As it stands in the United States today (2017), there is very little being done, legally, to prevent corrective surgery from being performed on children. There is little to stop the pain and emotional suffering which these children endure as a result of society, doctors, and their parents deeming them a “social emergency.”

On the upside, there are advocacy groups such as The Advocates for Informed Choice ( a.k.a interACT advocates) who have intervened in order to protect intersex individuals personally. InterACT advocates were able to stand up and fight in the M.C. v Aaronson court case, a famous U.S. case in which a child underwent corrective genital surgery while in the custody of the state of South Carolina. The child, a boy only mentioned as “M.C.”, was officially transitioned into a female due to the way in which their intersex condition affected their genital development. When “M.C.” was adopted by Mark and Pam Crawford, they discovered what had occurred to their child and promptly took to the media for support. The interACT Advocates group aided this family in the struggle for justice by filing lawsuits at the state and fedearl levels against South Carolina.

We hope that by speaking out and taking legal action, we will help other children born with intersex conditions and their families avoid suffering the pain that our son will be forced to deal with for the rest of his life. —Pam Crawford

The advice buried within Mrs. Crawford's quote is crucial to preventing this incident from happening again to another intersex child:

“SPEAK OUT”

“TAKE LEGAL ACTION”

The first step to stopping corrective genital surgery MUST be to begin speaking out about intersex treatment. Speaking about the intersex condition helps demonstrate acknowledgement of the existence of the condition, making it a critial step to stopping corrective surgery. Speaking in public about the condition, discussing it online, and posting about it on social media spreads awareness of the intersex condition and educates the public about what the condition is, how it affects the children born with it, and how surgical intervention could be harmful and damaging to children both mentally and physically.

Speaking out with friends, family, and co-workers online and offline is not the only way in which individuals can do their part to help create awareness of intersexuality‐ you can talk to your goverment officials. The United States' Constitution and the First Amendment gives all U.S. citizens the right to share their opinions and beliefs without fear of any repercussions. Thus, it is important to take advantage of this right to the fullest extent— contact anyone, including your local mayor, members of Congress... even the President of the United States! By speaking about intersex rights with government officials, either over the phone, through email or through letters to those officials, it is easy to spread the word and make it known that this is an issue you believe to be important. Talking to city officials and your representatives in congress can be the first steps to helping promote positive treatment of intersexuals in U.S. society.

Here are some important topics to bring up when discussing intersex and corrective surgery with officials:

• Intersex rights to their own bodies— This is an important topic to cover, as intersex children are commonly altered upon birth, or shortly thereafter in the months that follow their birth. Discuss the intersex child's right to providing informed consent prior to their surgical procedure, and cite the Columbian cases from the Global Treatment page.
• The possibility of outlawing corrective genital surgery until the child is old enough to provide this informed consent. This would create a need for the topic below, intersex birth certificates.
• Intersex birth certificates— As of right now, it is most common for intersex children to be altered physically in order to properly correspond with the gender that their genitalia would most likely resemble normally (male or female). If there was enough of an uproar about stopping corrective surgery, then there would be a need for birth certificates beyond those stating “male” and “female”. There would be a need for birth certificates stating “intersex” for the sex of the child, allowing the child to be aware of their condition, and allowing the child to grow up without corrective surgery until they decide whether or not to transition into male or female through genital surgery.