Levi Suydam

Overview

Levi Suydam was an intersex person who lived in the 19th century.^[1] In 1843, at a local election in Salisbury, Connecticut, Suydam was presented to the town selectmen as a male property holder, the requirements for being validated as a voter. The 19th Amendment (women’s suffrage) wouldn’t happen for another 76 years, so while there was no question that Suydam owned property, the opposing party raised challenges on grounds that Suydam was more female-looking than male-looking, and therefore ineligible for voting.

After a medical examination, Suydam who apparently had male genitalia, was pronounced male and allowed to vote.^[2] The Whigs won the election by a majority of one. Upon further examination after the election, however, doctors found that while Suydam had a male genitalia, there was also a vaginal opening and evidence of regular menstruation. Whether or not the new findings changed the outcome of the election is unknown, but the subsequent recorded history of Suydam and the confusion involved conformed an early chapter of gender identity.

Significance

The case of Suydam holds special significance because of the interaction of medical, legal, and social discourse. The physicians performing the medical examination, for example, did not seem to differentiate sex from gender, finding Suydam's anatomical features just as telling as "his feminine propensities, such as a fondness for gay colors, for pieces of calico, comparing and placing them together, and an aversion for bodily labor, and an inability to perform the same."^[2] And the disputed, arbitrary determinations of the doctors held great legal consequences in that the legitimacy of a vote and the outcome of an election depended entirely on their perspective.

References