The Intersexes: A History of Similisexualism as a Problem in Social Life (1906) is a work of nonfiction by Edward Irenaeus Prime-Stevenson. Written while Prime-Stevenson was living as an expatriate in Europe, The Intersexes is a defense of homosexuality grounded in scientific and historical research. Throughout his career, Prime-Stevenson sought to dispel falsehoods surrounding the history and social acceptance of homosexuality. Writing under the pseudonym Xavier Mayne, Prime-Stevenson took great care to insulate himself from the reprisal common to the period in which he worked. Despite his limited audience—copies of his works numbered in the hundreds—Prime-Stevenson is now recognized as a pioneering advocate for the rights of the LGBTQ community. “Between a protozoan and the most perfect development of the mammalia, we trace a succession of dependent intersteps...A trilobite is at one end of Nature's workshop: a Spinoza, a Shakespeare, a Beethoven is at the other. [...] Why have we set up masculinity and femininity as processes that have not perfectly logical and respectable inter-steps?” Seeking to defend homosexuality as a natural result of human evolution, Prime-Stevenson offers his theory of intersexes, of which he identifies two while leaving room for more to be defined in the future. To do so, he rejects the binary of masculine and feminine, both of which fail to describe the vast majority of humanity, in favor of a broader spectrum of sexual identity. Using the terms Uranian and Uraniad, which align with gay and lesbian respectively, Prime-Stevenson attempts to define these types, call attention to historical examples, and critique the societal condemnation and persecution of such individuals as “degenerate” or “criminal.” This groundbreaking study, perhaps the first to approach homosexuality from a scientific, historical, personal, and legal point of view, is recognized today as a landmark in queer literature by academics around the world. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Edward Irenaeus Prime-Stevenson’s The Intersexes: A History of Similisexualism as a Problem in Social Life is a classic work of queer literature reimagined for modern readers.

Focusing on intersexuality, having physical gender markers that are neither female or male, the author examines the social institutions that are mobilized to maintain the two seemingly objective sexual categories. She argues that we need to rethink the meaning of gender, genitals and sexuality.

Punctuated with remarkable case studies, this book explores extraordinary encounters between hermaphrodites--people born with "ambiguous" sexual anatomy--and the medical and scientific professionals who grappled with them. Alice Dreger focuses on events in France and Britain in the late nineteenth century, a moment of great tension for questions of sex roles. While feminists, homosexuals, and anthropological explorers openly questioned the natures and purposes of the two sexes, anatomical hermaphrodites suggested a deeper question: just how many human sexes are there? Ultimately hermaphrodites led doctors and scientists to another surprisingly difficult question: what is sex, really? Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex takes us inside the doctors' chambers to see how and why medical and scientific men constructed sex, gender, and sexuality as they did, and especially how the material conformation of hermaphroditic bodies--when combined with social exigencies--forced peculiar constructions. Throughout the book Dreger indicates how this history can help us to understand present-day conceptualizations of sex, gender, and sexuality. This leads to an epilogue, where the author discusses and questions the protocols employed today in the treatment of intersexuals (people born hermaphroditic). Given the history she has recounted, should these protocols be reconsidered and revised? A meticulously researched account of a fascinating problem in the history of medicine, this book will compel the attention of historians, physicians, medical ethicists, intersexuals themselves, and anyone interested in the meanings and foundations of sexual identity.

When Richard Goldschmidt' coined the term "intersexuality" in 1915, he intended it to apply to normally dioecious species which exhibit some kind of mixture between male and female characters. However, as knowledge of the bewildering variability present in the sexual orga nization of members of the animal kingdom has increased, the original meaning of the word has changed. Today many authors define inter sexuality as "the presence of both male and female characteristics, or of intermediate sexual characteristics, in a single individual".2 This more extensive and widely accepted concept justifies the title of our book •. Among all the anatomical and physiological features of living organisms the reproductive system has a unique importance for the perpetuation of the species. Conversely, reproductive processes are of little or no account for the viability of the individual. Therefore, within the framework of general biology reproduction has all too often been looked at solely from the point of view of genetics. Lively discussions about genotypic versus phenotypic sex determination long dominated the sci entific literature on sexuality in animals; this one-sided emphasis has tended to obscure many important facets of an organism's ability to reproduce. Recent developments in current biological research have brought the classic problem of sex differentiation into focus again, and the rapid progress being made in comparative endocrinology has added a new di mension to the study of reproductive biology.

"This report examines the physical and psychological damage caused by medically unnecessary surgery on intersex people, who are born with chromosomes, gonads, sex organs, or genitalia that differ from those seen as socially typical for boys and girls. The report examines the controversy over the operations inside the medical community, and the pressure on parents to opt for surgery"--Publisher's description.

Vols. for 1911-13 contain the Proceedings of the Helminothological Society of Washington, ISSN 0018-0120, 1st-15th meeting.