“New York has opened the door and I don’t think they’ll be able to shut it again.”
On Tuesday, Sara Kelly Keenan became the first person in the US to be identified as intersex when she received her birth certificate in the post.
Intersex is a general term used for a variety of conditions in which a person is born with a reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t seem to fit the typical definitions of female or male.
Keenan, who uses female pronouns, was born intersex with male genes, female genitalia and mixed internal reproductive organs.
Her certificate is believed to the first ever issued in the US that that reads “intersex” in the gender field, instead of “male” or “female.”
Keenan’s adoptive father hails from Castlerea in Co Roscommon.
In an interview with Mic, Keenan who is 55-years-old, called the birth certificate “empowering” and “shocking”. Although she knew that her request had been approved in December, she was wary of a last-minute change which may scupper her chances of getting the correct gender on paper.
“It felt incredibly wonderful to see that word plastered there as truth and reality, as nothing to be ashamed of,” she said. “Just truth.”
According to NBC, Keenan was unaware of her anatomical reality for most of her life as her doctors and parents had agreed to keep it a secret.
When she was born she was originally classified as a boy, but three weeks later was she was issued a female birth certificate.
“I always knew I was something other than what the boys were and something other than what the girls were, but I didn’t know what that was,” she told Mic. “And I thought I was alone in the world with whatever it was.
“New York has opened the door and I don’t think they’ll be able to shut it again,” she said.
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