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[–]Anna_Nym 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

My understanding is that the "assigned at birth" phrase was used in intersex advocacy to refer to cases where the intersex condition caused development of ambiguous genitalia, and the doctor operated on the baby to normalize the body. It was literal.

[–]lefterfield 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

No, that's not my understanding of it all. It's a term used in cases of intersex babies, when it is genuinely ambiguous what the external genitalia indicate about sex. Surgery may or may not happen(and shouldn't happen, regardless).

[–]Anna_Nym 7 insightful - 2 fun7 insightful - 1 fun8 insightful - 2 fun -  (1 child)

I tried to track down the history of the term to fact check my memory, but there was too much noise because of stuff like this: "Children who are intersex are assigned female or male based on what medical professionals anticipate their gender identity will be. Oftentimes, intersex children are subjected to surgical operations to change their anatomy to fit their assigned sex. "

Did the person who wrote that really think doctors are out there trying to guess at the gender identity of the intersex baby?

[–]lefterfield 1 insightful - 2 fun1 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Quite likely, and very sad.

[–]DifferentAirGC 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That's what I believe too.