For months, a conservative-backed wave of anti-transgender legislation has taken the country by storm, leading this year to have the most anti-LGBTQ laws enacted in American history. And the laws are likely to have a negative effect on intersex people just as they are on trans and gender non-conforming people — but for a different reason. Intersex people and advocates are trying to stop widely accepted medical surgeries where babies and children’s intersex characteristics are altered to conform them to a sex assigned to them at birth. Such permanent procedures might not conform with the child’s gender identity or desire for their own body, and they are condemned by the U.N. But anti-trans advocates are seeking to further encourage such “corrections.” The word “intersex” refers to people who are born with sexual characteristics that don’t fit societal or medical norms for male or female bodies. Many of these traits are visible at birth, some may not become visible until puberty, but some variations may not even be visible in adulthood without testing.