Looming Military Threat: “Hermaphrodites”

margot.mifflin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:15:39 +0000

You heard right: Today, in an NPR interview about repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, California congressman Duncan Hunter said that opening the military to “transgenders, to hermaphrodites, to gays and lesbians” would be bad for “cohesiveness.” Hermaphrodites, that vast and unruly subculture of—homosexuals? Well, yes, you might argue, if you have mixed or ambiguous genitalia, either way you swing could be considered gay, especially by someone who hasn’t heard the term “intersexuality.” Should a congressman who doesn’t know that a congenital condition is not a sexual preference be soapboxing about either in public? Jeffrey Eugenides, white courtesy phone.

Margot Mifflin » intersexuality

Looming Military Threat: “Hermaphrodites”