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Intersex
Also written: Intersex, Intersex people
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At a glance
Source-by-source
“Where appropriate, use examples of same-sex partners and families, and LGBQQTIA2-S (lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, questioning, transgender, intersex, asexual, two-spirit) people's lives and experiences.”
SumOfUs lists 'intersex' on its accepted-terms list for the Gender/Sex section and includes intersex in its LGBQQTIA2-S acronym alongside other specific identity terms. The guide pre-dates the more developed intersex/transgender distinction made explicit by interACT and later journalism stylebooks.
“While some people can be born with intersex traits and also identify as transgender, the two are separate and should not be conflated.”
interACT's media guide — the corpus's dedicated intersex source — prescribes 'intersex' as the standard umbrella term and pairs the definition with a precision rule: intersex is a sex-characteristics variation, distinct from gender identity. The guide rejects 'hermaphrodite' as outdated, medically inaccurate, and derogatory, and treats 'Disorders of Sex Development (DSD)' as controversial and pathologizing — though it honors individual choice when intersex people use DSD language for themselves.
“The Sierra Club uses 'LGBTQI' as a default term for people who identify as gay, transgender, bi, intersex, or queer. 'Gay' and 'queer' are also available to people as a self-description of their own community. Ask the person you are referring to how they would like to be described.”
Sierra Club includes intersex in its default LGBTQI umbrella and treats it as a self-identification-keyed term — appropriate when requested or used by the subject. The framing groups intersex with sexual-orientation and gender-identity terms inside one acronym; per interACT's distinction, journalists working from Sierra Club's guidance should hold the cross-axis precision rule separately.
“Avoid the outdated and derogatory term 'hermaphrodite.' While some people can have an intersex condition and also identify as transgender, the two are separate and should not be conflated.”
DSG defines intersex as the umbrella term for anatomy or chromosome patterns that don't fit typical male/female classifications, and pairs it with the standard precision rules: avoid 'hermaphrodite,' and treat intersex and transgender as separate categories even though individuals can hold both. The entry uses intersex strictly as an adjective.
“Intersex people can be any gender and may or may not consider themselves trans. Further, not all people with intersex traits publicly identify as intersex; do not apply this label to someone who does not use it themself. Do not use intersex as a noun.”
TJA's 2026 stylebook treats intersex as an adjective and operationalizes three precision rules: intersex people can be any gender and may or may not be trans (the cross-axis rule); not all people with intersex traits identify as intersex publicly (the self-identification rule); and intersex is not a noun. The entry defers to interACT's coverage guide for deeper guidance.
Synthesis
The center of the intersex entry is the cross-axis rule that runs through every dedicated source: intersex is not a sexual orientation and not a gender identity. It is a category about sex characteristics. interACT, the corpus’s dedicated intersex source, draws the line: “While some people can be born with intersex traits and also identify as transgender, the two are separate and should not be conflated.” DSG uses nearly the same framing; TJA’s 2026 stylebook adds operational detail: “Intersex people can be any gender and may or may not consider themselves trans.” The chapter includes intersex because that is where readers will look for it, but the cross-axis rule is the constraint that matters: intersex should never be used as a sexual-orientation or gender-identity term, and it should not be folded into framings that imply it is one.
The corpus agrees on intersex as the standard umbrella term for the range of sex-characteristic variations that don’t fit typical male/female classifications. interACT and DSG both reject “hermaphrodite” — interACT calls it outdated, medically inaccurate, and derogatory; DSG marks it outdated and derogatory. The newer term “Disorders of Sex Development” (DSD) is handled more carefully: interACT calls it controversial and pathologizing but honors individual choice when intersex people use DSD language for themselves. Never apply DSD as a writer-imposed term, but don’t override its use by an intersex person who has chosen it.
Two self-identification rules are unique to this entry, both from TJA: don’t apply “intersex” as a label to someone who doesn’t use it for themselves (not everyone with intersex traits publicly identifies that way), and intersex is an adjective, not a noun. The first rule applies broadly. Sierra Club’s “ask the person you are referring to how they would like to be described” rule covers intersex as cleanly as any other identity term. The second is shared with TJA’s adjective rule for transgender, bisexual, and queer; DSG also uses intersex strictly as an adjective. Sierra Club’s default LGBTQI acronym groups intersex with sexual-orientation and gender-identity terms inside one umbrella, useful for coalition framing, but per interACT’s distinction the cross-axis precision rule stays separate.
Audience notes
- Journalists. Don’t introduce intersex into a story about a transgender subject (or vice versa) without verifying with the subject. The two categories overlap empirically — some people are both intersex and transgender — but the categories themselves are distinct, and the corpus treats conflating them as a substantive accuracy failure, not a politeness failure. Use the term the subject uses for themselves; if the subject doesn’t use “intersex,” don’t apply it.
- Coalition writing and acronyms. When the “I” appears in LGBTQI+ or LGBTQIA+ acronyms, name the intersex community as distinct from sexual-orientation and gender-identity communities. Intersex inclusion in coalition acronyms is widely accepted in the corpus; the precision rule is to honor that inclusion as multi-axis solidarity rather than as a flattening of categories.
- Medical writing. “Disorders of Sex Development” (DSD) is contested terminology. interACT’s framing is the corpus’s clearest: avoid DSD as a default; honor it when individual intersex people have chosen it for themselves. Medical settings sometimes default to DSD because that’s the diagnostic-code language; that’s a place where the writer-imposed term diverges from community-preferred language, and the corpus rule is to follow community language outside the diagnostic context.
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