# Intersexed and Marriage

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intersexed-and-marriage/311395>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [July 7, 2005, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intersexed-and-marriage/311395 "2005-07-07T02:17:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Erwin\_Chemerinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Erwin\_Chemerinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erwin_Chemerinsky)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intersexed-and-marriage/311395/1 "2005-07-07T02:17:38Z")

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Who can an intersexed person legally marry? Who can someone who has a 5-alpha-reductase deficiency who was identified as female at birth and has external female genitalia (with an enlarged clitoris) and is a chromosomal male marry legally?

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**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intersexed-and-marriage/311395/2 "2005-07-07T02:22:00Z")

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I would expect that the law would view such a person as being the sex that is noted on his/her birth certificate.

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**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intersexed-and-marriage/311395/3 "2005-07-07T03:00:39Z")

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…but of course, the law varies from locale to locale.

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**Author:** ![Erwin\_Chemerinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Erwin\_Chemerinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erwin_Chemerinsky)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intersexed-and-marriage/311395/4 "2005-07-07T03:05:32Z")

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Ok, how about in Texas?

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**Author:** ![Erwin\_Chemerinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ce73a5/32.png) [@Erwin\_Chemerinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erwin_Chemerinsky)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intersexed-and-marriage/311395/5 "2005-07-07T03:06:55Z")

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Or Michigan in honor of _Middlesex_.

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**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\
**Post date:** [July 7, 2005, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intersexed-and-marriage/311395/6 "2005-07-07T13:35:09Z")

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It’s going to depend on state law, and no one you’re not paying is going to spend much time trying to figure out what it would be in any given state.

That’s assuming that there even is an answer in some states. The question probably comes up rarely enough that many places, especially non-urbanized ones, have never had to deal with it.

–Cliffy