California senator yanks bill to ban genital surgeries on intersex infants

metroweekly.com:

called on nations to outlaw unnecessary genital surgeries on intersex individuals, calling in “tantamount to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” Three former U.S.

Surgeons General have also called for intersex surgeries on infants to be banned.Wiener’s bill, which has been backed by several LGBTQ advocacy groups, has been introduced in committee for three consecutive years, but has failed to emerge from committee due, in part, to a lack of understanding about intersex health issues, and in part due to intense lobbying from some medical associations, especially those representing the limited number of specialists in reproductive health and/or genital reconstruction surgeries.“SB 225 was a basic civil rights law, standing for the important principle that people should be able to make decisions about their own lives, as opposed to having other people make those decisions for them,” Wiener said in a statement issued after withdrawing the bill. “These irreversible genital reconstruction surgeries — usually performed when a child with variations in their genitalia are infants —  have lifelong consequences.

These consequences can include chronic pain, scarring, loss of sexual sensation, and more.“SB 225 is vitally important civil rights legislation for intersex people and the larger LGBTQ community, and I’m disappointed and saddened that it does not appear to have a viable path forward at this time,” he added. “Pausing medically unnecessary genital surgeries until a child is old enough to participate in the decision isn’t a radical idea.

Rather, it’s about basic human dignity. I’m fully committed to protecting the rights of everyone with variations in their genitalia, including intersex people.