California lawmakers will consider banning cosmetic genital surgery on intersex children
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - River Gallo has prosthetic testes he says he never asked for and never wanted. Alice Alvarez says she should have been able to decide for herself before a doctor removed her testicles, which one did when she was an infant.
Both are part of a group supporting a bill in the California Legislature that would ban cosmetic surgeries on children born with atypical genitals until they're old enough to consent. California would be the first state to enact such a ban.
The legislation has made public an emotional debate that has been simmering for decades in the intersex community. Advocacy groups for intersex people - individuals with varying differences in their reproductive or sexual anatomy - have been fighting to postpone medically unnecessary surgeries that they say do more harm than good.
Surgeries in extreme
