by Staff writer
GENDER-row athlete Caster Semenya married her long time partner in a glamorous white wedding ceremony on her own 26th birthday.
The 800m Olympic gold medallist wore a Prince Charming-style outfit to wed Violet Raseboya, who looked stunning in a traditional full-length white dress.
The Rio champion was pictured in a photo on her Instagram account holding a bouquet of flowers, alongside Raseboya in a white wedding dress.
She captioned the photos:
“Our perfect day! #wedidit #married #ourweddingday #love #casviowedding.”
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The two women had celebrated their union in a traditional ceremony in December 2015 in the northern province of Limpopo.
The South African first shot to international stardom in 2009 when she won the 800m at the World Championships in Berlin.
She has been dogged by questions throughout her running career concerning her gender – as her body produces high levels of male hormones.
Her competitors had raised concern that the condition gave her an unfair advantage.
She was forced to undergo medical tests and barred from the track for nearly a year, before returning to win silver at the 2011 World Championships and 2012 London Olympics.
Caster’s ‘intersex’ condition of hyperandrogenism gives her testosterone levels that are three times those usually found in women and approaching those of a man.
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A hermaphrodite, or ‘intersex’ [ a term preferred by doctors and support groups] is someone with both male and female reproductive organs.
Such a condition is extremely rare. It is estimated to affect around 0.5% of the world’s population [1 in every 200 persons].
Intersexual persons may emotionally identify as female, male or inter-gender.
Unlike transgender individuals, who are usually born fully one sex or the other but feel they have been given the wrong body for their psychological gender, an intersexual person has both male and female sexual characteristics.
Hnmmmmm
I had always thought that term existed only in biology text book.
So is she a man or a woman?