This is part of #KaraniwangLGBTQIA, which Outrage Magazine officially launched on July 26, 2015 to offer vignettes of LGBT people/living, particularly in the Philippines, to give so-called “everyday people” – in this case, the common LGBTQIA people – that chance to share their stories.
As Outrage Magazine editor Michael David C. Tan says: “All our stories are valid – not just the stories of the ‘big shots’. And it’s high time we start telling all our stories.”
Dale’s discovery of his intersex variation happened when – at the age of six – he became feverish. He was passed from one doctor to another, starting with a Nueva Ecija-based doctor who initially diagnosed him to have kidney stones; a well-recommended Cabanatuan City-based doctor who told Dale’s parents to limit his water consumption to remedy his kidney issue; and then a City of Manila-based nephrologist who diagnosed Dale to have acute glomerulonephritis (not kidney stones).
It was the latter doctor who, during examination, saw Dale’s genitals. “May kakaiba dito sa genitals ko, so bakit daw ganun (There was something different about my genitals, and she wondered why). So she referred us to this urologist.”
This urologist, in turn, diagnosed Dale to have hypospadia, an intersex variation. In his six-year-old mind at that time, what Dale remembered was the doctor explaining to him and his parents that “with hypospadia, ang daanan ng ihi ko hindi sa mismong tip of the penis, hindi sa urethra. Ang daanan ng ihi ko lower (my urine didn’t pass through my urethra, via the tip of my penis. Mine passed lower),” he recalled.
“Six ako nang malaman ko na hypospadia ako. Sabi ng doktor, late pa daw yun kasi dapat daw yung mga ganung condition, one or two years old pa lang, na-detect na dapat (I was six when I knew I have hypospadia. But the doctor said that was late already, and a condition like mine should have been detected when I was one or two years old).”
Dale underwent surgery to be “corrected”, though the focus of that surgery was to amend his urinary tract. And then he was referred to move to the Philippine General Hospital (PGH), where more doctors saw him. And so it was there – after various tests – where he was told that he needed another surgery to “correct” his body. He and his parents was told, specifically, that urgent surgery had to be done “kasi nagsisimula nang tumubo ang uterus ko. So yun palang nangyari sa scrotum ko, it’s like a premature vagina (because my uterus was developing. Apparently, my scrotum was like a premature vagina).”
Now thinking back to the “corrective normalization procedure” that his parents were talked into doing on him, Dale said “ang goal lang ng parents ko that time gumaling ako. My parents may have decided, but I think this was made through the doctor’s convincing power. Kaya pumapasok tayo sa (So we start talking about) lack of awareness. They decided but I cannot blame them.”
Growing up, Dale didn’t encounter the word “intersex”. “That time, hindi pa kami alam sa term na intersex. Ang alam lang ng mga relatives ko, ‘O di ba naoperahan ka kasi dalawa yung ari mo?’ Yan yung laging sinasabi sa lugar namin sa Nueva Ecija (we didn’t know the term ‘intersex’. But my relatives used to say, ‘Didn’t you get surgery because you have two sets of genitalia? That’s what they used to say in our place in Nueva Ecija).”.
And since he was open about what he experienced while growing up, “may nag-joke sa akin na kaklase ko nung sinabi ko sa kanya anong itsura ng ari ko dati. ‘Paano yan, nag-si-self-pollinate ka?’ Parang ganun (a classmate joked about my condition when I told them about the appearance of my genitalia before surgery. ‘So you self-pollinated?’ They asked something like that).”
In 2021, Dale saw an episode featuring an intersex person in a TV show; this person also had hypospadia, which made Dale curious. This led to him reaching out to Intersex Philippines, Inc. And now, “knowing I’m intersex naging advocate ako. Na kapag ma-bo-brought up yung (I became an advocate after knowing I’m intersex. That every time people bring up the issue of) intersex, there’s a chance that I’ll share. We need advocates because we need to enlighten everyone that we exist. That we are normal people like you.”
In hindsight, there were times when Dale said he couldn’t help thinking if his parents made the right choice.
“What if I didn’t undergo that operation? Would things have been better for me or not? Parang di mo masabi eh (you can’t really tell),” Dale said.
And this is why he believes in furthering the information dissemination on intersex issues by members of the intersex community.
“If I were to be asked, there’s information but not enough. Parang napakababaw pa lang ng information natin on intersex. Kumbaga ito lang yung kaya. Kung sa normal na sakit, o hanggang lagnat lang muna kaya. Trangkaso lang muna (The information about intersex is superficial. As if that’s all we can give out for now. If we’re discussing some illness, it’s like we’re just talking about the fever as a symptom. Just the flu). So we should work to ensure we spread more information.” – WITH MICHAEL DAVID C. TAN
THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE APPEARED IN “I EXISTS”, A COFFEE TABLE BOOK PRODUCED IN 2023 BY INTERSEX PHILIPPINES, INC. (IXPI) TO HIGHLIGHT THAT THE ‘I’ IN THE LGBTQIA ACRONYM EXISTS, AND THAT MANY OF THEIR ISSUES CONTINUE TO BE NEGLECTED EVEN BY THE LGBTQIA COMMUNITY.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON IXPI, OR OF “I EXISTS”, CONTACT IXPI, THE PIONEERING ORGANIZATION FOR INTERSEX PEOPLE IN THE PHILIPPINES.
