Nostalgic Pushhead

Yeah, intersexed babies are very very rare... and intersexed people who don't choose and stick with one gender, and stay in the closet in regards to it, are even rarer. So I doubt xians think much of the issue, or care, because well, they're weird anyway. The hermaphrodites. From the xian point of view. And the xians. From my point of view. Anyway...

Frankly, I don't care about their position on this, homosexuality, or anything. All I know is, there's no way they all don't think I'm defiently going straight to hell.

Groovy Cosmic Monkey

I never implied that fundamentalist Christians don't have a basis for believing that the Bible condemns homosexuality. I simply disagree with the proposition that the Bible condemns homosexuality in all its forms. In other words, if we refer to the fairly modern notion of two men (or two women) having a monogamous and loving relationship with one another, I think it's a stretch to argue that the Bible condemns such relationships.

This probably isn't the thread to go into depth with a discussion of the Biblical prohibition texts; I simply wanted to point out that the issue of homosexuality is controversial - there isn't a single, monolithic, Christian stance.

Diadectes

Well, yes. I thought that was pretty obvious without it having to be pointed out - there can't be many people here who aren't familiar with the Bible's anti-homosex passages - which is why I thought there was another point that you were trying to make. Apparently not, but thanks for clearing up the confusion anyway.

RevDahlia

True hermaphrodism, where both sets of genitals are present and complete, is extremely rare. However, there are other forms of intersex that are much more common -- testicular feminization, for instance, or Klinefelter's syndrome. Lots of things can get janky on a chromosomal level.

cheetah

I was just watching TLC the other night and they had a special on this. I learned quite a bit. There was a guy on the show born ni the mid 60s that had a surgery done when he was born to staple his tiny penis to his pubic bone, so it wouldn't get big and would be like a clitoris, and another baby just born about 5 years ago had a perfectly good testical removed! Apparently the default position has been to use surgical means to make any intersex child into a female. This went so far that in the latter case, the doctor was having a hard time convincing the parents to allow the surgery to do that, so they asked the parents if they could at least do a biopsy of the one testicle because it could be cancerous. The parents signed off on that, but when he came out of surgery, they had removed the entire testicle because it was malignant. But, the mom insisted on seeing the report and sure enough, the testicle was healthy. Well, those parents are suing, but why would the doctor be sooooo determined that this surgery get done (he was probably a fundie. They get passionate about weird things they have no business in). Anyway, research shows and the intersex community is adamant about the idea that surgery should not be performed on intersex babies.

One of the most amazing stories is about an intersex child that was, of course, forced to be a woman, but never felt "right." She got married to a man, but then discovered her medical records that said she was a he! What a tough thing to go through. She divorced her husband, met a woman and for a while I guess they were a "lesbian" couple. Evenutally, he (and I missed this part) either had a sex change op or just took testosterone and is now a male. It must have been very hard for him, but can you imagine a person that would stick with you when they first fell in love with a woman, then you tell them you're a man, then you actually change into a man? That's dedication.

They didn't talk about how religion views these groups, but I can only imagien they think they are evil. This is because a lot of the intersex people they showed have what appeared to be homosexual relationships (on the surface), and some even talked about switching back and forth between the sexes when they felt like it (well, maybe only one said that). Not only that, but they are against traditional medicine no the topic, and fundies tend to hate anyone that is against tradition, in my experience.