AJC.com: Atlanta policewoman understands at last why her voice is deep, why she’s attracted to women and why she can grow a full beard. And she’s OK with it.
Anger doesn’t live under Darlene Harris’ skin anymore.
It’s melting away — the same way bad memories do — along with the confusion she has carried from a rocky childhood in New York City’s housing projects to her life as an Atlanta police officer.
She now knows why her voice is so deep, why she’s always been attracted to women, why she can grow a full beard.
Harris is intersex — someone whose internal or external sexual anatomy or chromosomes don’t fit the typical definitions of female or male at birth or puberty, according to Sharon Preves, a sociology professor and intersex researcher from St. Paul, Minn.
Genetic testing recently revealed that Harris carries the XY chromosomes of a male while having external sexual anatomy that appears to be a blend of a man’s and woman’s.
“It was like, ‘OK, I’m not crazy,’ ” said Harris, 35, who was identified as a female at birth and has lived her adult life as a lesbian, feeling like a man in a woman’s body.
“It was like a burden had been lifted. All of these things came together full circle at that moment. I now understood the reason why I am the way I am.”
As a result, the five-year Atlanta police veteran has come out of the closet again, this time as intersex, first to her family and friends and then publicly at an intersex workshop in Atlanta in May. She says her openness serves a dual purpose: helping heal wounds caused by a “life of confusion” and helping others who are going through similar experiences.
An estimated 1 in 2,000 people are considered intersex, and numerous medical conditions cause it, said Preves, who wrote the book, “Intersex and Identity: the Contested Self,” in 2003.
People become intersex when they have overactive or underactive hormones or the inability to respond to hormones during fetal development, Preves said.
‘Extremely difficult time’
For the past three years, Harris has been the Police Department’s liaison to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender communities. She works with those who are victims of hate crimes or who file complaints against police officers. She also gives speeches for groups or organizations in those communities.
Harris said she has never had a problem with anyone in the Police Department while she identified as a lesbian. And no one has had a cross word for her since she went public about being intersex.
She said that her supervisor, Maj. Pearlene Williams, took a supportive role as she went from doctor to doctor. Once Harris learned she had male chromosomes, she said she broke down and cried in Williams’ office. (continue reading)
