Events

October 12, 2010

Soundbites

Demystifying sexual differences

“What is wrong with me?” This is the question that guest speaker Dani Lee Harris, officer and the LGBT liaison for the Atlanta Police Department, addressed in a dialogue on intersex identity.

Intersex describes those born with ambiguous sexual anatomy.

The Oct. 6 event was hosted by Transforming Community Project and co-sponsored by the Center for Women, the Office of Equal Opportunity Programs and Trans-forming Emory.

The dialogue started with a showing of “One in 2000,” a provocative documentary whose title is derived from the statistic that one in 2,000 babies is born with anatomy that doesn’t clearly mark them as male or female.

“I’m just uniquely different. Who can raise their hand and say that they’re not different?” asked Harris. “The way I look at it is that my differences are just different from your differences.”

Harris shared her personal experience with intersex issues, admitting that in high school she was “the biggest homophobic” and bullied kids because of her own pain she was struggling with inside.

“I have to deal with [the] rejection of society because things are different. Because they are different and not understood, sometimes they’re not accepted, and that makes it even more difficult to live with yourself,” she said.

After serving 14 years in law enforcement, Harris has dedicated her life to sharing her story and informing the public about intersex issues.

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