were one gender, and woke up the next day to be told that you are in fact the other, or more accurately both? A girl from poverty in South Africa who is near reaching her dreams when they are shattered like a bullet hitting an ice cube. If you pray, pray for this girl....
I have expressed my belief that we are missing the boat on these matters. I've heard some claim that homosexuality is genetic and others societal. I personally believe it's both. We also reach trans-gender issues. And I've long advocated providing free genetic testing for those under-going such procedures. Because I have hypothesized that a number of the people who have gender-identity issues may in fact have aspects of hermaphroditism. Now some would say "Why test, if that's what they want to be, let them be!". The reason I'd like to see testing is that it might help those who are struggling to understand themselves. Some people are physical hermaphrodites (have mixed physical sexual anatomy) while others may have androgen insensitivity syndrome and may appear as a given sex but have genetics that lean a different way.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/09/10/2009-09-10_caster_semenya_.html
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26057893-5015718,00.html
http://www.sportsscientists.com/2009/08/caster-semenya-male-or-female.html
Now rumors are circulating that they discovered that she does not have a womb or ovaries but does have internal testes. Such combined with female anatomy would label her a hermaphrodite. So how should that be decided by the judges? The general assumption is that they will deem her ineligible to race. Perhaps even strip her championship away.
What a harsh world to wake up to. Imagine if this was you, and you went to bed believing you were one gender, and woke up the next day to be told that you are in fact the other, or more accurately both? A girl from poverty in South Africa who is near reaching her dreams when they are shattered like a bullet hitting an ice cube. If you pray, pray for this girl....
I have expressed my belief that we are missing the boat on these matters. I've heard some claim that homosexuality is genetic and others societal. I personally believe it's both. We also reach trans-gender issues. And I've long advocated providing free genetic testing for those under-going such procedures. Because I have hypothesized that a number of the people who have gender-identity issues may in fact have aspects of hermaphroditism. Now some would say "Why test, if that's what they want to be, let them be!". The reason I'd like to see testing is that it might help those who are struggling to understand themselves. Some people are physical hermaphrodites (have mixed physical sexual anatomy) while others may have androgen insensitivity syndrome and may appear as a given sex but have genetics that lean a different way.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/09/10/2009-09-10_caster_semenya_.html
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,26057893-5015718,00.html
http://www.sportsscientists.com/2009/08/caster-semenya-male-or-female.html