Hacker News Reader

Comment by kragen | Hacker News Reader

Ozy is NB AFAB. They used to work as a camgirl and were Scott Alexander’s girlfriend (Ozy’s term, not mine.). Preferred pronoun “they”. I think they've said they find “he” less objectionable than “she” but I'd stick with the preferred pronoun. They are super out about all of this.

View on HN

What's AFAB

Edit - Nevermind..

>AMAB/AFAB is an intersex terminology, for those who were born with ambiguous genitalia. The intersex community is not happy that it is used inappropriately by those whose genitalia at birth was standard for their sex (trans or not). If your genitalia corresponds with your sex, then you are not AMAB/AFAB, as it means “assigned (fe)male at birth”, where “assigned” depicts the the medical personnel’s choice of what sex would be more suitable for this or that particular baby with this or that particular abnormality (intersex conditions are medical abnormalities of fetal development, not a third sex or whatever). For all other babies with normal genitalia there is no assignment, there is an observation of their biological sex (not gender as in gender identity or gender expectations).

>So, please, do not call yourself AMAB if you don’t have an actual intersex condition (doesn’t matter if you are a trans person or not). This is appropriation.

Do you have a source for that, since it seems to be a quote from somewhere? I'm not questioning or challenging you, I actually want to use the link to disseminate this among my companions that use that term for purposes of labeling in trans spaces.

https://medium.com/@zveroferma/amab-afab-is-an-intersex-term...

Interesting, thank you!

I know this is not your writing, and you just stumbled into this, but I am also intersex and am going to call that author out on their BS.

Sex assignment is the official term used for designating a sex to all babies[0] not just intersex ones. As such it is totally correct to use the terms AFAB and AMAB to describe non-intersex trans or even cis people.

The author most likely just has a bone to pick with trans people for using intersex people for their own ends, without sharing their visibility or talking about our issues. Which is a valid grievance, but this is not a valid outlet for it.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_assignment

Thank you for sharing your view. I really appreciate your education on the subject.

I posted my own feelings in another comment, if you're interested. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21139083

I know you're just quoting here, but for the record, the idea that AMAB/AFAB are "owned" by intersex people is bullshit. The terms were invented by the trans community, and a small minority of transphobes want to erase that, but they don't represent the majority of the intersex community or anyone else.

AMAB/AFAB means "they said 'it's a boy/girl' when you were born." That's all.

Sources:

* The reply to your link https://medium.com/p/fb8447cffdee/responses/show

* Reddit discussion https://www.reddit.com/r/asktransgender/comments/7glz6x/does...

* This article https://freedominwickedness.tumblr.com/post/34492218525/once...

Thank you for educating on the subject.

Always fun to spot the "what is X" -> two minute window -> "okay, <strongly-held contrarian opinion about X>" comment pattern.

Thanks for the info! I stand corrected

Reply on news.ycombinator.com