Cody Smith always had a great sense of justice.
As a child, they boycotted McDonald’s for the “McLibel case” in which the fast food chain sued environmental activists.
“I remember thinking‘ this is so unfair ’and that made me so angry that from the age of nine to 18 I refused to eat McDonald’s,” Mx Smith said.
“Even on long road trips, my parents would say, ‘If you don’t eat here, you won’t eat for a few more hours,’ and I said, ‘Yes, but McDonald’s is petty.’
Now 34, Cody’s last fight has been for intersex people.
“I never felt good about my own skin”
Some of Cody’s intersex traits were “surgically corrected” when they were a baby. (Supplied)
Cody was born intersexual: an umbrella term for those born with genetic, hormonal, or physical sexual characteristics that do not conform to the social norms of male or female bodies.
It is estimated that between one and two per cent of babies fit the definition in Australia.
“I was born and taken away almost immediately [by] doctors, “said Mx Smith.
“The question was, ‘Did you have a boy or a girl?’ and it was simply not answered.
“Once they had a diagnosis for my parents, they pushed for surgery and my parents agreed that some of these intersex traits would be surgically corrected with a series of surgeries during the first two years of my life.
“When doctors have chosen a genre for you, you grow up in that genre.
“It was a pretty weird way of growing up. As a kid, I used to write stories about feeling like an alien in space, for me it always tells me to know when I was born a little different.”
Cody says they didn’t feel like they fit in as a teenager attending a girls ’school in Canberra. (Supplied)
The feeling grew stronger when Cody started attending a girls high school in Canberra.
“I was surrounded by 1,200 girls who became young women and their experiences with femininity were not things I could relate to even though I had a great diversity of women around me,” they said.
“I never felt good in my own skin.”
When Cody was about to turn 18, their mother sat them down and told them they had been born intersex.
“There was a period of time when I discovered that it was intersex where it was a very lonely thing, it wasn’t something my friends knew how to talk about, it wasn’t something that really made sense to anyone.” they said.
“The best thing that ever happened to me was finding my intersex family, finding all these people who had these similar experiences, who are wonderful and eccentric and sometimes difficult but so loving and all so human.”
After years of struggling with his own journey, Cody eventually became an intersex advocate, working for the Canberra A Gender Agenda organization and now the national body Intersex Human Rights Australia.
Promote the ban on deferred treatment
Some hormonal treatments and surgeries recommended for intersex young people are essential to prevent disease.
But others, known as sexual normalization procedures, can only be done to make babies develop in a more typically masculine or feminine way and can be postponed.
Intersex people have long called for these particular treatments to be postponed until the person is old enough to be able to make a decision for themselves.
Cody Smith (right) with his brother Alex. Cody did not find out that they were intersex until they were 17 years old. (Supplied)
“There were decisions that were made for me that should have been my decisions and there were decisions that were made for other intersex people that should have been their decisions,” Mx Smith said.
“Unfortunately, much of the surgery on sexual characteristics is of an aesthetic nature.
“For a woman it’s a labiaplasty, it’s a clitorectomy, but these are things that can reduce function, reduce sensation, cause scarring, and ultimately be done to address the anguish of parents who don’t feel comfortable. with a child born differently “.
The ACT government publishes the first intersex bill in the nation
The ACT government has published a bill that would make it Australia’s first jurisdiction to ban deferred medical treatment on the sexual characteristics of intersex people until that person is old enough to make that decision. .
The bill allows for the treatment of medical emergencies or procedures that are easily reversible or do not affect sexual characteristics.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the bill set out a plan that when an intersex child is born, his or her parents will receive information, advice and psychological and peer support.
“Where things can be postponed without any medical risk that would obviously allow the child’s opinions to be taken into account as he or she grows up,” he said.
“Because what we’re trying to solve here are decisions that are made and are potentially irreversible, which later in life turn out to have really important implications for the individual.”
Andrew Barr says that under the proposed changes, parents of intersex children will receive more information, advice and support.
According to the bill, if parents want to follow a treatment for their child, there are two ways they could go.
Physicians could follow general treatment plans and bring them together by a panel of experts for routine treatments that would be universally beneficial for some of the most common intersex sexual characteristics.
A possible example of this type of treatment could be for non-descending testicles, which is when one or both testicles do not move down the scrotum once a child develops and can be treated with low-grade surgery. risk
But for some of the rarest or most complicated sexual characteristics, parents would be assisted by health professionals to develop an individual medical treatment plan, which would be submitted to a panel of five experts for approval.
Barr said the bill required the group to have an expert in each of the fields of medicine, ethics, human rights, varying sexual characteristics and psychosocial support, while at least one panel member had of being a person with a variation in sexual characteristics.
“It is essential that you receive the best medical advice, that there is ethical advice and also lived experience, as part of a process,” he said.
“This situation can be very confrontational, there can be a real gap in knowledge [for parents] so having that global support from different perspectives is really essential to getting the best results for people. “
The bill considers that decisions made about restricted medical treatment cannot be influenced by the goal of adhering to “perceived rules of appearance or function” or “reducing the risk of discrimination or stigmatization.”
And a health professional could face up to two years in prison for restricted medical treatment without panel approval, while removing an intersex person from ACT for the purpose of conducting a Restricted medical treatment would also be a crime.
The bill applies to what is considered a “protected person,” an intersex person who has no decision-making power, if they have decision-making power, then they can choose the treatment they want to pursue.
Bill to help intersex people “start healing”
Cody’s father, Alan Smith, is pleased that more information will be provided to parents of intersex children under the bill. (ABC News: Luke Stephenson)
The Smith family believes the release of the draft is a breakthrough for intersex people.
Cody’s father, Alan Smith, is especially pleased that more information is being provided to parents.
“When a baby is born, the people who can best support the baby are their parents,” Smith said.
“If parents are not informed and do not know what their options are and do not have support, this makes it much more difficult.
“I think making changes for aesthetic purposes, making hormonal changes to induce growth behaviors, because it looks like it’s normalizing, it doesn’t help and I think it’s making things worse.”
For Cody, the bill’s measures to ban preventable treatments are vital.
“The only thing that matters is to ensure that where and when an intersex person can make a decision, that they are the ones who make that decision, that it is not taken away from them,” they said.
“What I hope with the legislation is to stop the dripping tap. I like the idea that if fewer intersex people are harmed, we can really start healing as a community and start thriving without just having these tragic stories of trauma.
“Leaving it behind seems like the best thing we can do now.”
Posted 11 hours, 11 hours ago, Monday, May 30, 2022 at 8:52 PM, updated 6 hours, 6 hours ago, Tuesday, May 31, 2022 at 2:15 AM