Intersex professor fears she will be forced to lie by teaching ‘only male and female’

An associate professor at The University of New Mexico says that she is concerned she will be forced to lie and teach that there are only two genders, male and female. 

Georgiann Davis, an associate professor at The University of New Mexico, wrote in an op-ed Thursday in the Los Angeles Times that she is concerned about being forced to lie when speaking about sexuality. The piece was headlined, “I’m an intersex professor. Am I supposed to lie by teaching ‘only male and female’?”

She noted a viral video on Reddit of a Texas A&M student questioning Professor Melissa McCoul over rhetoric on “gender and sexuality” and “gender ideology.” 

McCoul shared a graphic of a purple “gender unicorn” that’s used to teach on differences on gender identity and sexuality, according to The Texas Tribune. 

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“Um, I just have a question because I’m not entirely sure this is legal to be teaching,” the female asked in the video referred to by Davis. “Because according to our president, there’s only two genders…. And this also very much goes against not only myself, but a lot of people’s religious beliefs.”

McCoul was eventually fired over what the university claimed was teaching content inconsistent with her own course’s description.

A statement from former Texas A&M President Mark A. Welsh III, who recently stepped down from his role, addressed the controversy in a post last month on Texas A&M’s X account.

“I learned this afternoon that key leaders in the College of Arts and Sciences approved plans to continue teaching course content that was not consistent with the course’s published description,” Welsh said. “As a result, I directed the provost to remove the dean and department head from their administrative positions, effective immediately.”

Davis said she is worried about “consequences” if she teaches “honestly.” 

“As someone who also teaches in the Southwest, I find myself scared — scared of what consequences might follow if I teach well and honestly,” Davis wrote. 

“Especially now, as misinformation about bodies spreads, with President [Donald] Trump and others insisting people are exclusively male or female — a narrow, politically charged ‘gender ideology’ of their own invention,” she added. 

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Davis, who was born with “a vagina but no ovaries, uterus or fallopian tubes” as well as “XY chromosomes and internal, undescended testes,” said she is concerned about having to lie to her students about sexuality. 

“So I ask myself: Should I lie to my students,” Davis wrote. “Should I deny that intersex people exist as a biological reality? Should I pretend, as the Texas A&M student wishes and Trump supports, that sex is a simple binary that perfectly aligns with gender and a simplistic view of sexuality?”

The professor, who is the author of “Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis,” and “Five Star White Trash,” said that intersex people are a “biological fact,” and that Trump’s rhetoric on there only being two genders is “scientifically wrong.”  

The Cleveland Clinic estimates that 1 in 100 Americans are intersex, and about 2% of people around the world have intersex characteristics.

“This is why I’m scared to do my job,” Davis wrote. “Should I stand before my students and lie to them about biological reality? That would be the only way to comply with an order to acknowledge only males and females; informed and honest teachers cannot go along with that fiction.”

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In a statement to Fox News Digital, Davis said that she feels it is a lie to teach there are two genders, “because sex isn’t as simple as male or female, which any honest biologist, endocrinologist, gynecologist, geneticist… the list is endless… will tell you.”

“And I refuse to lie to my students about the existence of intersex people because of some political ideological war,” Davis added. “I prefer facts. I was born with a vagina and internal testes. That’s not an ideology. That’s reality.”