# Tiger Devore > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Tiger_Devore > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Tiger_Devore.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Devore > Source revision: 1343035934 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|American clinical psychologist and sex therapist}} {{Infobox person | name = Tiger Devore | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = Howard Devore | birth_date = 1958 | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | education = | other_names = | occupation = Clinical psychologist and sex therapist | known_for = [Intersex](/source/Intersex) activist and educator | television = ''Oprah (1984)'' | website = {{URL|www.tigerdevorephd.com}} }} '''Tiger Devore''', previously known as '''Howard Devore''' and '''Tiger Howard Devore''', is an American clinical psychologist, sex therapist, and spokesperson on [intersex](/source/intersex) issues.{{cite web | url = http://lvwomanmagazine.com/2018/doctors-of-the-desert-2018-dr-tiger-devore/ | title = Doctors of the Desert: Dr. Tiger Devore | work = Las Vegas Woman | date = August 23, 2018 | accessdate = 2018-11-30}} He was a member of the defunct [Intersex Society of North America](/source/Intersex_Society_of_North_America). Historian [Alice Dreger](/source/Alice_Dreger) credits him with starting the work of the intersex movement. == Early life == Tiger Devore was born with severe [hypospadias](/source/hypospadias) and has experienced over 20 surgeries and four full reconstructions. He says that, "all the surgeries I suffered up to age 19 were unnecessary failures."{{cite news | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-14459843 | title = Male or female? Babies born on the sliding sex scale | work = [British Broadcasting Corporation](/source/British_Broadcasting_Corporation) | date = 11 October 2011 | accessdate = 2016-05-12}}{{Cite news| last = Littlefield| first = Amy| title = Intersex People Want to End Nonconsensual Surgeries. A California Resolution Is Their 'Warning Shot.'| work = [Rewire.News](/source/Rewire.News)| accessdate = 2018-11-30| date = August 13, 2018| url = https://rewire.news/article/2018/08/13/intersex-people-want-to-end-nonconsensual-surgeries-a-california-resolution-is-their-warning-shot/}} Devore has a PhD in clinical psychology and works as a sex therapist, activist and educator with over 30 years of experience in advocacy for intersex people and others who are sexually different from the mainstream. Devore has worked in research clinics at the [Johns Hopkins Hospital](/source/Johns_Hopkins_Hospital) Medical School, and the Human Sexuality Program at [UCLA](/source/UCLA). During his time at Johns Hopkins University, he worked with the sexologist [John Money](/source/John_Money).{{Cite journal| doi = 10.1080/00926238608415404| issn = 0092-623X| volume = 12| issue = 3| pages = 165–181| last1 = Money| first1 = John| author1-link = John Money| last2 = Devore| first2 = Howard| last3 = Norman| first3 = Bernard F.| title = Gender identity and gender transposition: Longitudinal outcome study of 32 male hermaphrodites Assigned as Girls| journal = Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy| date = 1986| pmid=3761370}} He has also worked for [NIH](/source/NIH) as a crisis counsellor and worked with imprisoned sex offenders.{{cite web | url = http://interactadvocates.org/dr-tiger-devore-on-aics-landmark-lawsuit/ | title = Dr. Tiger Devore on AIC's Landmark Lawsuit | work = [Interact Advocates for Intersex Youth](/source/Interact_Advocates_for_Intersex_Youth) | date = June 24, 2013 | accessdate = 2016-05-12 | archive-date = 2016-03-07 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160307042847/http://interactadvocates.org/dr-tiger-devore-on-aics-landmark-lawsuit/ | url-status = dead }} == Activism == Alice Dreger describes how Devore, through his work at Johns Hopkins University and as an "out gay man in the 1970s-1980s in America" developed an awareness about "the clinical abuse of sexual minorities". He began to work as an educator and appeared on the ''Oprah'' show in 1984, considered to be the first television appearance by an intersex person talking about lived experiences.{{cite web | url = http://www.tigerdevorephd.com/1984/12/31/people-are-talkingbaltimore-host-oprah-winfrey-1984/ | title = "People Are Talking/Baltimore" host: Oprah Winfrey 1984 | work = [Oprah Winfrey](/source/Oprah_Winfrey) | publisher = People Are Talking/Baltimore | date = 1984| accessdate = 2016-05-12}} Dreger describes how [Cheryl Chase](/source/Cheryl_Chase_(activist)) was referred to him in November 1992, how Devore "taught her about the value of mutual support groups", and how, in 1993, Chase announced the establishment of the [Intersex Society of North America](/source/Intersex_Society_of_North_America) (ISNA).{{Cite book| publisher = Cambridge University Press| isbn = 978-1-316-34319-7| pages = 55–73| last = Dreger| first = Alice| author-link = Alice Dreger | title = Bioethics in Action| chapter = Twenty Years of Working toward Intersex Rights| date = May 2018| doi = 10.1017/9781316343197.004}} Dreger states that: {{blockquote|Devore contributed to ISNA and to the intersex rights movement the outline of what a reformed clinical system would look like: Intersex children would be given preliminary gender assignments as boys and girls (recognizing that all gender assignment is preliminary and does not require surgery); hormonal and surgical interventions would be limited to those that were needed to treat clear and present medical problems, with all elective interventions waiting until patients could consent for themselves; intersex children and adults (and their loved ones) would be provided professional, non-shaming psychosocial support and peer support.}} Dreger states that, despite the expertise offered by Devore and Chase at that time, "reporters and producers generally counted Devore and Laurent only as intersex subjects, while I counted as a supposedly objective expert". She states that these reforms still remain to be implemented in 2018. Devore continues to argue in favor of fully informed consent by intersex people to genital surgeries.{{Cite news| last = Caplan-Bricker| first = Nora| title = The intersex rights movement is ready for its moment| newspaper = [Washington Post](/source/Washington_Post)| accessdate = 2018-11-30| date = October 5, 2017| url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2017/10/05/the-intersex-rights-movement-is-ready-for-its-moment/}} He states: {{blockquote|I am tired of the perpetration of great harms against infants and babies with perfectly healthy genitals that happen to look different from what the doctors think is standard. Intersex genitalia are not unhealthy, they just look different than some ideal of male or female genitalia. The experiment to reshape intersex genitals early in a child's life has failed. People should have the right to determine if they want reshaped genitals or not, when they are old enough to decide for themselves. That's informed consent; when the person them self has the information necessary to decide if they want a treatment of any kind, or not.}} Devore has also argued against the use of [disorders of sex development](/source/disorders_of_sex_development), as a term that is "more scientific," and "more medical," but also more treatable, and more of a [stigma](/source/social_stigma).{{cite web | url = http://wewhofeeldifferently.info/interview.php?interview=108 | title = Interviews | work = We Who Feel Differently | date = February 7, 2011 | accessdate = 2016-05-12}} In a statement in November 2015, Devore called for an end to unnecessary surgeries and "recognition of the rights of the child to bodily integrity and self determination", stating "that medicine and the research community continue to co-opt patient advocates in order to silence them by giving us the impression that we had access to influencing medical practice and research."{{Citation| last = Devore| first = Tiger| title = Tiger Devore's Statement| date = November 21, 2015| url = https://alicedreger.com/Tiger_Devore | accessdate = 2016-05-12}} He is a board member, and former president, of the Hypospadias and Epispadias Association, and a former member of the defunct Intersex Society of North America.{{cite web | url = http://heainfo.org/News/BoardElectionResults_1_1_2014.php | title = Announcing the Members of the New HEA Board | work = Hypospadias and Epispadias Association | date = January 1, 2014 | accessdate = 2016-05-12 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140103145720/http://heainfo.org/News/BoardElectionResults_1_1_2014.php | archive-date = January 3, 2014 | url-status = dead }}{{cite web | url = http://heainfo.org/AboutHEA/Board.php | title = HEA Board and Staff | work = Hypospadias and Epispadias Association | access-date = 2014-01-03 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140103145522/http://heainfo.org/AboutHEA/Board.php | archive-date = 2014-01-03 | url-status = dead }}{{cite news | url = http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/The-Inbetween-Sex-An-interview-with-intersexual-2904027.php | title = The Inbetween Sex: An interview with intersexual Howard Devore, Ph.D.| work = [SF Gate](/source/SF_Gate) | date = October 12, 1999 | accessdate = 2016-05-12}}. == Selected bibliography == * {{Citation| last = Devore| first = Tiger| title = Tiger Devore's Statement| date = November 21, 2015| url = https://alicedreger.com/Tiger_Devore | accessdate = 2016-05-12}} * {{Cite book | last = Devore | first = Howard | chapter = Growing up in the surgical maelstrom | title = Intersex in the age of ethics | date = 1999 | pages = 79–82 | publisher = University Publishing Group}} == Media == Devore has been an educator and media spokesperson on intersex issues since 1984 when he appeared on ''Oprah''. He has appeared in documentaries for [Discovery Channel](/source/Discovery_Channel) (2000),{{cite web | url = http://www.tigerdevorephd.com/2000/12/31/is-it-a-boy-or-a-girl/ | title = Is It a Boy or a Girl? | work = [Discovery Channel](/source/Discovery_Channel) | date = 2000}} [PBS](/source/PBS), [National Geographic Channel](/source/National_Geographic_Channel) television, the [British Broadcasting Corporation](/source/British_Broadcasting_Corporation), and the award-winning short movie ''[XXXY](/source/XXXY_(film))'' by [Stanford University](/source/Stanford_University).{{cite web | url = http://vimeo.com/66443054 | title = XXXY | work = [XXXY (film)](/source/XXXY_(film)) via [The Interface Project](/source/Advocates_for_Informed_Choice) on [Vimeo](/source/Vimeo) | date = 2000}}{{Cite magazine| last = Greenhouse| first = Emily| title = A new era for intersex rights| magazine = The New Yorker| date = December 30, 2015| url = https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/a-new-era-for-intersex-rights | accessdate = 2018-11-30}}{{Cite book| isbn = 978-1-62313-502-7| last = Human Rights Watch| title = I Want to Be Like Nature Made Me| accessdate = 2018-11-30| date = July 2017| url = https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/07/25/i-want-be-nature-made-me/medically-unnecessary-surgeries-intersex-children-us | work = [Human Rights Watch](/source/Human_Rights_Watch)| publisher = Human Rights Watch}} Devore is also interviewed in the 2012 documentary ''[Intersexion](/source/Intersexion)''. In 2013, he was interviewed by ''[Time Magazine](/source/Time_Magazine)'' on the then-new German birth certificate laws, and called for a global ban on "normalizing surgeries."{{cite web | url = https://world.time.com/2013/11/12/boy-girl-or-intersex/ | title = Boy, Girl or Intersex? Germany adjusts to a third option at birth | work = [Time Magazine](/source/Time_Magazine) | date = November 12, 2013}} Devore was interviewed on the Howard Stern Show on July 28, 1999.{{Cite web |title=MarksFriggin.com - Stern Show News - Archive |url=https://www.marksfriggin.com/news99/7-26-99.htm |access-date=2024-04-20 |website=www.marksfriggin.com}} == References == {{Reflist}} ==External links== *{{URL|http://www.tigerdevorephd.com|Official website}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Devore, Tiger}} Category:Living people Category:American intersex men Category:American intersex people Category:Intersex rights activists Category:1958 births Category:Intersex rights in the United States Category:21st-century American psychologists Category:American sexuality activists Category:American sex educators Category:20th-century American psychologists Category:American gay men Category:Intersex men Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Tiger Devore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Devore) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_Devore?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.