Raised a girl, Free as a man
by Mary Papadakis
Sunday Herald Sun, 30th May, 2004
P O Box 14634, Melbourne City Mail Centre, Victoria, 8001 Australia
(Fax.: +61-3-9292-2080) (E-mail: shsletters@hwt.newsltd.com.au )
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A rare intersex condition robbed Tony Briffa of
his childhood.
Despite being genetically male, he was thrown into a world of irreversible and invasive surgical procedures and encouraged to play with dolls because doctors believed he should be raised as a girl.
Mr Briffa, 34, was born with partial androgen insensitivity syndrome – a genetic condition in which the body is unable to respond fully to hormones called androgens, and male and female sexual characteristics exist to varying degrees. It affects about one in every 130,000 people.
When he was born, doctors couldn't determine whether he was a boy or girl and thought it was easier he be raised as a girl with his non-identical twin sister, Catherine.
Mr Briffa, an aerospace engineer and foster father of siblings Monique, 15, and Chris, 12, always felt like a misfit. His early memories are of being examined at the Royal Children's Hospital.
"I felt like a freak. I knew there was something different by the way they treated me. I was some sort of curiosity."
At seven, he was castrated. At 11, he started estrogen therapy, causing him to grow breasts.
Mr Briffa, president of the Genetic Support Network of Victoria, told doctors at 12, he wasn't a girl.
"Everyone kept trying to convince me I was," he said. "No matter how much I hated dolls, I'd always get them for Christmas."
Things became more confusing for Mr Briffa when he started high school at Altona's Mount St Joseph Girls' College.
Mr Briffa, born without a uterus or ovaries, knew he didn't belong.
"I wasn't like my twin sister and the other girls at school," he said. They would always talk about things like boys and periods. I couldn't relate to it."
Mr Briffa, a Hobsons Bay activist, started life as a male as an adult.
He spoke out about his ordeal after what he
describes as an attempt by Municipal Association of Victoria president Brad
Matheson to discredit him before the elections.
Cr Matheson publicly referred to Mr Briffa's past life as an ALP member named
"Antoinette".
Mr Briffa, of Altona, who is taking legal action over his medical treatment, said his condition was kept in the dark.
"I didn't know I was genetically male until I was 16 or the true nature of my condition until I was 30," he said.
He is calling on the Government to stop irreversible procedures being performed on children.
Mr Briffa said he had come to terms with his ordeal thanks to the support of wonderful friends, family and colleagues.
"I have absolutely nothing to hide, nothing to be ashamed of and everything to be proud of."
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