Episode 263: Jenn Levine

Coming Out Pod

Health & Fitness, Sexuality, Comedy, Mental Health

4.9 • 584 Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2023

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

At sixteen years old, Jenn Levine sat in a room with her mother and was told by two doctors that she had an extra chromosome, and that because of that extra chromosome, she would never be able to have children. But that wasn't all: they also said that she shouldn't tell anyone about her "birth defect" because people wouldn't understand, and then closed out the conversation by saying "you'll probably never meet anybody else like you." What Jenn *wasn't* told that day was that she was intersex; that was something she wouldn't find out til over a decade later, when she herself undertook a years-long process of obtaining her hard copy medical records from that very appointment. Jenn describes the truly serpentine journey she went through to finally arrive at the point where she now definitively knows "I am not my diagnosis...I am an intersex woman." All this, plus Jenn kvells over the fact that she is living every Jewish woman's dream by being a bagel ambassador for Brooklyn's BagelFest!

Follow Jenn everywhere at @jennlevine! Also, follow InterConnect on Instagram at @interconnect_support, and check out their website at interconnect.support to see all that they do! If you'd like to join the L.A. LGBT Center's Club Intersex group, you can register at https://socialnet.lalgbtcenter.org/member-registration/ (intersex-identified folks only, though - allies, check out InterConnect!). Lastly, Every Body, the intersex documentary that Jenn discusses in this episode, is streaming for free on Peacock, and is available for purchase elsewhere.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, y'all. Welcome to Coming Out Pod. It's me, Lauren. If you listen last week, you know, I am trying out a new opening where I shout out a queer root because this is a coming out podcast. And if you're not super familiar, just like the phrase
0:23.7	queer root has many definitions. It can be who you wanted to be. It can be who you wanted to do.
0:29.5	It can just be someone who pinged your early gaitar, made you aware that there was a bigger,
0:34.2	queerer world out there. Now, last week, I had to start out by shouting out Rachel
0:41.2	Weiss, who is not my queer root, but she is my wife and the love of my life. This week,
0:47.1	for the second time trying this, I will be shouting out my actual queer root. Shout out to anyone whose queer root is Kim Cotrell in the movie
0:57.3	Mannequin. Am I dating myself a little bit with this? Yeah, absolutely. But is it worth it to honor
1:05.2	Kim Cattrell's performance in Manichin? It is worth it. So yeah, let me know if I shout out your queer root or if you have a suggestion for a queer
1:13.7	root.
1:14.2	But now, without further ado, let me introduce my guest.
1:18.5	I am here today with Jen Levine.
1:21.5	Jen is an activist, a clinical researcher, a marathoner, a dog mom, and above all, a New Yorker. Hello, Jen. Welcome.
1:30.8	Hi, and let me just say Kim Katrall, Manikin, one of the best performances of the 80s.
1:36.9	Not my queer route, but I appreciate yours. I appreciate you calling her out. Kim Katrell got a
1:43.4	bad wrap the last five or six years,
1:45.1	and I am here for Kim control. Well, for what it's, I hope she takes comfort in knowing that I'm
1:50.9	pretty sure she made me gay. So that she can wear that as a bad honor, regardless of what
1:55.5	anyone says about her in the media. Yeah, so, Jen, is there anything you want to share with the audience about
2:02.8	who you are, what you do, or anything that I missed in my descriptors? I know you're in New York.
2:10.4	Yeah, no, I've been living in Harlem for about five years. I love it. I don't want to move.
2:14.9	I'm really happy here. I work at a clinical research company name
2:20.9	withheld, and I love my job. I'm very fortunate to work with the team that I work in. I work in
	...

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