"Sometimes I feel like committing suicide because it is very difficult when you are rejected by a whole community and also I am jobless," [says the father of the child]....
Having no stable source of income, he sought help from the American embassy.
A doctor came in 2009 from the United States to perform the surgery on young Wesley who required multiple surgeries. The doctor was supposed to return last year to complete the surgery but he didn't.
June 11, 2011
"We were advised to start dressing him like a girl, at the age of six! We didn't know where to start."
Intersexed in Kenya.
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15 comments:
Too bad Oprah's show went off the air!
She would have picked up this story, and ran wild!!
"And you get a car! And you get a car! And you get a car!"
A very sad story. Rather than be glib and post that Book of Mormon song (from the Broadway musical) perhaps some NGO can create a fund to help this father and his young child. The child needs to determine which sex is best with a competent urologist and surgeon and get the necessary treatment.
To do part of the surgery and then abandon the child is horrible. To begin to help, but only make things worse...
Is this for real? Wesley does not sound like a common Keynesian name to me. Should be Saul or Barack or John Kenneth.
Ann, we do not know the circumstances of why the surgery did not go forward. But I would contribute to it going forward now and I am sure many others would do so too.
Where's Little Zero on this?
He wants to bail out Greece and liberate Libya; surely, ZeroCare can fix this little problem.
Seriously, though, it's astounding that the there's no recourse in Kenya or even through the UN (which is the sort of thing it's supposed to do).
madAsHell said...
Too bad Oprah's show went off the air!
She would have picked up this story, and ran wild!!
Sounds more like Ricki Lake or Jerry Springer.
Ann Althouse said...
To do part of the surgery and then abandon the child is horrible. To begin to help, but only make things worse...
Apparently, the American doctor has fallen off the face of the Earth.
The article says nothing about how he got there. Was it something from the US government (maybe a grant ran out, etc.) or a private (maybe religious) organization that just hasn't got the money because of the economy?
One would think there would be some mention of this.
This is off topic (but in a way it is not), but Darleen at PW compared Christopher Titus' rant that Sarah Palin should be killed vs. Tracy Morgan's rant that he would kill his child if he were born gay.
One was widely condemned and one was ignored. Guess which?
I would like to see the videos head to head.
edutcher, there are lots of charity medical groups who go to third world countries to help. It was likely (I do not know for sure) a volunteer program. I do not think the U.S. government should help this child. People should help this child. I hope some exposure gets him in touch with Doctors without Borders or some other similar group to assist.
edutcher, there are lots of charity medical groups who go to third world countries to help. It was likely (I do not know for sure) a volunteer program. I do not think the U.S. government should help this child. People should help this child. I hope some exposure gets him in touch with Doctors without Borders or some other similar group to assist.
I once met a woman who had secondary male sex characterstics. I was sitting at a bar with my wife playing a trivia game. I was in second place behind "Anna."
I looked around the bar, didn't notice any women, and asked aloud, "Who's Anna?"
"I'm Anna." Said the shaggy haired bearded fellow sitting at the bar right beside me.
My first instinct was that I was talking to a literature professor, since we were in a university town and he had a professorial look about him.
"Like Anna Karenina?"
"No, my name is Anna. I'm a woman."
Gulp.
We had a nice, frank conversation after that. Anna was a woman, but had secondary male sex characteristics, like an Adam's apple, deep voice and facial hair. But she also had breasts, I noticed then, and was actually wearing a woman's sweater under her jacket.
Anna's mother had taken medication for diabetes while pregnant, and Anna ended up intersexed to some degree because of it.
I won't presume to know how satisfied she is with her life, but it was clear she found pleasure in intellectual pursuits and social relationships.
It was an eye-opening experience for a young man who had thought sex, orgasms and having children were the primary measures for happiness and success.
Some things must be finished once you start. To leave the surgery unfinished is unconsciounable. The guy should be sued.
Really horrid.
Trey
Maybe Tracy Morgan can sponsor this kid.
My students sign a seating chart and I call on them looking at the seating chart. I assume they are sitting in the right seat. Once, there was a masculine looking guy (with long hair and a ponytail) sitting in the seat that had a completely feminine name like "Rebecca" on the chart. Looking straight at him, I called on "Rebecca." He gave me a look and said nothing. I rechecked the chart, looked at him again and said "Rebecca." The students acted like I was crazy, but what was I supposed to do? A woman *could* look like that, and he was sitting in the Rebecca seat. When he finally gave me his real name, I simply went on with the class. I wasn't going to say anything like "If it's any consolation, you look at most like a very masculine-looking woman." Sit in the right seat, or face the consequences of my unflappable acceptance of human diversity.
Fred, your lips to God's ears.
I wonder why the doctor didn't come back. Did he forget about him? Have trouble getting back into the country? What?
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