You are reading

Dromm’s Intersex Bill Passes City Council, Aims to Educate Public About ‘Unnecessary Medical Treatments’

Council Member Danny Dromm (John McCarten, NYC Council via Flickr)

April 24, 2021 By Ryan Songalia

The parents of babies with intersex traits are often persuaded by the medical establishment to have their newborns undergo unnecessary genital surgeries, according to Council Member Daniel Dromm.

A bill passed the city council earlier this week, sponsored by Dromm, that aims to bring attention to these “unnecessary treatments” and requires the Department of Health to conduct public outreach campaigns to inform parents and the medical establishment about the implications of such surgeries.

Often children who undergo these treatments grow up identifying with a different gender. The long-term results can be psychologically damaging. The bill passed last week aims to help New Yorkers understand the adverse effects of such treatments.

“Parents of infants with intersex traits are often forced to rely on quackery masquerading as medical science, leading them to make decisions that inflict life-long physical and psychological trauma on their children,” Dromm posted to twitter last year reported Gay City News.

The surgeries are not reversible, and raise questions about medical consent and stigmatization.

“We cannot as a movement, or as a society for that matter, say that we respect the right to bodily integrity and the foundational concept of consent yet ignore the injustices perpetrated by much of the medical establishment against our intersex siblings,” said Dromm about the bill, titled Intro. 1748-A.

“Intro. 1748-A does not make any decisions for anyone; it simply aims to share accurate information about intersex traits and variations in sex characteristics,” Dromm said.

Kyle Knight, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, calls the bill a “significant step” towards intersex children being protected against “coercive and unnecessary” medical procedures.

“New York’s hospitals should follow the Council’s lead and celebrate intersex lives instead of attempting to change intersex people’s bodies before they can walk or talk, let alone make such a major medical decision for themselves,” said Knight.

Up to 1.7 percent of the world population are born with intersex traits, according to the United Nations.

email the author: news@queenspost.com
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.


The reCAPTCHA verification period has expired. Please reload the page.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Repeat hate crime offender charged in anti-Muslim subway attack in Forest Hills: DA

A Southeast Queens man is being held without bail after he was criminally charged with assault in the first degree as a hate crime and other charges for allegedly punching and kicking a Muslim woman on an E train in Forest Hills during the early morning hours of Wednesday, June 18.

Naved Durrni, 34, of 106th Avenue in Jamaica, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Thursday and additionally charged with aggravated harassment in the first and second degrees.

Hate Crimes Task Force investigating bomb threats against Mamdani: NYPD

The NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force launched a probe into multiple death threats made against Assembly Member Zohran Mamdani after his district office at 24-08 32nd St. in Astoria received four expletive-filled phone voicemails, on various dates, making threatening anti-Muslim statements by an unknown individual, including a threat to blow up his car.

The calls were made from an untraceable number and labeled the mayoral candidate a “terrorist who is not welcome in New York or America” in a message phoned in on Wednesday morning.

Seven teens indicted for attempted murder in brutal Kissena Park gang attack on two girls: DA

A Queens grand jury indicted seven teenagers for attempted murder, gang assault, robbery, and other crimes for an attack on two girls inside Kissena Park in Flushing in early May.

The defendants, who are all 17 years old, were variously arraigned in Queens Supreme Court between June 4 and Wednesday in two separate 25-count indictments with two counts of attempted murder in the second degree. If convicted, they face up to 25 years in prison.