New Delhi, June 14 -- In an undated but not too distant past, Dutch writer and artist Valentijn Hoogenkamp, who now identifies as non-binary and uses the he/him pronouns, discovered that he had the deadly BRC1A gene mutation, inherited from his mother. The latter had ovarian cancer, which Hoogenkamp was at the risk of getting. He was also declared susceptible to having breast cancer in the future.

Considering this grim prognosis, instead of living under a sentence, Hoogenkamp decided to get a double mastectomy and hysterectomy after his mother died. He had a "sweet boyfriend" at the time, a man named Mort, who had pledged not to leave him no matter the outcome of the procedure, and a close friend, Charlotte, who held his hand through the...