As a deep sea biologist, I have had my fair share of odd creatures and recognize that life all over the planet is more diverse in so many ways than our preconceived notions will ever imagine. As I am sure you know hermaphroditism is very common in the animal kingdom and encompass several degrees. In fact many species could not persist otherwise! I’d recommend reading Evolution’s Rainbow by Joan Roughgarden if you haven’t already.

I hope you keep reading us and whenever someone says degrades you, you can tell them that actually this is very common in the animal kingdom and use examples from our blog (we have several! hermaphroditism of several sorts is very persistent in the deep sea).

Protogynous cases outnumber them by over 100:1. Those are due to either 5alpha-reductase-2 deficiency (5alpha-RD-2) or 17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase-3 deficiency (17beta-HSD-3). Quite a few thousand such cases would exist in the USA alone. Boys who were born looking like girls.

Who likes us? Not many. Bureaucracies hate us, we’re not supposed to change sex at all. If we do, we’re supposed to have letters from surgeons, or they won’t change our records. This only affects us a little bit, such as when we apply for a drivers license, a passport, a marriage license, go in a federal building or attempt to fly, or get a job (as our social security records show a mismatch). As long as we don’t attempt to do any of those, we’re OK.

Some religious groups think we should be exterminated as we’re spawn of the devil. Regardless of your actual sexual orientation, you’ll be labelled as a homosexual by definition, and often a pervert and a pedophile. In some jurisdictions we’re put on registers of sex offenders automatically, due to our medical condition. No arrest, no charge, no trial or conviction required.

Mentioning one’s medical his-story to a guy who you’re dating is of course not without risk. Many juries wouldn’t convict if you end up in the ER or the morgue as the result.

But it could be worse. We get some unusual views on the human condition. For those where the change is in the right direction for their congenital neurology (about 2 in 3 we think), it cures existing transsexuality. Those whose change is in the wrong direction can often obtain medical intervention to halt things.

Not many know of our existence. Fewer know of the entirely avoidable legal problems we face in the US and elsewhere. So some of us end up commenting in all sorts of places – even Deep-Sea News.

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Regarding “everyone’s favorite clownfish”….What Disney does not tell you is that if Nemo’s mother actually died, his father would become the dominant female and would actually pair up with Nemo.

Nemo would be doing some incestual spawning with his “father” !