Being intersex is oft-misunderstood and frequently overlooked, not only within the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community but the world at large. In this clip, HuffPost Live spoke with a number of individuals and activists to better understand what it means to be intersex and the way in which stigma becomes attached to the intersex body.
Claudia Astorino, an intersex blogger at Full Frontal Activism, shared with HuffPost live the way in which she didn't feel stigma attached to her identity until later in life.
"I was told that I was born without a uterus, I was told that I wouldn't menstruate or have kids," Astorino said. "That was about the extent of what I knew. It wasn't really until later when I was 13... that they said, 'Oh, it's not that you have no-uterus syndrome or something, you're this thing called intersex.'"
Astorino added, "It was really not clearly described to me what that meant in terms of what my body was like and in terms of what this meant for how I was supposed to operate in the world and think about myself. It was a very jarring difference."
Check out the clip above to hear the rest of Astorino's story, as well as others discussing their experiences growing up as intersex individuals.