The LGBT*QI*-acronym is used especially in queer theory and practice with all good intentions. In this article, I argue that subsuming Inter* under umbrella terms referring to queer identities necessarily falls short. While the abbreviation LGBT*Q addresses different sexualities and gender identities, the Inter* movement rather negotiates problematic medical treatment of bodies which were identified as intersexed. Surgical and hormonal interventions seek to disambiguate the intersexed body by assigning a person’s identity as either male or female. The emerging self is by no means male or female, though neither is their body. Instead, Inter* biographies contain narratives about the alienated, aching, and traumatized body as a mediator in the process of subjectivation and self-perception. I try to do justice to the inter*-phenomenon by doing a grounded queer theory. I conclude that connecting Butler’s queer theory and Fausto-Sterling’s concept of embodiment allows for a reflection on the role of empirical material in queer research – and to develop an approach that can be termed fleshier queer studies.
