[2.] cf. Alvarado, Hyun-ju Lee, Hendricks, Dewhurst, Edmonds.
[3.] For this reason I very often write about intersexuals as women unless I am talking about specifics of male assignment or stolen intersex-potential.
[4.] Paradoxically, the assumption must erase some of the definitions of maleness, femaleness and homosexuality for if such a child takes a congenital female as a lover she will be 'straight' at the chromosomal level and lesbian at the social level. If she takes a male lover the opposite is the case. How we define our sexual identity categories then becomes quite complicated -- particulalry for those who rely more heavily on embodied biological definitions, ie: the Radical Religious Right.
[5.] I have placed 'truth' in quotation marks because the 'truth' that is assumed is that intersexed patients are monstrous and that truth would probably be very damaging. But what about the truth that genitals, like ears and noses, are highly variable in appearance.
[6.] Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome is an intersex condition in which the individual is chromosomally male but does not react to male hormones, and thus, never develops sexual characteristics of typical males. For evidence of the deceit advised in dealing with intersexed patients, see: Edmonds 1989, Emans and Goldstein 1990, Dewhurst 1980, Fausto-Sterling 1992, and Hendricks 1993. For a case in which, specifically, an AIS patient is dealt with in this Manner see: Kessler 1990.
[7.] In Hendricks, 1993, Dr. Gearheart provides readers with this very sensationalist view of the life of an intersexed infant. Queer Cut Bodies:Intersexuality & Homophobia in Medical Practice.