From "Intersex" to "DSD": Toward a Queer Disability Politics of Gender
by Emi Koyama, Intersex Initiative
Below is the keynote speech presented at Translating Identity conference held at University of Vermont in February 2006.


Today I'd like to talk about the new term DSD, or disorders of sex differentiation and development, that is now being promoted as the replacement for the word "intersex." There several reasons that this is happening, but the fact is that it will happen, so I wanted to talk about what that would mean, and how I think about it. I'll go into disability theory also, because more and more disability politics is becoming important in intersex organizing. And since I'm talking about gender, disability and intersex, some of what I will say would be relevant to the controversy over the DSM-IV category of gender identity disorder, which many of you have opinions about, although I won't be directly discussing it.