A True Hermaphrodite: Hida Viloria

Hida Viloria was born as a true hermaphrodite. She traveled all around the world to share what it's like to be born as a intersex and to live life without "corrective" surgery or hormones. She appeared on the Oprah Winfrey and for some odd reason, no one is allowed to say the word, "Hermaphrodite" on television. This is what Hida shared on Oprah's show:



"Hida says when she was growing up, she always felt different. "I was more aggressive than other girls," she says. "I really did play and compete more like the boys."

When she was 27, Hida read an article about intersex people and realized that it was referring to people like her. But her condition is different than Katie's. Hida has two X chromosomes, so her body is biologically female. But her body also produces higher levels of testosterone, which is responsible for her male traits. "My clitoris is large enough that it resembles a small penis," Hida says.

Though Hida says she may have identified with boys in some ways, she never wanted to be a boy. "I wasn't really a tomboy in the same way that a lot of non-intersex girls I know were tomboys. Like, I didn't wear boys' clothes growing up. I went to Catholic school, I had the uniform. I didn't have a problem with the skirt."

Now, Hida says she feels and looks "more male" or "more female" in different situations.

Here's a quote from Barbara Walters and the N.Y. Times:

"She was born, shall we say, different, and she's not alone. There are thousands of others like her, and it is for their sake that she comes forward.... Lynn Sher with a woman determined to change the way people with ambiguous gender are treated."

Barbara Walters
introducing Hida on "20/20," April 19, 2001

"Hida Viloria, a voluble hermaphrodite with exquisite cheekbones, can pass effortlessly from ravishing femininity to sullen machismo. Having lived credibly as a woman and as a man, Hida... now seems happiest occupying "the middle ground" between them."

N.Y. Times, February 4, 2000