206. The Intersex Lie: Róisín Michaux on How Queer Theory Hijacked a Rare Medical Condition

Writer Róisín Michaux investigates women's rights and free speech in the context of the transgender movement. Róisín brings a uniquely European lens to her research, exposing how LGBTIQ activist organizations in Europe are heavily state-funded — unlike the U.S., where private foundations like the Rockefellers and Ford Foundation dominate — and how this funding pipeline has turbocharged some of the most extreme gender ideology we're seeing today.

We dig deep into intersex activism: what it actually is, who's behind it, and why it matters for parents navigating the gender craze with their children. Róisín explains the crucial distinction between people with genuine disorders of sexual development (DSDs) — rare, named medical conditions like congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), Turner syndrome, and complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS) — and the largely queer-theory-driven "intersex identity" movement that has very little to do with medicine and everything to do with dismantling the sex binary.

We also explore the history of brain sex research, how trans activists strategically abandoned the science when it stopped serving them, and how self-ID legislation spread from Argentina to across Europe through incremental legal maneuvers. I close with an important note for parents: understanding the politics of intersex activism is valuable, but knowing how to actually talk to your child about these issues is a different skill altogether — one I teach in ROGD Repair.

Róisín Michaux is an Irish writer based in Brussels, Belgium. She writes about women's rights and free speech in the context of the transgender movement. She is specifically interested in LGBTIQ activism, activists' relationship to EU/European bureaucracies, the funding they receive, and how it has all led to deep and anti-democratic policy capture. She has 2 kids and a cocker spaniel. Follow her on X @RoisinMichaux or on Substack at Peaked.

[00:00:00] Start
[00:02:00] What Is Intersex Activism and Why It Matters
[00:07:00] DSDs vs. Intersex Identity: Two Separate Worlds
[00:16:00] The Top Line Demand: Stop All Infant Surgeries
[00:17:00] Origins of Intersex Activism and John Money's Legacy
[00:28:00] Activists vs. Doctors: The Surgery Moratorium Debate
[00:36:00] The Real Agenda: Queering the Sex Binary
[00:47:00] The Brain Sex Hypothesis and Why Activists Abandoned It
[00:54:00] The 1993 Amsterdam Meeting and the Pivot to Self-ID
[01:01:00] How Self-ID Laws Crept Through European Courts
[01:08:00] Government Funding and How Fringe Ideology Goes Mainstream
[01:16:00] Creating Iatrogenic Intersex with Cross-Sex Hormones
[01:19:00] DSD Families, the UK Supreme Court, and CAIS
[01:24:00] The "Consent at 12" Framework and the Trans Agenda
[01:29:00] Medical Necessity vs. Trans Activist Demands
[01:36:00] Infighting, Identity, and the Mess of Merging Medicine with Politics
[01:39:00] PCOS, Testosterone, and a Word for Parents

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Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.

Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.

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