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Bo Laurent / “Cheryl Chase” and transgender people

by Andrea James Reviewed August 17, 2026 8 min read

“Cheryl Chase” is the pseudonym of Bo Laurent, an American intersex activist associated with transgender internet troll Denise Magner and self-described “hermaphrodite monger” Alice Dreger. All three were involved with Intersex Society of North America prior to its 2008 dissolution. Laurent and Dreger are key architects of the controversial disease model “disorders of sex development” to describe people with variations of sex characteristics.

Background

Bo Laurent was born on August 14, 1956 in New Jersey. Laurent’s self-reported personal and medical history is murky and often contradictory. Laurent was reportedly born with ambiguous genitalia and was originally named Brian Sullivan. A New York Times profile stated “Chase is XX, and the reason for her intersex condition has never been fully understood.” Laurent was reportedly born with “mixed male/female sex organs.” Testing reportedly revealed Laurent had ovaries and a uterus, and a clitoridectomy was then performed at age 18 months.

Laurent’s parents reportedly followed medical advice, changing Laurent’s name to Bonnie Sullivan and moving to a new town. Laurent reportedly fell silent for six months afterwards.

Doctors reportedly removed Laurent’s ovotestis at age 8, though Laurent later clarified just “the testicular part of her ovo-testes” was removed. Laurent found out about the surgery at age 10, and at age 21 gained access to the medical records (some sources say this occurred in Laurent’s early thirties).

Laurent earned a bachelor’s degree from MIT in 1983. Laurent then studied Japanese at Harvard Extension School and at the Intensive Summer Language Institute of Middlebury College. In 1985, Laurent worked as a graphic designer. Laurent then moved to Japan as a visiting scholar at Hiroshima University. In 1987, Laurent co-founded Pacifitech Corporation, later acquired by Bowne Global Solutions Japan, now part of Lionbridge Technologies. Laurent also did translation work before returning to the United States.

In 2008, Laurent earned a master’s degree from Sonoma State University. From 2009 to 2025, Laurent worked as a software engineer for Canonical.

Laurent has reported multiple names starting at birth:

  • Brian Sullivan (1956) [per New York Times, 2006]
  • Charlie Sullivan (1956) [per Salon and others]
  • Bonnie Sullivan (~1957)
  • “Cheryl Chase” [pseudonym] (1993)
  • Bo Laurent [new legal name] (1995)

In 2004, Laurent married Robin Mathias. They remarried in 2008 following renewed legal recognition of their marriage.

Intersex activism

Laurent is widely considered a key historical figure in the early intersex rights movement.

In 1991, Laurent reportedly had a mental breakdown, as described a decade later in Curve: “After growing up withdrawn and sexually dysfunctional and feeling lonely and unhappy until her mid-30s, Cheryl Chase finally had a nervous breakdown.” Laurent said:

“I found others who had been treated in ways very similar to myself. Everybody that I had met had suffered in complete and total shame and isolation and believed that they were the only one. […] When I realized that clinicians are treating people today no better than they treated me, I wanted to stop it.”

In 1993, Laurent began writing letters to healthcare providers and professional organizations about surgical practices for neonates and minors with variations of sex characteristics.

Laurent was involved with several early intersex rights projects:

  • Intersex Society of North America [advocacy group]: founder (1993–2008)
  • Hermaphrodites with Attitude [newsletter]: founder, editor (1994–2005)
  • Consortium on the Management of Disorders of Sex Development: contributor (2006)
  • Accord Alliance [advocacy group]: advisory committee (2008–)

“Disorders of sex development”

Laurent and Dreger were central figures in promoting the disease model “disorders of sex development” (DSD) to describe people with variations of sex characteristics. While the new disease was intended to appeal to medical professionals as part of efforts to end unconsented medical interventions on minors, it was developed with limited involvement of other intersex activists.

In 2005, the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society (now the Pediatric Endocrine Society) and the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology organized the International Consensus Conference on Intersex. The 51 participants, including Laurent, developed a medicalized consensus statement that adopted the “DSD” terminology. Prominent anti-trans activists involved included Sheri Berenbaum, Peggy Cohen-Kettenis, Richard Green, and Eric Vilain. The results were published in 2006 as “Consensus statement on management of intersex disorders.” The goal was to move away from immediate surgical normalization and toward multidisciplinary assessment and longer-term psychosocial care.

In 2006, ISNA held a DSD Symposium. According to the program, Laurent co-presented a report on the conference and appeared on a panel titled “Nomenclature Change: I Am Not a Disorder.”

Laurent worked closely with Alice Dreger for many years, to the point that Laurent and spouse called themselves “Kepler’s uncles,” a reference to Dreger’s child. Over time ISNA came largely under Dreger’s control and was administered from Dreger’s Michigan address. At some point prior to 2008, Dreger and Laurent apparently had a falling out.

In the 2015 book Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis, sociologist Georgiann Davis wrote the definitive account of how “DSD” ended up being part of a broader effort by medicine to reassert jurisdiction over intersex bodies.

Also in 2015, intersex rights group interACT completed a strategic planning process “that included significant attention to our use of DSD/intersex terminology.” The Board of Directors approved the following new statement on language:

  • interACT is opposed to any terminology that pathologizes people born with intersex traits.
  • interACT is committed to avoiding the direct use of “disorder of sex development” language on our website and in other materials.
  • interACT will on occasion use “difference of sex development” language strategically on a case-by-case basis when communicating with certain audiences such as some parents and doctors if deemed strategically necessary.
  • interACT believes that people born with intersex traits ought to have the autonomy to use whichever term, or terms, they prefer when speaking about their own bodies and experiences and interACT will not prohibit, monitor or criticize the terminological preferences of people with intersex traits.

Laurent and transgender topics

In the 2003 anti-trans book The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey, Bailey mentioned Laurent:

Cheryl Chase, the intersex activist, told me that transsexuals frequently join intersex groups because they are convinced that they are also intersexual. In most cases, they are not.

In a 2007 interview with Scientific American, Eric Vilain said:

“People like Cheryl would say intersex issues are not issues of gender identity, they are just issues of quality of life—whether early genital surgery was performed appropriately or not, and that’s really what has impaired our quality of life. She and others at ISNA do support the change because of an interesting side effect—because it becomes a very medicalized definition, the medical science should apply. It should apply strongly. That means it’s not as if now we’re talking about something that’s not a disorder, that is just a normal variant, a condition. If it’s just a condition that’s a normal condition, then there is no need for medical attention.”

References

Whipple, Tom (October 22 2025). The Secret of Me — ‘I want to save people like me from mutilation and shame.’ The Times https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/the-secret-of-me-documentary-review-intersex-c9zlx8v8c

Minichello, Susan (August 19, 2021). A look back at the intersex movement in Sonoma County. The Press Democrat https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/news/a-look-back-at-the-intersex-movement-in-sonoma-county/

Knight, Kyle (January 20, 2018). Ending the Intersex Exception: The Battle for Informed Consent for People Born with Atypical Sex Characteristics. Los Angeles Review of Books https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/ending-the-intersex-exception-the-battle-for-informed-consent-for-people-born-with-atypical-sex-characteristics/

Davis, Georgiann (2015). Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis. NYU Press, ISBN 978-1479814152

Cowan, Zagria (January 1, 2009). Bo Laurent (1956 – ) intersex activist, programmer, translator. A Gender Variance Who’s Who https://zagria.blogspot.com/2009/01/bo-laurent-1956-intersex-activist.html

Hinkle, Curtis (October 2, 2006). Cheryl Chase and Disorders of Sex Development (DSD). Organisation Intersex International https://oii-usa.blogspot.com/2006/10/cheryl-chase-and-disorders-of-sex.html

Weil, Elizabeth (September, 2006). What if It’s (Sort of) a Boy and (Sort of) a Girl? New York Times Magazine https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/magazine/24intersexkids.html

McDonough, Victoria Tilney (November 23, 2006). Between the lines. Missoula Independent https://missoulanews.com/News/News.asp?no=2498 [archive]

Phillips, Jen (May 2003). Born Between Two Sexes. Girlfriends via Bodies Like Ours http://www.bodieslikeours.org/index.php/our-lives/17-girlfriendsarticle-lives

Liu, Shirley (c. October 2002). Cheryl Chase. Curved https://www.curvemag.com/Detailed/77.html [archive]

Hyena, Hank (December 16, 1999). The micropenis and the giant clitoris. Salon https://www.salon.com/1999/12/16/surgery/ original url http://www.salon.com/health/sex/urge/world/1999/12/16/surgery/index.html

Lehrman, Sally (April 5, 1999). Sex police. Salon https://www.salon.com/1999/04/05/sex_police/ original url http://www.salon.com/health/feature/1999/04/05/sex_police/index.html

Nataf, Zachary I. (April 5, 1998). Whatever I feel… New Internationalist Issue 300, p. 22 https://newint.org/features/1998/04/05/trans [archive] https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/57303/spread/1?rc=0c6c8d97-95b7-4187-8398-a91909b3adf

Tuller, David (June 21, 1997). `Intersexuals’ Begin to Speak Out on Infant Genital Operations / Surgery amounts to mutilation, some contend. San Francisco Chronicle https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Intersexuals-Begin-to-Speak-Out-on-Infant-2834057.php

Berreby, David (September 11, 1996). Quelle Différence? Slate https://slate.com/news-and-politics/1996/09/quelle-difference.html original url http://www.slate.com/id/3118/

Selected writing by Laurent

Lee, P. A., Houk, C. P., Ahmed, S. F., & Hughes, I. A. (2006). Consensus Statement on Management of Intersex Disorders. Pediatrics, 118(2), e488–e500. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2006-0738

Laurent, Bo (1995). Sexual scientists question treatment. In Chase, Cheryl [editor] Hermaphrodites with Attitude Fall/Winter 1995-1996, p. 16 ff.

Media

The Interface Project with Bo Laurent (May 17, 2013). Bo Laurent – Santa Rosa, CA, USA – The Interface Project. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz455YZoipI

Collectif Intersexe Activiste OII France (1997, posted February 15, 2021). Hermaphrodites Speak! Archives Intersex Society of North America. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sf7l1GKGgw

NPR / All Things Considered with Robin Whites and Bo Laurent (November 28, 1997). Intersexuals (interview with Chase). https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1037090

etreenquestion (c. 1997, posted February 19, 2013). People with intersex condition Protest:1997-2000. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsNA_cYTydk

Resources

Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)

Bo Laurent (bolaurent.com)

Bo Laurent Papers (bolaurentpapers.org)

Kepler’s Uncles (keplersuncles.com) [archive]

Accord Alliance (accordalliance.org)

Intersex Society of North America (isna.org)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Transgender Media Portal (transgendermediaportal.org)

  • Bo Laurent
  • transgendermediaportal.org/person/PERS_000653.html

IMDb (imdb.com)

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