Theos-Talk Archives (December 2002 Message tt00712)

TYPO CORRECTED AT >> <<

Now it is clear from photos of HPB that she did not experiance the 
kind of phyical masculinization that I did. Late virilizing forms of 
either XX or XY intersex are extremely rare. In these conditions, the 
child and adolesent may appear as a normal female. After a rather 
extreme >>(and possibly very late...in their 20s) 'puberty'<<, in 
which a 
phallus grows and secondary male sex characteristics develope, the 
person can no longer hide their transformation...or 'sex reversal' 
without great difficulty. This is obviously NOT what happened to 
HPB, but being feminine in her youth does not mean anything, as the 
late virilizing forms of intersex HOWEVER MILD OR EXTREME, do not 
NECESSARILY effect the person's pre- 'puberty' (pre-masculinizing) 
femininity. 

GENDER IDENTITY IS DIFFERENT FROM THE ROLES THAT PEOPLE LEARN TO PLAY 
FOR FAMILY AND SOCIAL APPROVAL. Even as a small child, I always knew 
I was a boy, and had started secretly calling myself David by the age 
of 9. At the age of 11 I introduced myself to my closest friend as 
David. At that time (and for years to come) I still showed no 
obvious external signs of being intersexed, that my family or others 
could detect. Still I was extremely neurologically fetally 
androgenized, even to the extent of 'knowing' I was 'really a boy'. 
So it is entirely possible that HPB had some late-virilizing form of 
intersex and a persistent sense of a masculine self, but developed a 
feminine familial and public persona for survival reasons. 

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Bhakti Ananda Goswami 
<bhakti.eohn@v...>" <bhakti.eohn@v...> wrote:
> Dear Paul,