For the Love of Jason (2020) s01e03 Episode Script

1
[Lyn]
I was born healthy, and they made me sick.
They look at these bodies and they think,
"Oh, that is sick."
People think
that intersex is definitely sick.
That's a disorder.
And that is wrong!
That's so wrong.
They've fucked up my life so hard.
My name is Juliane LÃ♪ffler.
We're at the Germany BuzzFeed office
in Berlin.
I cover mostly LGBT issues.
Reporting about sexual minorities
shows the status of our democracy.
It shows how much diversity
a societyaccepts.
[Juliane] While Germany's intolerance
was infamous during World War II,
the culture here has changed dramatically,
over the last 60 years.
Living in Berlin,
it's part of my everyday life
to see people who don't fit the norms.
That doesn't mean that there's no
harassment or no discrimination.
That would be a lie. It happens a lot.
I experience that as a queer person.
But there's a general openness to,
you know, walk on the streets
the way you want to.
[Juliane] My latest interest as a reporter
is in the intersex community.
Intersex people are born
with ambiguous sex traits
that can't be defined
as simply male or female.
This can range from having
a penis and a vagina
to having an extra sex chromosome.
This is not to be confused
with transgender,
which often relates to gender identity.
Intersex people are physically born
in between sexes.
There's no verified statistic
on how many intersex people there are.
But there are some studies
that estimate up to 1.7% worldwide.
And that's as many people
as have red hair.
I'm working on a really exciting story.
Intersex people have been
either ignored or invisible,
and they're about to be
legally recognized.
[Juliane] Recently,
after an intersex person sued
for the right to not be registered
as male or female,
the Constitutional Court in Germany
ruled that there must be
a third gender category
on passports and birth certificates
for intersex,
making it the first country in Europe
to mandate this.
So first,
I want to talk to an intersex person
and know what it's like
to grow up intersex
with no legal recognition until now.
[musicians play heavy metal]
[Juliane] What does metal music
mean to you?
[Lyn] I love this energy.
I love that aggression.
For me, it's not a negative feeling.
It's something to protect your limits.
[song ends]
How do you define yourself?
Ha! My gender is intersex.
So, I have the feeling I'm right
in the middle of everything.
So, when you explain it to people,
do you say, "I'm a hermaphrodite?"
Yes.
[laughs]
It's that easy!
[Juliane] So, how do I address you?
[Lyn] I say, "Say either Lynn or 'heshe, '
as a combined thing,
or 'he.'"
So that is what I claim now.
[Juliane] How were you raised?
When I was born, the doctor said,
oh, yeah,
I'm just a female with
disorder of sexual development.
That means that I had testes and ovaries.
And what they did is they removed
the testes and ovaries, and
they cut off the penis and kind of built,
from the skin they had left over,
some labias.
They tried to make
female-looking genitalia.
How many operations did you have?
Um, seven in total.
- And how old were you?
- Two.
And also, because it was so rare,
or I'm so rare, they made research.
They operated on me and some you know,
where students can watch, even.
And they were all looking between my legs,
and touching, you know,
putting the finger in,
and something like that, and, for me,
that is sexual violence, you know?
And I had it from eight to 17,
every third month.
And it was not a medical indicated
treatment. Their job was
to check the hormones.
It was not to look what my genitals
looked like, you know?
Or even touching them. What the fuck?
[shaving machine]
What do you think
this law is going to change?
[Lyn] I hope that they establish,
you know,
the knowledge of intersex people;
that they exist.
It's really crazy to talk about all this,
you know,
because you think, why is it not natural?
I mean, we exist, don't we?
What do you think is the most important
thing that has to change?
The operation has to stop.
So that is the most important thing,
because it's violence.
It's pure violence.
[Juliane] The new third gender ruling
is still very limited,
but it opens the door
for further legislation down the line.
Which means, a ban on intersex operations
in young children could be on the table.
I want to find out
how common these surgeries are,
but there is very little research
on the topic.
Hello. This is JulianeLÃ♪ffler
from BuzzFeed News.
We spoke a few months ago,
and I wanted to see if Mr. [muted]
would be ready for an interview now.
Absolutely no chance?
All right. Understood.
[in English] Most doctors refused
to give us any information,
especially on camera.
I'm calling in reference
to a media request.
All right. You're saying he's the wrong
person to discuss this with.
[in English] I talked to the press person
from the doctor,
and she said the doctor
is not performing intersex operations.
And then she said,
"We're just changing a little hole.
It's not like he's changing
the gender of people."
But it was quite irritating.
[Juliane] Eventually, a medical expert,
whose hospital claims
to not perform these operations
on children,
agreed to speak on the record with me.
[Juliane]
Would you say intersex is a disease?
I think it's a disease,
because parents seek help.
So if you seek medical help,
then it's a disease.
There is also, often,
a surgical treatment.
Do you understand that
an intersex person claimed
they were castrated
when their gonads were taken away?
[Birgit] Yeah, because the gonads,
it's a fertility option,
and it produces all the sex hormones,
and if this is taken out, this is
In fact, it is a castration.
But this is really not very common,
that it is done.
Do you think there are doctors
who regret operations
they have done in the past?
[Birgit]
The results of these early operations
it is in 50 to 70%,
these are good results,
and the persons are happy
with this operation.
- But still 50% of persons are unhappy.
- Yeah.
This is the thing.
There is a considerable part
who is unhappy.
And for these persons,
they regret having done the operations.
How do you expect the new law
for a third gender
to affect medical practice?
This is a good question!
[chuckles]
I think we have to wait if this really
affects medical practice.
I think it's good just to have in
for the diversity of gender.
It's very important.
What if there would be a ban on surgeries?
I think it's not good to ban something.
But the idea of the ban would be to
protect intersex children and babies more.
Do you think that's a good idea?
It's better to talk to each other,
and to move forward than having a ban.
I think it's much more important to have
funding for competence centers,
funding for
specialists, for psychologists.
I think this would be a much better step.
[ringing tone]
- Hello.
- Hi, Daniel.
- This is Juliane.
- Hi.
I just talked to the doctor,
and I just feel, like,
being in this position of a parent,
like, when the child is born
and it's an intersex child,
this decision how to proceed
must be so hard to do.
[Daniel]
I think a family is definitely a key
to understand, like, all these struggles
- and problems.
- Yeah.
Because we want to know, like,
do you decide for an operation?
And if yes, which kind of operation?
[Daniel] Like, getting in touch
with a family now to talk to someone
who pushed for legislation,
I think that's something that would be
really good to have for our reporting.
All right. Thanks a lot, Daniel.
- Yeah, thank you, and good luck.
- Talk to you later.
[cow moos]
[whistles]
[sheep bleat]
I love the peace
and quiet here, and the landscape.
It's really completely different
from living in the city.
There are not as many people, just nature.
She always had
a special relationship with animals.
She?
Yeah
[in English] Sorry!
[both chuckle]
So the child always had
a certain way with animals.
[Juliane questions are in italics]
Christiane, when did you find out
that Maxi was intersex?
Three days after I gave birth,
the doctors came to my bedside
and they said that the baby's sex
couldn't be determined.
There was no penis. It would be best
to raise the child as a girl.
At first, I was really terrified,
because I thought,
"I can't make a boy into a girl."
I'm not God Almighty, after all.
I really thought about it a lot.
One day Maxi was playing with a little boy
on our terrace,
and the boy's father said, "What does Maxi
have between his legs? That's weird."
And I thought, if my child can't play
outside naked,
then something needs to change.
And after long and sad discussions
with Maxi's father,
we decided to have the sex reassignment
surgery on the child.
In other words, to remove the testes,
so the child would always be sterile,
and to create a vagina.
[mother takes a deep breath]
Short break?
Yes.
When did you find out
that you were intersex?
At 18, I was told that something
went wrong at my birth.
But back then, the term "inter"
wasn't really used.
I was just told that something
hadn't gone right
and that my sex as a boy
wasn't discernible.
I couldn't explain it to Maxi. I was just,
I'd say, too cowardly to say.
Maxi, were you angry?
I do have a lot of feelings about
to judge what what had happened.
But I think it won't make it any better
[emotionally] Whoa.
Take a break.
[birds tweeting]
Do you have any advice for other parents?
Absolutely no surgeries in infancy.
Wait until the child
can decide independently.
Maxi, do you think Germany is ready
for a third gender?
The third option doesn't restrict
anybody's individual rights.
Anybody can be who they want to be.
And it's important
that we too can be just who we are.
And it's also my dream
that things continue to develop,
that we too can be just who we are,
that it's perceived as normal,
that intersex people exist.
We are an enrichment for humanity.
- I agree.
- Absolutely.
[Juliane] This third gender ruling
is clearly a big deal
for the intersex community,
but it is still just a first step.
I wonder how far
our politicians are willing to go.
I'm going to talk to Katarina Barley,
our Minister of Justice.
She's one of the most powerful politicians
in the country.
And she's also
the only high-ranking politician
who is talking about politics
for intersex.
It's a big get,
and it needs to be perfect.
And I really want to nail her down
on some questions I have.
So far, you're the only minister
who has commented
on the topic of intersex.
Why are you interested in the subject?
The acceptance of a person
as just the way they are
is an expression for a free, and open,
and livable society, in my view.
It seems like this topic is being ignored
and kept under wraps
as much as possible. How do you see this?
Many don't even know what intersex is,
including in the political landscape.
It's not a lack of goodwill,
but rather ignorance.
I'd like to talk about surgeries.
There will certainly be another draft
of a bill to implement a ban on surgeries.
The need to have people assimilate
and assigned a specific gender
has its roots in the Third Reich.
That wasn't the case in the past.
Hermaphrodites have existed
since ancient times,
and they were part of society.
And only since, as I've mentioned,
the Third Reich
did it become the norm not to leave
these people as they are.
The issue is that we're making
the decision for these people
rather than waiting
until they can decide for themselves.
And my point is that,
unless a surgery is necessary
for health reasons,
people should have the right to wait
until they can decide for themselves.
[Juliane in English]
Only one country in the world, Malta,
bans intersex operations in children.
Perhaps, Germany is on course
to follow suit.
[people chattering in German]
- Hey!
- Hi.
[Juliane] Germany has
a very vocal intersex community.
Advocates gather often,
and use their voices to comfort
and inspire one another.
There is an entire system in which we live
that's built upon the notion
of two sexes.
And being intersex and expressing that
confidently to others
questions this order completely,
of course.
And there is opposition accordingly.
It's just good to speak openly about it.
And that it's no longer a secret.
I don't feel like hiding anymore.
I've been hiding my whole life,
and that has to stop at some point.
It's probably a good thing
that the legislative branch decides
that there is a third option.
This gives everyone an opportunity
to get acquainted with the idea.
If we get to the point in ten years
when we can simply accept
this third option
then nobody has to have surgery
the parents of intersex children
don't have to be afraid
their child will be discriminated against.
There are intersex people. Period.
And they need support and deserve a spot.
And if we get to the point in ten years
where there's space for intersex people,
then Oh!
[all laugh]
I'd be over the moon! Yes.
[Juliane in English]
As Germany recognizes a third gender,
it will be interesting to see
how the country continues to evolve,
accepting all genders,
like men, women and intersex,
just as they are.