Press Resources: Biology and the Law
I. FAQ
You may find many of your basic questions answered in our FAQ.
II. Photos
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1. Alice Domurat Dreger Ph.D.
- Board Chair, Intersex Society of North America
- Associate Professor of Science and Technology Studies in the Lyman Briggs School of Science at Michigan State University
- Associate Faculty in the Center for Ethics and Humanities at MSU
*Contact*
East Lansing MI
Send spam-proof email
Cell: 517.410.8963
*Bio*
Dr. Dreger’s initial work on intersex was historical, however, when people born intersexed contacted her in 1996 to ask assistance in radically improving the medical and social treatment of intersexed people, she refocused her efforts. Since 1996 she has been working to redesign the medical standards of intersex treatment to better reflect the needs of intersex families.
2. Cheryl Chase & Robin Mathias
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*Contact*
Cheryl Chase
Executive Director, Intersex Society of North America
979 Golf Course Drive #282
Rohnert Park CA 94928
Cell: 707.481.5307
Send spam-proof email
*Bio*
- At www.isna.org
Cheryl is the founder of the modern intersex rights movement, and Executive Director of the Intersex Society of North America. Cheryl’s legal sex at birth was male, but at age 18 months, doctors removed her clitoris, told her parents to raise her as a girl, and made them promise never to tell her what had happened. Cheryl and Robin were married in San Francisco on February 12, 2004, but their marriage was invalidated by the CA Supreme Court later the same year. If not for the violent, sex change secretly imposed on Cheryl as an infant, Cheryl and Robin’s marriage would be legally recognized. Robin, a healthcare fraud control consultant, says she will marry Cheryl as many times as it takes until they have legal recognition.
3. Jane L. Goto
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*Contact*
Seattle WA
Cell: 206.271.1513
Send spam-proof email
*Bio*
- At www.isna.org
Jane Goto is ISNA’s “First Responder,” fielding dozens of inquiries each month through an online helpdesk. Jane was born looking like most other girls, her identity and legal sex are female, and she is married to a man. But because she has complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, her chromosomes are XY and she was born with internal testes. If tests of biological sex are introduced for marriage, Jane’s marriage might be invalidated, because she is an XY female and her husband is an XY male.
4. Suegee and Anne Tamar-Mattis
*Contact*
Berkeley CA
You can speak to Cheryl Chase (above) to be put in touch with Sugee and Anne.
*Bio*
Suegee and Anne Tamar-Mattis are a married couple with two lovely children. Suegee is a third year medical student and Anne is a second year law student. Suegee was born intersexed, and Suegeee and Anne were not able to be legally married until Suegee had her legal gender changed to male. (She was able to do so merely by submitting documents, without any surgical or hormonal body alterations.)
5. Lynnell Stephani Long
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*Contact*
Oak Park IL
Cell: 708.257.6692
*Bio*
Lynnell was born sexually ambiguous (intersexed) and raised male. The best efforts of her doctors to make her into a proper boy came to naught. Lynnell now lives as a woman and lesbian. “I’ve never felt like a male, and I’m not sure what it feels like to feel like a female because I’m neither. I am intersex, and today that’s OK. Today I love me the way I am, and my girlfriend loves me as well.” Under DOMA type laws, Lynnell might be permitted to marry her girlfriend (now that “miscegenation” laws have been deemed unconstitutional), because Lynnell has a Y chromosome and her girlfriend (presumably!) has XX chromosomes.
6. Cindy Stone
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*Contact*
Bloomington IN
Cell: 812.325.7130
*Bio*
Cindy was born looking like other baby girls, and her intersexuality was not diagnosed until, at age 17, she visited a doctor to investigate why she did not menstruate. Her doctor discovered that she had XY chromosomes, but—following standard medical practice—lied to her about what he had found. She did not learn the name of her condition (“Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome”) until age 34. Cindy lived with her first partner for 20 years, and cared for her through her death from cancer in 1995. She has lived with her current partner, also a woman, for five years. They held a commitment ceremony in summer of 2001. Because Cindy has XY chromosomes, and her partner has XX, would their marriage be recognized under marriage legislation relying on biological definitions of sex?
III. Subject Area Experts
*Julie A. Greenberg Ph.D.*
Associate Dean & Professor of Law
Thomas Jefferson School of Law
office: 619-297-9700 ×1507
cell: 619.997.4857
Dr. Greenberg is the author of several articles on how the law affects intersex people, including Legal Aspects of Gender Assignment (The Endocrinologist, 2003) and “Defining Male and Female: Intersexuality and the Collision between Law and Biology” (Arizona Law Review, 1998).
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