“Support the Shit Out of Them:” Intersex Emerging Adults’ Recommendations for Caregivers of an Intersex Child

Caregivers can play a key role in helping intersex children face a world in which intersex issues are often misunderstood, pathologized, and stigmatized. However, there is a dearth of literature centering intersex individuals’ perspectives, experiences, and needs. In order to aid caregivers in becoming more positive socialization influences for their intersex children, we explored intersex emerging adults’ recommendations for caregivers of an intersex child based on their own experiences growing up. Consultants from interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth advised on this project throughout design, recruitment, analysis, and reporting stages. Guided by a critical intersex perspective and social cognitive theory, the first author conducted interviews with 28 emerging adults (ages 18–29) who identify as intersex and/or have a variation in sex characteristics. Using thematic analysis to analyze these interviews, the coding team identified four themes of recommendations for caregivers of an intersex child based on participants’ experiences growing up: (a) Make it Okay to Talk About, (b) Get Informed and Connected, (c) Center Your Child’s Choices and Feelings, and (d) Disrupt Systems of Oppression. These findings suggest that caregivers in the lives of intersex children and adolescents work to break the silence around intersex topics, seek education about intersex issues, connect to resources, center the child’s feelings and choices, and disrupt systems of oppression that harm intersex individuals.