Expert rejects UN 'intersex' resolution
WASHINGTON, D.C. April 19 (C-Fam) Jay Richards says the new United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on people born with developmental disabilities is an attempt to obscure the reality of biological sex.
Richards, who directs the DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at the Heritage Foundation, is a leading figure in addressing the gender agenda nationally and internationally. Her work is mainly oriented towards the protection of minors from attempts at sex reassignment through medication and surgery.
He says the resolution is a "classic operation by gender ideologues, using a noble cause – in this case, the universality of human rights" to advance their own agenda.
The resolution aims to combat discrimination and harmful practices against people born with undetermined secondary sex characteristics – boys born with micro-penises, girls born with enlarged clitorises that appear as penises and other abnormalities.
The resolution was hailed by activist groups as a victory, although the margin was narrow. Twenty-four countries voted in favor of the resolution, while twenty-three abstained, allowing adoption by consensus.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) presented a report on the resolution, citing UN data as estimating that "up to 1.7% of the population is born with intersex characteristics." "Intersex" is the term used by gender ideologues to imply that sex—male and female—is actually on a continuum.
Richards says, "The Council uses people with rare developmental disorders [SDDs] to attempt to debunk the sexual binary and insinuate that sex (or 'gender') exists on a spectrum. On the contrary, we understand that these people suffer from disorders because we know how sexual reproduction works in normal development. »
He says, "The Council can't even get the exact basic scientific facts. It claims that 1.7% of people have "intersex traits". It's not true. In reality, only about 0.018 percent of the population has a TDS. It is shameful to shun an effort to assert the rights of people with SDD with an ideology that seeks to erase our biological reality.
The 1.7% estimate was promoted by sexologist Anne Fausto-Sterling in her 2000 book, with the argument that human sex is not binary, but exists on a continuum. Fausto-Sterling's ideas were enthusiastically embraced by the field of gender studies, but were rejected by biological scientists, who noted that her definition of "intersex" included a wide variety of conditions that had never been recognized as intersex before.
The ideological nature of the resolution is demonstrated on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which includes these developmental anomalies under the umbrella of "sexual orientation and gender identity." The website takes the association one step further by claiming that "intersex people can have any gender identity or sexual orientation" and repeating the claim that "experts estimate" that 1.7% of people are born with "intersex" characteristics.
Although the wording of the new resolution is relatively narrow, it is clear that the UN system and the group of Western countries that pushed for its adoption are keen to use this issue to introduce gender ideology more widely into multilateral spaces.
Richards says, "It's shameful to shun an effort to assert the rights of people with SDD with an ideology that seeks to erase our biological reality."
Richards, who directs the DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at the Heritage Foundation, is a leading figure in addressing the gender agenda nationally and internationally. Her work is mainly oriented towards the protection of minors from attempts at sex reassignment through medication and surgery.
He says the resolution is a "classic operation by gender ideologues, using a noble cause – in this case, the universality of human rights" to advance their own agenda.
The resolution aims to combat discrimination and harmful practices against people born with undetermined secondary sex characteristics – boys born with micro-penises, girls born with enlarged clitorises that appear as penises and other abnormalities.
The resolution was hailed by activist groups as a victory, although the margin was narrow. Twenty-four countries voted in favor of the resolution, while twenty-three abstained, allowing adoption by consensus.
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) presented a report on the resolution, citing UN data as estimating that "up to 1.7% of the population is born with intersex characteristics." "Intersex" is the term used by gender ideologues to imply that sex—male and female—is actually on a continuum.
Richards says, "The Council uses people with rare developmental disorders [SDDs] to attempt to debunk the sexual binary and insinuate that sex (or 'gender') exists on a spectrum. On the contrary, we understand that these people suffer from disorders because we know how sexual reproduction works in normal development. »
He says, "The Council can't even get the exact basic scientific facts. It claims that 1.7% of people have "intersex traits". It's not true. In reality, only about 0.018 percent of the population has a TDS. It is shameful to shun an effort to assert the rights of people with SDD with an ideology that seeks to erase our biological reality.
The 1.7% estimate was promoted by sexologist Anne Fausto-Sterling in her 2000 book, with the argument that human sex is not binary, but exists on a continuum. Fausto-Sterling's ideas were enthusiastically embraced by the field of gender studies, but were rejected by biological scientists, who noted that her definition of "intersex" included a wide variety of conditions that had never been recognized as intersex before.
The ideological nature of the resolution is demonstrated on the website of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which includes these developmental anomalies under the umbrella of "sexual orientation and gender identity." The website takes the association one step further by claiming that "intersex people can have any gender identity or sexual orientation" and repeating the claim that "experts estimate" that 1.7% of people are born with "intersex" characteristics.
Although the wording of the new resolution is relatively narrow, it is clear that the UN system and the group of Western countries that pushed for its adoption are keen to use this issue to introduce gender ideology more widely into multilateral spaces.
Richards says, "It's shameful to shun an effort to assert the rights of people with SDD with an ideology that seeks to erase our biological reality."
