Draft:Interphobia

Interphobia describes an irrational fear, hatred, or disgust against intersex people and intersex traits.

Causes
The causes of interphobia are complex and often are related to homophobia and transphobia. Intersex people prior to the 1900s were primarily labeled "hermaphrodites," and assigned a sex based off the appearance of the external genitalia. Sometimes if natural development led to atypical phenotypical hormones an individual would sometimes be reassigned a sex, this occurred in the case of Callon of Epidaurus in ancient Greece.

During the 1950s especially in the US intersexuality began being seen a developmental disease. A theory relating to gender identity as inherently sociological founded primarily in Johns Hopkins University stated intersex children as a "sociological threat," and individuals with atypical genitalia should be "corrected" to align with the endosex population. Primarily as vaginoplasty was far more developed then phalloplasty, individuals born sterile with a microphallus were often assigned female at birth. Under the model of the "optimum gender rearing model" (OGR) after a sex assignment was been made, gender identity was thought could be learned through socialization and medicalization into cisgender heterosexual individual who could engage in penetrative sex. Following this intersex civil organizations emerged against forced medicalization, particularly with the founding of the Intersex Society of North America and the publication of individuals who had underwent physiological distress from the OGR particularly David Reimer.

Effects
The effects of Interphobia are diverse and leads to further stigmitization. Individuals with intersex variations may be fearful of sharing information, which can in turn lead to feelings of isolation, and depression, as well as making intersex individuals less likely to seek medical care. Organizations like the ISNA was founded with the goal of ending intersex stigmatization.