Mighty hermaphrodite

Can a hermaphrodite (and I use the word loosely) choose its sex? Yes, said our venerable Supreme Court.

In the aptly-titled case of Cagandahan vs. Republic of the Philippines, Jennifer Cagandahan asked the court to change her sex, as indicated in her birth certificate, from female to male. Surprisingly, despite its very recent pronouncement a few months back that a man (Rommel), who had gone sex re-assignment surgery, could not petition for his sex to be changed from male to female, this time, the Supreme Court gave the go-signal.

This was surprising because the earlier case pontificated that Rommel’s prayer to change his sex was not contemplated by any law, and therefore the Supreme Court had no power to grant the prayer. The relief of the trans-gendered Rommel, according to the highest court, was with the lawmakers, not with the courts.

However, in the case of Jennifer, the court went another direction. What gave? 

Jennifer was born genetically female, but she had this condition called Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia, which allows persons to have both male and female characteristics. The case records tell us that Jennifer was diagnosed to have clitoral hyperthropy (whatever that means) in her early years, and she had small ovaries. At age thirteen, her ovarian structures had “minimized” and she had no breast or menstrual development. Because her body was producing androgens like crazy, she developed male characteristics, eventually leading to her having both sexual organs. And since Jennifer identified herself as being male, she filed the petition to change not only her name, but also her sex.

Now Jennifer already won in the Regional Trial Court, but like an idiot, and like it always does in these cases, our Solicitor General’s Office had to go up to the Supreme Court to clog its docket some more. And surprisingly, the Supreme Court didn’t rely on the same reasoning it gave in Rommel’s case. Despite the fact that there is absolutely no law that says a court can change the sex of a person if he or she is a hermaphrodite, the court went ahead and allowed the change.

In doing so, the court officially recognized a new kind of sex: the intersex. (We learn something new every day). According to the court, “intersex” people are human beings who cannot be classified as either male or female, as they have the biological characteristics of both.

(And where does our esteemed Supreme Court get its scientific data? Where else but from the reference pool of all discerning and learned scholars: Wikipedia! Yes, Wikipedia is now an officially recognized source of authorities. At least, in this third world country, it is. So if you want to know who the Gucci Gang is and what they are – check out Wikipedia! The Supreme Court will back you up on that one!)

According to the court, and this is going to be very interesting for academics, biologically, nature had endowed Jennifer with a mixed sexual composition. And if a person is biologically intersex, the determining factor in his gender classification would be what the individual, once he reaches the age of majority, decides to be his/her sex. (That actually leaves the opening for those who believe that homosexuality is genetic to argue that since homosexuality is caused by nature, then gay people are inherently intersex, and therefore they can choose their sex.)

Lastly, the court said it wouldn’t dictate on Jennifer (soon to be Jeff) “concerning a matter so innately private as one’s sexuality and lifestyle preferences.” The court recognized that Jeff had the “human right to the pursuit of happiness and of health” and therefore, he had the choice of what “action to take along the path of his sexual development and maturation.”

For activists, this language just gave plenty of ammo, as one can now construct the argument that sexuality is included within the right to privacy (which is still hotly debated in American courts up to now).    And if the court says human beings (not just intersex beings) have the right to pursue their happiness, and that part of this right includes the right to choose sexual partners – well, hallelujah.  

Did Jeff just open a Pandora’s box? Time will tell!