Georgina Somerset, British Intersex history, and the I in LGBTQI

Abstract

ABSTRACT There are currently debates inside and outside intersex communities about whether to include the I in LGBTQI+. Intersex has historically been critical in arguments about the boundaries between significant ontological and epistemological categories, particularly: female and male; homosexuality and heterosexuality; and sex, gender and sexuality. There is also a long history of conflation and confusion of categories of sex, gender and sexuality. It is clear that intersex is in some way inseparable from LGBT politics. This article will present the historical case study of Georgina Somerset, a British intersex woman, focusing on 1960–1970. Somerset’s story illustrates both that intersex is different and separate from issues of gender and sexuality, and that intersex is always intimately connected to LGBT issues, whether historically or in contemporary politics. I identify four contemporary tensions that can be illuminated by this history of the entanglements and tensions of LGBT and I: the difficult boundary work between intersex and trans; the association of both intersex and trans with homosexuality; the issues of distraction and instrumentalization; and the affordances and limitations of identity politics. As the “I” was there all along, the politics of recognition might help us generate different discussions of LGBTQI+ politics and responsibilities.