Personal Narrative: My Second Diversity Event

For my second diversity event, I went to "Minnesota OUT! Campus Conference- Keynote Speaker, Pidgeon Pagonis." The event was hosted by MOCC/LGBT Center/Latino Affairs. Though I did not attend the entire conference I went the last day, it was a very eye-opening experience for me. Pidgeon spoke about intersex, which I found out is the case in which "a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn't seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male" (isna.org). Before attending the event the former was known to me as "hermaphrodite." Pidgeon talked about how that term is offensive to intersex people, due to its history. There were a lot of "aha moments" for me, more than anything though a new world was being presented to me.

I was surprised to see how medical ethics were being violated during the early 90's when doctors would lie to parents in order to get permission to do certain procedures on the child.

Hearing Pidgeon speak about their experience made me really uncomfortable because they talked about how the doctors lied to their parents telling them that Pidgeon had something that could potentially turn into cancer, which is why they needed to do all these surgeries on them. When in reality that was not the case. For 20 years Pidgeon did not know they were intersex, they talked about how the procedures the doctors did would not allow them to have children or have a period like the rest of the girls. All of these "side effects" had a negative psychological impact on Pidgeon that would haunt them for the following 20 years, until they discovered the truth about themselves. One thing that really really made me cringe was when watching Pidgeon's documentary, in one part there was a doctor at the children's hospital telling a reporter "yes, we used to play God, but not anymore." The disturbing part was that he was giggling as he said these words. I learned that some institutions regardless of their "credibility," they are messed

up. One thing that is helping me learn about other people is going to the events held on campus, it helps me go out of my comfort zone which allows me to grow. In the future possibly when I become a lawyer, I will try to advocate for intersex people, but for now, all I can do is help inform those who are still in the dark about what intersex is.