Media Library

 

 

 

2014

Lessons From A Christmas Carol:

A baby was born to parents who had been told, by prenatal ultrasound, to expect a baby girl, had told their family and friends and had equipped themselves with an arsenal of pink baby gear.  At birth…

9 Things You Need to Know About Being Intersex

Faking It’s Bailey De Young and Emily from interAct share everything you need to know about being intersex.

Let’s Move Beyond the Gender Binary: Guest Post by I. W. Gregorio

The gender binary is insidious, impacting our everyday lives in countless ways. I struggle against its restrictions every day in both of my professions. As a female surgeon, I encounter it when my colleague makes an offhand comment about how he prefers it when I don’t wear scrubs (as they’re “so unflattering”). As an author, I see it on the shelves…

Taylor Lianne Chandler... Came Out as Intersex

Of course, Chandler’s story — which she first published in a a Facebook post on Nov. 13 — was only deemed relevant by the media days later, because she supposedly has had a relationship with Olympian Michael Phelps. However, what is most revealing about this slew of headlines…

I'm Intersex and My Body Works Just Fine, Thank You

Emily Quinn is a 25-year-old animator who works at Cartoon Network. She is also intersex. For her this means that, while she has a perfectly normal-looking vagina, it’s not a uterus and ovaries she has inside—it’s a pair of testes.

Emily Quinn Animation for Intersex Awareness Day 2014

Check out this amazing video from Emily Quinn, originally posted on MTV’s Faking It site! Way to shine, Emily!

The XY Chronicles: The Struggle

At the age of 25 I never would have believed that I would be 100% open with the word Intersex and use it as a defining word for who I am.

I am a 25 year old woman, a daughter, a student , and I am Intersex…

The Reaction to Lauren's Secret Was Perfect

In the months following its premiere, MTV’s Faking It got a whole lot of criticism. And even though I’m a huge fan, I’ll admit that at first glance, it looked like it deserved it. Why would any show aimed at teens want to make light of the struggle that so many people face in coming out? But the show has proven everyone wrong, and if you’re not watching, you definitely should be…

Profiles of two women with AIS

A documentary from ABC News with members from our support group….!

I’m Emily Quinn, And I’m Intersex

Emily Quinn To my Friends and Family — oh, and the rest of the world too: I’ve been told it takes balls to be in a PSA like this or to write a letter like this one. No, seriously! I have balls…

MTV’s Faking It character is intersex

In the Season 2 premiere of MTV’s Faking It, which explores the spectrum of sexuality, a main character reveals that she was born with an intersex condition. Here’s what went into that decision — and why it was so important to get it right.

Insight into the Lives of the Intersexed

There are some things about being intersexed that straight-gendered people wouldn’t fully understand because they will never have these particular combinations of experiences themselves. I am going to provide a little insight into our world…

MTV's 'Faking It' to Tell Intersex Story in Season 2

Season one ended with a cliffhanger for Lauren, who flipped out after rumors started flying about mysterious pills she was taking regularly. The season two premiere will reveal that Lauren regularly takes hormones and was born with Androgen Insensitive Syndrome…

Time to End Sex-Testing of Female Athletes

Because of an International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and International Olympic Committee (IOC) policy, Dutee Chand, an 18-year-old Indian sprinter, was blocked from competing at the 2014 Commonwealth Games because her body makes too much testosterone…

5 Myths about #intersex – debunked

I am so, so psyched that MTV is putting a spotlight on intersex… I realized the huge gap in knowledge about intersex even among medical professionals. There is so much work still to be done to create intersex awareness. So [here], the top 5 myths I’ve had to debunk…

AIC plays a role this season in MTV’s new hit show, Faking it!

About a year ago I was contacted about a new show set to premiere that was invested in writing an intersex plot line about one of it’s main characters. I was skeptical, to say the least, that this was just another sensationalist trivialization of intersex people’s experiences. Feeling a large responsibility to represent and defend my intersex community, I cautiously agreed….

Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists and Intersex Experience

Recently I spent several days in a public internet group for “gender critical” people, after a few intersex friends voiced some positive things about this line of thinking. Feminists who call themselves “gender critical” are a controversial bunch…

Intersex births pose medical, ethical challenges for families

A whole range of medical conditions fall under the term intersex, a diagnosis where a child’s sex is genetically or sometimes physically ambiguous.

WKAR’s ‘‘Current State” podcast features the issue…

Dalea In COSMOPOLITAN Magazine

Recording artist,  Dalea talks about how having an atypical body taught her to love herself.

Book Release -- Golden Boy: A Novel

“At times this book had me in tears. The hardships and humiliation our society puts on others through deeming some not ‘normal.’ All the tragedies that could be prevented if we just accepted people as they are. All the secrets that kill our soul. For what? All to appease those who are fearful of anyone who is different? Who decides what “normal” is anyway.

This is an intense read, and I adore any author who is able to put such a poignant story together. Really, drop everything, and read this book.” — Debbie Wilson

Guest Post: Invisible Intersex

Amy Buzalsky shared about her experience with growing up as an intersexed individual.

Cis Gender, Trans Gender, and Intersex

 “Is it impossible for intersex people to be cisgender because it is impossible in society to live completely as [an] intersex person with no male or female legal checkbox?”

Book Release -- A Freakish Life, Volume Two

“Once again the story of tenacity despite overwhelming odds wins me over. I could not put book 2 down. I was rooting for the author’s indomitable spirit to win and the resiliency to remain strong. I was not disappointed. The book continued to keep a wry wit and tongue-in-cheek humor firmly in place.” — Sharon Norton

Should We 'Fix' Intersex Children?

Standard medical practice is often to operate to “normalize” genitals, but some families are fighting back…

On Eugenic Abortion of the Intersex

… eugenics never really went away, and it’s operating today through various reproductive technologies such as selective implantation of embryos, and, quite commonly, through prenatal screening for “disorders,” which are then “treated” via “therapeutic abortion.” Among those characteristics that can been screened for and eliminated are those forms of intersexuality with a genetic origin.

5 Best Things About Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome

I have Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome and have known since I was 16/17. You probably all know that but just wanted to…

Intersex dating: Finding love across the intersection

There’s a vocabulary of protection used around the intersex community — of “escape” from sex assignment surgery to normalize their genitals, of PTSD and survivorship, of guilt from some whose bodies remain intact… The path to romantic connection with another human can feel isolated and impassible. The risk, impossible.

But it doesn’t have to be.

Testosterone and the Sex Policing of Athletes' Bodies

New policies for Olympic and other international athletes set an upper limit to the amount of testosterone considered “normal” for a woman, and require those women who have natural levels of T that are higher than this to have medical interventions…

Intersex Youth Tell Fox News (and the World) About Challenges They Face

A group of young intersex writers and advocates Monday issued an open letter to Fox News — and anyone else who doesn’t know about their gender identity and the challenges they face in society — in the wake of Fox commentators’ dismissive comments…

2013

A New Era for Intersex Rights

When Ambrose was twelve years old, he began to take female hormones. At eighteen, he prepared to undergo a vaginoplasty, the surgical reconstruction of the vagina. Suffering from depression, Ambrose contemplated suicide. “I knew that I wasn’t a girl,” he later told a reporter. The following year, Ambrose obtained his medical records, and discovered what had happened to him as an infant: “I was sterilized at birth—and no one ever told me…”

Book Release -- A Freakish Life, Volume One

“A Freakish Life is a coming-of-age story in the 60’s and 70’s of New England and yet it is so much more: dealing with parents and all the angst that comes from their lack of acceptance (“As Is”: a perfect example of a pseudonym if ever there was one. Also perfect for the wit and humor throughout the book.), trying to determine who is friend, who is enemy and how to handle them, school (especially junior high with all its pitfalls), society and the twist and most importantly finding the answer to “Who am I?”, what is my place in society? My calling? The author deals with these topics honestly and sometimes painfully…” — Sharon Norton

3rd International Intersex Forum

Between 29 November and 1 December 2013, the Third International Intersex Forum, supported by ILGA and ILGA-Europe, took place in Valletta, Malta. This event brought together 34 activists representing 30 intersex organisations from all continents. Read the public statement by the Forum here…

Special report: Intersex women speak out to protect the next generation

The women argue that their very existence has been “eradicated” by British society. Generations of children have been operated upon to “normalise” their genitals or sexual anatomy, while official documentation, from birth certificates to passports, requires a male or female box to be ticked. They argue it’s one of the last “human rights taboos” in the western world…

It's time to defend intersex rights

… The Senate Committee has been highly critical of current practice, saying that while enormous medical “effort has gone into assigning and ‘normalising’ sex: none has gone into asking whether this is necessary or beneficial”. In calmly restrained parliamentary language, they described this as “extremely unfortunate”.

Intersex woman: 'This pink and blue thing is nonsense'

Sarah Graham, an intersex woman and counsellor, said there was “absolutely no visibility for intersex people in the world”.

She said many intersex people were happy with their gender, but “it would be nice… to have a box where you can choose to come out… as an intersex person.”

 

German Law: Parents of Intersex Kids Can Pick 'Gender Undetermined'

On Nov. 1, Germany became the first European nation to recognize a third gender for babies born with ambiguous genitalia. No longer will newborns be rigidly assigned to male or female…

October 26 is Intersex Awareness Day

People with Intersex or DSD conditions grapple with obtaining sensitive and transparent healthcare and finding places of social and psychological support in a world that continues to promote a dogmatic gender binary in addition to the layering of our many identities including race, age, class, gender identity, citizenship, sexual orientation and disability…

Missoula couple spreads 'No Body Is Shameful' message

Eden Atwood rehearses last week with Maris Maddux-Ward, right, for a benefit concert in Missoula where they’ll be joined by Huey Lewis and other musicians. The concert benefits The Interface Project, whose mission is to gather and share stories of people living with an intersex condition.

Australia can lead the way for intersex people

These are heady times for Australian intersex people. Last week, the Senate issued its second report backing an intersex-inclusive anti discrimination bill…

Do No Harm: Intersex Surgeries and the Limits of Certainty

The suit asserts that there was no medical need for this surgery, which was meant to permanently “fix” this child and turn him into an unequivocal girl, but it did him more harm than good. M.C., now eight years old, feels more like a boy, lives as a boy, and heartbreakingly has asked his mother, “When will I grow a penis?”

Parents of Intersex Child Sue Over 'Unnecessary' Surgery

A South Carolina couple is suing the state’s Department of Social Services, a hospital, a medical school and individual hospital employees, alleging that a “medically unnecessary” genital removal surgery violated their adopted intersex child’s constitutional rights…

Does the presence of intersex people mean the end of gender?

Box Office Bioethics 2012-2013 winner: This film was submitted by the team One KX to Box Office Bioethics, a student film competition run by the Nuffield Council on Bioethics

Intersex: Straddling the sex divide

“The doctor had to put … one of those wood[en] vices and literally break my pelvis bone. It was a nightmare,” Haligowski recalled this incident which happened 20 years ago, with a shudder.

Medical nightmares like this are not uncommon in the intersex community…

OAS IACHR Intersex Human Rights Hearing

“This video is from my testimony at Organization of the Americas (OAS) Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) hearing on Intersex Human Rights. This is an abridged version…” — Pigeon Pagnosis

Full-Frontal Activism: Intersex and Awesome

It’s Not Anecdotal.

TRIGGER WARNING: This post talks explicitly about medical “treatments” experienced by some intersex people, including vaginal dilation procedures.

I have been struggling a lot lately. I don’t often talk about my own medicalization, except to say that it wasn’t consensual and it messed me up…

Hypospadias: Intersexuality and Gender Politics

If you are looking around for information about intersexuality, one of the first things you’re likely to read is that “most intersex children are assigned female at birth.” This is in fact false…

'Beyond the Gender Box': Intersex and the city

For Braxton, there was much more to “get” than just his drag queen persona. Coming of age in Kansas City in the 1960s and ‘70s, Braxton began growing breasts at a time when other boys’ genitals were growing instead…

UN Condemns “Normalization” Surgery for Intersexuality

The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture (SRT) just released a statement condemning the medical profession’s nonconsensual treatment of intersexuality…

Just-So Stories about Hermaphrodite Fish

The intersex nature of the bluebanded goby is erased or distorted in most descriptions of the fish, because our society is so invested in the idea that sexual dyadism is natural and universal that we can’t see evidence to the contrary right in front of our eyes.

2012

The Second International Intersex Forum

Between 9-11 December 2012, the second International Intersex Forum took place in Stockholm. This event brought together 37 activists representing 33 intersex organisations and supportive institutions from all continents…

Hyperandrogenism and Intersex Controversies in Women's Olympics

International sports governing bodies such as the International Association for Athletics Federation and the International Olympic Committee have recently revised their policies for inclusion of athletes competing in women’s international sports competitions…

South Africa marks International Intersex Awareness Day

Transgender and Intersex Africa (TIA) has released a statement in support of International Intersex Awareness Day, which has been marked on 26 October since 1996…

Full-Frontal Activism: Intersex and Awesome

Child’s-Eye-View on Intersex:
X-Men = Awesome.

Hi, everyone! I’ve been thinking about how my views about what intersex is, who I am, and what it means to be/identify as intersex have changed drastically over time…

Book Release -- Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite

“‘Confessions of a Teenage Hermaphrodite’ by Lianne Simon is a warm, engaging and very poignant novel about a teenager coming to terms with the person she really is. Set against a backdrop of the Vietnam War, it accurately reflects the tone of the times. While some kids are dying for naught in a far off place, other, more privileged ones attend college on student deferments and speak little of politics and war. Jamie, the main protagonist, is portrayed as a very believable character, a person who was born with a rather rare intersex condition known as Mixed Gonadal Dysgenesis. This manifests in Jamie in a partial male chromosomal genotype, a shortness of stature, an elfin and feminine appearance and a semblance of the genitalia of both the sexes...” — Samuel Rafael

Intersex people in EU: ashamed and invisible

[I]ntersex people in the EU live largely in the dark.

“There is very little knowledge about intersex people… It is a part of our society that is entirely hidden,” Silvan Agius, a researcher at the Brussels-based NGO Ilga-Europe and co-author of a new study on the subject, told EUobserver

Trans and Intersex Children: Forced Sex Changes, Chemical Castration, and Self-Determination

Intersex and trans adults are often despairing over not having had a say as children over what their sexes should be, and how doctors should intervene. Meanwhile…

Being intersex: 'I went from being my parents' son to a daughter'

She was initially assigned as a male with what people thought was a very small penis. She was named Bruce and taken home from the Auckland hospital she was born in… A year later, in 1954, doctors discovered she had a uterus.

Movie Release -- Intersexion

 The documentary bears witness not only to the traumatic history of intersex suffering at the hands of medical science, but also to the power of community formation and mobilization as intersex activism has challenged the pathologization, physical mutilation and disempowerment perpetrated in the name of science and social conformity…

Full-Frontal Activism: Intersex and Awesome

Out of the Grey, Off of the Spectrum

I have been starting to read and watch more intersex books and films, in order to educate myself about what intersex resources are out there…

http://aisdsd.org/

Here’s a snapshot of our old website from March of 2012!

See what’s changed and see what’s the same…

 

How Common is Intersex Status?

If you poke around the internet trying to find out how common it is for a person to be intersex, you may well wind up frustrated that nobody seems to have a precise figure to give you…

Intersex bodies brought into the ordination debate

Intersex conditions undermine the assumptions about the clear delineation between male and female which underpin the theology of Christians that oppose women bishops.

This is the argument of a new paper, Intersex and Ontology, by Dr Susannah Cornwall…

The Intersex Roadshow: On Sex/Gender Checkboxes

Day in and day out, sex and gender minorities are boxed in by being confronted with sex/gender checkboxes. This starts the moment we are born…

Book Release -- Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex

“This book provides a fantastic history of the Intersex movement. For those who think that Intersex conditions are a modern invention, you will have to prepare to have your world rocked. Reis provides a great analysis of medical documents dating back to early American history. By examining these documents she positions Intersex patients not as abnormal, but as a normal human difference. She examines the cyclical nature of doctor’s views on Intersex conditions, then provides her own thoughts on how the 21st-century deals with these conditions. All in all, a five-star book.” —  Daniel Fielding

2011

Intersex Awareness Day

This provocative documentary [One In 2000] demystifies the issue of sexual difference. At a time when five babies a day in the United States are having “gender reassignment” surgery, it argues that there is little evidence that such surgery is beneficial to the child…

The 14 days of intersex

October is a significant month for intersex. October 26 marks the beginning of the Fourteen Days of Intersex with Intersex Awareness Day (IAD)…

Discrimination and Harmful Treatment of (suspected) Hermaphrodites in Sports

[S]ince the decision to abandon the mandatory sex tests for women athletes, and replacing them with discretionary tests for individual athletes on grounds of “suspicion” or “challenge” (as the IAAF policy tellingly puts it), for (suspected) intersexed athletes the situation grew considerably worse…

The Intersex Roadshow: Intersex Fertility

My daughter’s gestation was perfectly “natural,” I should point out–but I carried her, and I was never of the female sex; I am diagnosed as “true gonadal intersex.”

First ever International Intersex Forum

The world’s 1st International Intersex Organising Forum took place in Brussels between 3-5 September 2011. The historic event brought together 24 activists representing 17 intersex organisations from all continents…

Full-Frontal Activism: Intersex and Awesome

It Still Hurts. But That’s Actually Okay.

It’s funny. I thought that becoming an activist, in some ways, meant that by virtue of doing work to raise awareness, generate discussion, and build community, that a sticks-and-stones kind of approach to ignorance would overtake me. That I’d just be more or less immune to ignorant comments, that I could just brush it off and never think about it again…

INTERSEX EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION: TITLE VII AND ANATOMICAL SEX NONCONFORMITY

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is the most visible law that protects private employees from discrimination based on sex. Remedial statutes must be construed broadly, yet it is not clear how broadly “sex” is defined under the statute. Everyone agrees that Title VII at the very least protects women from discrimination because they are women and protects men from discrimination because they are men. But what of the intersex people in the United States whose genetic and biological characteristics do not place them neatly into one of the two common biological sexes?

Forum focuses on intersex individuals

Intersex people are all around us, according to Dr. Veronica Drantz, a professor at North Shore and DePaul universities. Drantz challenged the notions of sex and gender that we’re taught in school, where she says it’s “the male, the female—the end.” Drantz said that there are a wide variety of people that fall in between…

UCSF's support group for parents of intersex kids

Jeanne Nollman was a later bloomer.

She waited and waited for puberty to hit, and when she was 17 and still nothing had happened, she got tested – and found out she had a rare condition called Swyer syndrome…

Contemporary Intersex Activism

Melissa’s interest in contemporary intersex activism prompted an analysis of Barbin as “one of the major precursors to these movements, especially since s/he is one of the first intersex individuals to translate his/her lived experiences of sexual ambiguity into writing.” The study of Barbin’s memoirs, she argues, is relevant and important when considering modern intersex issues in France, the United States, and the rest of the world…

Intersex Genitalia Illustrated and Explained

There is a lot of variation in how the genitalia develop from person to person in all of us. Nature provides us with a wide spectrum of forms, onto which our society imposes two absolute categories of male and female…

Intersex research on conference agenda

“Intersexed children are forced to have surgery – their only crime is that they are born different,” says Sterling. “My research is looking at why the law of ‘informed consent’ is not helping these people and why such surgeries still continue…”

Filmmaker Traces Evolution of ‘Intersex’

To amplify the voices of people with intersex conditions and to shed light on the medicalization of intersex identities, The Women’s Center handed the microphone at an event Friday to documentary filmmaker Robin Honan and intersex historian Elizabeth Reis to vocalize the crossroads of medical and social thought on intersex bodies…

Intersex Babies: Boy or Girl and Who Decides?

… he knew something was wrong and, battling depression, sought his medical records when he was 19.

“I knew that I wasn’t a girl,” he said.

What Bruce discovered was horrifying. “I was sterilized at birth — and no one ever told me,” he said.

The Phalloclitoris: Anatomy and Ideology

The Western medical establishment is deeply invested in the ideology of sexual dyadism: the idea that there are two very different sexes with two very different sets of genitalia. When children are born with…

My Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Story

I have Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, and this is my story about my experiences and what has happened so far…

2010

Genetic switch for determining gender identified; Gene linked to so-called 'intersex' families

An international team of researchers has identified a gene that appears to be an important switch in determining whether the biological program for the development of gender will go according to plan, or if, when mutated, will cause a glitch in the program…

Audio Release -- Alice Dreger: The Intersex Body

In this program, Alice Dreger addresses the human experience of being born with a body that does not fit the usual definitions of male or female. Now called “persons with intersex,” these people were once referred to as hermaphrodites. Dreger’s lecture touches on what, historically, happened to people with intersex and incorporates insights that can be gleaned from the narratives of those living with sex anomalies.

Full-Frontal Activism: Intersex and Awesome

Intersex Is Entertaining!:
Freaks and Geeks

Welcome back for another round of dissecting how popular entertainment perceives intersex individuals, and how closely these perceptions track reality….

Do I Have the Right to Marry Anyone?

We have very different bodies, different “conditions,” but we share key experiences that bind us closely. And one of those shared experiences is a constant feeling of unease with regulations and categorizations–marriage laws…

The Intersex Roadshow: Does It Get Better?

In the homophobic and transphobic cauldron of many American schools, large numbers of LGBTI teens are driven to despair, and some to its ultimate expression in suicide…

Interphobia--Not Cured by Hiding Us Away

The problem of bias against intersex people: Which, following the conventions of the terms homophobia and transphobia, I’m terming interphobia.

Deaf Children, Intersex Children, and DSDs

I want to explain a division in our community, between intersex advocates and partisans of the terminology of “DSDs”…

Sex, Intersex, and the Making of “Normal”

Physicians have had a long, painful relationship with those born with intersex conditions, or atypical sex development. Two recent controversies have highlighted this uncomfortable history…

Full-Frontal Activism: Intersex and Awesome

Intersex “Treatment” Trauma
and Sexual Abuse Trauma:
Not So Different

I have been thinking about medical procedures and “treatments” intersex individuals are often forced to undergo without consent, and how they can easily be viewed as abusive. Specifically, many procedures are akin to sexual abuse…

Five Myths that Hurt Intersex People

I’ve had conversations with intersex acquaintances about painful situations in which (nonintersex) people have accused my friends of not “really” being intersex. These are some central myths that come up over and over again…

Caster Semenya Returns to Compete; Petition to the International Olympic Committee Regarding Intersex Athletes

In a statement posted late last month, Caster Semenya, the South African runner and world champion announced her plans to return to competition, despite the IAAF’s refusal to release the results of her “gender tests”, citing a violation of her rights through their quest to police and “determine her sex”…

Full-Frontal Activism: Intersex and Awesome

Should The Snail Be Salted?

So, one thing that’s bothered me a little bit is intersex symbolism. You’d think this would be more straight-forward than it is, but it’s not for a lot of reasons.

One such reason is that there’s not good consensus on what it means to be intersex, both within and outside of the medical community…

Intersex and Sports: Back to the Same Old Game

… The Miami proposals make no sense from a sports perspective. Plenty of anomalous conditions give athletes advantages – some men naturally have very high levels of testosterone, or especially efficient oxygen processing. Simpson himself admitted in his interview with The New York Times that some people just have a natural biochemical advantage of one sort or another. But we don’t require “treatment” before those nonintersex athletes are allowed to compete. And we sure as heck don’t decide who will be rigorously tested against biochemical fairness standards by sending around nude photographs of them to special doctors.

Policing the Policing of Intersex Bodies: Softeningthe Lines in Title IX Athletic Programs

Great athletes are both born and made. Perhaps it is unsurprising, then, that organized sports have historically aspired to regulate both the nature and nurture of its participants. The underlying principle of athletic competition is fair play—consistent with the sporting world’s widespread condemnation of performance-enhancing drugs. But fair play is not synonymous with egalitarianism; nor could it be, given that inborn physical advantages are simply not doled out impartially…

Movie Release -- Orchids: My Intersex Adventure

Documentary filmmaker, Phoebe Hart, comes clean on her journey of self-discovery to embrace her future and reconcile the past shame and family secrecy surrounding her intersex condition…

2009

www.aissgusa.org (Indiana University Bloomington)

Here’s a snapshot of our website from December of 2009 as kindly hosted by the Indiana University in Bloomington!

See what’s changed and see what’s the same…

The New Yorker: Either/Or

Caster Semenya, the current world champion in the eight hundred metres, was a member of the Moletjie Athletics Club until a year ago. She was born in Ga-Masehlong, a village about fifteen miles from the track, and she was, Coach Sako said, “a natural.”

Full-Frontal Activism: Intersex and Awesome

Dr. Oz Takes On Intersex

Dr. Oz had a segment on intersex, “When the Sexes Collide,” on his show, Dr. Oz.. I can’t say I’m crazy about the segment’s name, as it serves to promote the humans-can-be-hermaphrodites myth, but the segment’s heartfelt nature and generally good overview of many issues facing intersex individuals and their families almost justifies the dubious name…

intersex and the law

Intersex has become the focus of public interest because of the media storm around the questioning of Caster Semenya’s sex. Our exemplary post-apartheid Constitution of 1996, with its Bill of Rights and Equality Clause, seemed at first glance to afford intersexed South Africans unassailable legal protection. But…

Journal Release -- GLQ: Intersex and After

In this special issue of GLQ, experts from a variety of disciplines discuss the future of treatment for people with intersex conditions—those born with ambiguous genitalia—and consider what intersexuality means for theories of gender…

Intersex disorder doesn’t make a woman less of a woman

… AIS is a disorder that the majority of the industrialized world struggles to understand, and this child, from a third world country, is having her diagnosis broadcast across the Internet and TV screens throughout the world. This child is 18 years old. What must she be going through?

Actually, I know. I am Intersex.

The uncertain sex: 'Nothing in nature is normal'

The world is often divided into the two sexes, but where do those born with an uncertain gender stand…?

Caster Semenya - An Intersex Perspective

Controversy and a lot of prurient interest exploded into the news this week when South African Caster Semenya outran her competition in the 800m world championships by a more than two second lead, only to be accused of cheating by being intersex.

Opening up about intersex

When she was getting her bachelor of arts degree at UBC, Nicky Phillips had all of the usual preoccupations of students, like studying for exams and going on dates. The Hamilton, Ontario, native wasn’t at all prepared to get the biggest shock of her life at the age of 25…

We're all intersex

Stevens had been told for most of her life that she was a boy, but in her 20s had discovered the truth about her sex — that she had been born a hermaphrodite, and that doctors had conducted surgeries on her genitalia as an infant. After learning the news, she consulted her priest, who said that while God usually condemns suicides, for her he might make an exception…

Full-Frontal Activism: Intersex and Awesome

What’s Up With This Blog?

Hi, everyone! Whether you sought out this site or unintentionally linked to it (and found yourself saying “Huh? Intersex what?!”), WELCOME!

Book Release -- Between XX and XY: Intersexuality and the Myth of Two Sexes

“The scripted play of conception, gestation, and birth is explored in this interesting, informative book. Sometimes all the things that should happen, when they are supposed to happen to produce a “boy” or a “girl”, go array. These newborns may or may not appear to be out of the “ordinary” at birth, but later on in life they may have problems mostly brought on by the binary gendered society they live in.” — Roberta Westerberg

The Intersex Roadshow: We've Always Been Here

When is the last time somebody told you that there is not such thing. . . as you?

(A blog about various intersex issues)

The Intersex Peep Show: No, You Can't Look in My Pants

It can be disconcerting and creepy to realize that someone you don’t know is thinking about your genitalia, requesting a photograph…

On Being Called a "True Hermaphrodite"

The medical terminology for a person born with an ovotestis is “true hermaphrodite.” Today I’m going to post on what I hate about that term, and what I don’t…

Transphobia and Intersex Experience

I woke up this morning to a set of transphobic comments on my last blog post. Rather than mope, I thought I’d use this as a teaching moment…

Intersected, Transsected: The Intersex / Trans Nexus

Intersex and trans people share some deep common experiences. Yet we often find ourselves prickling at comments made by people in the “other camp.”

Intersex Roadshow: Intersex 101

In our society, it’s common to think that all people are born either male or female. But the biological truth is that sex is a spectrum…

Intersex Roadshow: A Personal Introduction

I’m Cary, and my sex is neither male nor female; I’m intersexed. I was born that way…

(A blog about various intersex issues)

2008

The Leonard Lopate Show: Intersexuality

We look into how people who are have ambiguous genitalia or a combination of male and female body parts cope in a gender-based society.

Atlanta’s Intersex Police Officer Seeks Awareness

Harris noted the discovery [she was intersex] confirmed her lifelong awareness that she did not fit the mold defined by most of society…

She has since derived an unprecedented sense of freedom and a release from the frustration she carried for years. She sees this experience as a healing process.

Dr. Katrina Karkazis on Intersex Individuals

[In episode 8] Dr. Katrina Karkazis discusses intersex individuals, previously known as hermaphrodites, and her new book titled Fixing Sex…

Book Release -- Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience

“For those following the Intersex community and their often heartbreaking stories, the book can be painful to read. But Ms. Karkazis tries to present the material not as an advocate, but as a medical ethicist and she succeeds brilliantly in shining much light on a lot of dark histories [that] are still threatening to all involved. It’s in dealing with these bioethical questions the book finds its greatest success. She balances the choices parents and doctors made for infants with the anger and helplessness of those children who had to actually live with those decisions. She also points out how adherence to ‘normality’ and the gender binary had everything to do with many of these (often for the worse) life-altering decisions…” — Gina R. Morvay

Fall 2008 Public Newsletter

Have a look at our public newsletter with topics such as: A Summary Of The 2008 Annual Conference, ”Catching up with the Prez” letter, A Parent’s Letter of Thanksgiving, and Empowerment Through Advocacy!

Summer 2008 Public Newsletter

Have a look at our public newsletter with topics such as: 2008 Annual Conference Details and A Summary Of The Raleigh Roundtable!

ESTATE PLANNING AND THE TRANSGENDER CLIENT

For the purposes of this Article, the term “transgender” is meant to be broadly interpreted to include transsexuals, crossdressers, gender-queer, and androgynous persons, rather than as the more restrictive use often found in the legal system where transgender tends to be used interchangeably with transsexual…

(The article also includes legal issues affecting intersex individuals)

2007

Mani travels via Hawaii to USA

In a rushed end-of-year trip, New Zealand intersex activist Mani Mitchell travels via Hawaii to USA linking up with Max Beck, Milton Diamond, Cheryl Chase and the Intersex community…

What Intersex Local Hida Viloria Didn't Tell Oprah: How Hermaph-tivists Pander To Homophobes

The 39-year-old [Hida] Viloria appeared on the talk show as part of a special program discussing intersex people who are born with male as well as female sexual traits, although those dual traits don’t always appear outwardly. For most of America, it was probably the first time they’d ever heard the word “intersex”…

Growing Up 'Intersex', Going on Oprah

Katie Baratz ’07 plans a medical practice that will include treatment of intersex conditions. Find out about intersex, why she went on the Oprah show to discuss it…

The Oprah Winfrey Show: Growing Up Intersex

Are you a male or a female? Simple question, right? For them, the answer is much more complicated…

Movie Release -- XXY (Spanish)

Alex Kraken is a 15-year-old intersex person, born with both male and female genitals, who has been living and presenting herself as female and using medicines to suppress masculine features, such as a beard, and to attempt to have more feminine features. At the time of the movie, Alex has recently stopped taking her medication without telling her parents, which will cause her masculine features to begin to develop more..

International: Intersexuality Is A Human Rights Issue

Since the mid-50s, all over the West those people who had been classified as intersex at the time of birth or in their early infancy by health professionals, have been and are subjected to a variety of sociomedical procedures… In the decades since this model for care was established, a very high number of Intersex infants have been subjected to these “corrective” and “normalizing” practices, without having the opportunity to provide or deny their consent and, in may cases, without having access to their clinical records even when they reach adulthood.

I Am Me (my life as an intersexual)

A Poem By Christy Galbraith

I don’t choose blue and I don’t choose pink, A boy or a girl I must be or so you think…

Expert on Intersex Studies to Speak at Ithaca College

Alison Redick… An assistant professor of women’s studies at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, conducts research on the history of science and medicine; feminist theory and epistemology; the American eugenics movement; and representations of race, gender and sexuality. She is currently completing a book based on her dissertation, “American History XY: The Medical Treatment of Intersex, 1916–1955.”

Gender Identity and the Military - Transgender, Transsexual, and Intersex-identified Individuals in the U.S. Armed Forces

For a majority of Western society, the body can only assume two biological forms, the male body and the female body. This binary view of the body and its subsequent interpretations through birth sex and gender appears to be a settled known, and many of our American institutions, such as the military, base their regulations and personnel policies upon this traditional view…

STOP Intersex Genital Mutilation

StopIGM.org / Zwischengeschlecht.org, founded in 2007, is an international Human Rights NGO based in Switzerland. It is led by intersex persons, their partners, families and friends, and works to represent the interests of intersex people and their relatives, raise awareness, and fight IGM practices and other human rights violations perpetrated on intersex people…

2006

Fall 2006 Public Newsletter

Have a look at our public newsletter with topics such as: 2006 Meeting Summary, ”From Our Prez” letter, and A Membership Questionnaire

Spring 2006 Public Newsletter

Have a look at our public newsletter with articles such as: Things to Help on a Path to Healing, and Ways To Let Go Of Unhealthy Feelings

2006 Teaching Intersex Issues

Teaching Intersex Issues is designed for undergraduate classes and offers instructors a two-week unit on intersex issues in a format that can easily be added to existing syllabi, expanded to constitute an entire course, or trimmed down to a few class sessions…

(historic original guidelines developed by an intersex run group)

2006 Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Disorders of Sex Development in Childhood

The purpose of these guidelines is to assist health care professionals in the provision of diagnosis, treatment, education, and support to children born with disorders of sex development (DSDs) and totheir families…

(historic original guidelines developed by an intersex run group)

2006 Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Disorders of Sex Development in Childhood

If you’ve just found out your child has some kind of disorder of sex development (called a DSD for short), you may be feeling confused and stressed. We hope that this handbook will help you begin to answer these questions…

(historic original guidelines developed by an intersex run group)

2005

Fall 2005 Public Newsletter

Have a look at our public newsletter with topics such as: 2005 Meeting Summary, A Letter From The President, and More!

Summer 2005 Public Newsletter

Have a look at our public newsletter with topics such as: Keeping Secrets and Regional Meetings!

Spring 2005 Public Newsletter

Have a look at our public newsletter with topics such as: Adoption, Survey Results From The 2004 Meeting, and 2005 Meeting Details!

We’re in this together.

InterConnect is committed to building a community for all intersex people, their families, and allies. A space where you are heard, valued, and embraced regardless of race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, socio-economic background, ability, experience, or perspective. A community where you can bring your whole self. We’re in this together, join us.

Our Mission:

InterConnect is a compassionate and affirming community of intersex individuals, family members and allies, working together to promote a better quality of life through connection, support, education and awareness.

Our Vision:

A world in which intersex individuals are celebrated as a natural variation of human biology, and all intersex people feel safe, seen and supported.

Our Values:

We value the journey of intersex people, their families and allies, who support our right to self-determination, dignity, and purpose.

Be.SEEN

Support - Embrace - Educate - Network