Media Library
2019
Conference in Delhi highlights issues faced by intersex people
The first national conference on Intersex Human Rights was held at the India Centre in New Delhi on Sunday.
Organised by Srishti Madurai, the conference featured Intersex activists from India and abroad as well as legal, medical and government experts…
This Intersex Runner Had Surgery to Compete. It Has Not Gone Well.
Annet Negesa, Uganda’s 800-meter Olympic hopeful, says she was advised to undergo an irreversible surgery because of naturally elevated testosterone levels. Her career has never been the same…
Massachusetts Medical Society Supports Intersex Rights
The Massachusetts Medical Society (MMS) passed a resolution supporting the principle that intersex children should not be operated on until they are old enough to make the decision themselves…
Book Release -- Two-Spirits Belong Here: An Anthology of works by Two-Spirit Transgender, Intersex, & Gender Non-Conforming Native American Artists
“I was super excited to find out this book exists. It is truly an amazing anthology which showcases trans, intersex, and GNC Two-Spirit Indigenous writers who are often passed over by mainstream publishing. There’s a wide range of identities among the authors but Indigenous Latinx/Latina trans women are particularly centered. It also has a really nice variety of work–a lot of poetry, but also personal essays, historical/theoretical essays, photos and art, and theater works.” — Minosh
Intersex Solidarity at Carolina
Intersex Day of Solidarity, also known as Intersex Day of Remembrance, takes place on November 8. The Day marks the birthday of Herculine Barbin, a French intersex person whose memoirs were later published by the philosopher Michel Foucault…
Here’s What to Know About Having a Baby Who Is Intersex
First, take a deep breath. It can be scary for new parents to hear anything unexpected from a doctor once their baby is born. But intersex traits occur naturally, and it’s not a disease or condition that affects baby’s physical health…
8 Misconceptions, Myths About Being Intersex Debunked
October 26th is Intersex Awareness Day, the anniversary of the first protest against medical harm to our community in the United States. And we’ve come a long way since that day in 1996, but I’m still not surprised to hear that many queer allies don’t yet have a solid concept of what exactly it can mean to have an intersex body…
What Dating As An Intersex Person Taught Me About Self-Acceptance
As a preteen, all I wanted was to be feminine; I wanted to wear pastels, go shopping for my first big-girl bra, and talk about boys. I figured that dressing as girly as possible would help me fit in, despite my body’s differences. I wanted boys to like me, not make fun of me for being too manly…
We Must Stop Forcing Conformity on Intersex Bodies
A core aspect of human autonomy and dignity is to be able to make decisions about our own bodies. But each year, doctors around the country continue to perform medically unnecessary, harmful surgeries on intersex infants and children…
9 Young People on How They Found Out They Are Intersex
Intersex people have bodies that are just a little different. While about 98% of human bodies match up with the two paths of sex development we learn about in sex ed, intersex bodies are extra creative…
Medically Necessary Or 'Cruel'? Inside The Battle Over Surgery On Intersex Babies
[M]any intersex adults who underwent procedures as babies have dealt with painful consequences later in life. Now 53, Zieselman has become a part of a growing movement within the intersex community speaking out against surgeries performed on intersex babies. Unless surgery is medically necessary, activists say, doctors should not interfere.
Clearing Up Misconceptions About Intersex Conditions
Being born intersex isn’t limited to ambiguous genitalia. There’s a plethora of intersex conditions, about 150. Some of them require surgical intervention, some don’t. And while the condition is common, there are still a lot of misconceptions about it. Ignorance can lead parents to allow surgical interventions that strip away the autonomy of individuals and expose them to irreversible physical damage…
Intersex activist Tatenda Ngwaru shares her story at Civic Life Lunch
Tatenda Ngwaru, a Zimbabwean intersex activist and asylum seeker, spoke about her life and work yesterday at a Civic Life Lunch hosted by the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life…
Growing up intersex in a country where it is believed to be bad luck
Babalwa Mtshawu never experienced puberty. When she was growing up she didn’t get her period or grow breasts like the other girls around her.
Born in Mthatha, a town in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, she says her family’s conservative nature made it difficult for her to talk to anyone about her body…
Intersex Experience and Fears about "Gay Genetics"
… here is where intersex experience can step in and advise LGBT groups about whether finding a biological “cause” for sexual orientation or gender identity would be a good thing or a bad thing. What our experience shows is that neither finding would be protective.
Indian State Bans Unnecessary Surgery on Intersex Children
The order bans genital surgeries except in “life-threatening situations,” and warns against surgeons deliberately misinterpreting that clause to continue performing medically unnecessary operations. A committee will be created to define this threshold…
Video Release -- Expressions: Intersex Women
As we wrap up women’s month, we continue to bring you stories of phenomenal women. Today we spotlight the plight of intersex women. Society expects people to conform into either a male or a female, but being Intersex is more complex than that…
Recognising intersex people opens access to fundamental rights in Kenya
Labelling intersex as a third option on the census form seems to be the safer option for the government. It has certainly won over intersex advocacy actors, and for those individuals who sleep and wake up and live in those very bodies…
KENDRA LITTLE | BECOMING MORE
For the first time, former professional golfer Kendra Little opens up about her gender identity and the impact it has had on her life over the last 20 years…
Professor Morgan Holmes is pushing for change for intersex people, through research and activism
In Canada, most intersex people are diagnosed, then assigned a gender and treated surgically or pharmaceutically to match that gender, either at birth or later in childhood. Holmes and other activists argue that these treatments have lifelong and often detrimental effects on children and should be prohibited…
What happens when your body is both male and female?
These are examples of what would only be the beginning of the unknown traumas that many intersex Filipinos experience in their day-to-day lives. For a majority of them, this “act” would go on well into adulthood — from stuffing bras with pan de sal just to pass as female for a job interview, to quitting swimming because wearing a swimsuit would attract too many questions…
Recent Catholic Statement endangers Intersex Children
Intersex kids who have been subjected to medicalization without their consent often grow up with unnecessary surgeries, secrecy, shame, and life-long trauma. That’s why it’s so troubling to see official Catholic teaching recommending the medical interventions…
Finding Victory: Speaking out for intersex girl after attack
Schofield and her husband decided to call the infant Victory. The name is a hope for triumph over the secrecy and shame and the pain and discrimination suffered by intersex people.
Amie Schofield knows the suffering better than most: This was not her first intersex child…
Intersex Youth React to the Discriminatory Ruling Against Caster Semenya
The highest court in sports ruled in favor of discrimination against intersex athletes by saying that it was necessary for the IAAF, the governing body for athletics worldwide, to require competitors with higher than average testosterone levels to medically alter their bodies in order to compete as women…
The Thin Line Between Surgery and Mutilation
There’s a lot of overlap between surgery on intersex infants and female genital mutilation. So why do we view them so differently?
Last month, many were up in arms about the news that the Justice Department would not defend a federal prohibition on female genital mutilation that was thrown out by a lower court last fall…
What it means to be intersex
For intersex people — those born with sex characteristics outside the traditional definitions of female and male — the stakes to appear “normal” are high. Drawing on her personal experience, Susannah Temko reveals the shame, prejudice and harm faced by the intersex community, as they’re forced to conform to a binary understanding of sex that ultimately hinders their health and well-being…
Adventurous identities: intersex soldiers and cross-dressing women at war
A documentary from the Smithsonian Institute, examining new DNA and physical anthropology evidence, suggests the famous cavalry officer Casimir Pulaski (1745-1779) might have been a woman, or intersex…
Irish Research Council funding new DCU study on the lived experience of intersex people in Ireland
“Internationally, Ireland is now perceived as a diversity positive society, yet intersex people continue to be left behind. It’s wonderful that the IRC have taken this opportunity to fund this project and we hope that it will provide the strong evidence base that will enable real and meaningful change for the better in the lives of Irish intersex people.”
“Tragic and Glorious Pages”: The Evolution of Intersex Rights in Russia and Reframing Law and Tradition to Advance Reform
Russia lags conspicuously behind her fellow developed nations in the realm of intersex rights and advocacy. Russian doctors not only are unapologetic in their championing of nonconsensual, medically unnecessary surgeries, but also acclaim them as scientific triumphs…
PODCAST: Intersex Advocates Say Society Needs To Change, Not Them
Today, we talk with members of the intersex community seeking to pass laws in Connecticut and elsewhere to protect them from discrimination and to stop doctors from performing “normalizing” surgeries on intersex children until they are old enough to give their consent…
Africa Rights Talk: Acknowledging and understanding intersex
In this extended episode listeners are taken on Ronie Zuze’s journey as an intersex person and the misunderstandings and challenges faced. Through their story it becomes clear how decisions taken by family and medical professionals when they were a child, have long lasting consequences…
How do Intersex people navigate life and the medical system?
Insight is Australia’s leading forum for debate and powerful first-person stories…
Happy Valentine's day [from the Green Party]
As FYEG [Federation of Young European Greens], we support intersex people in their struggle for recognition, dignity and rights. We commit to keep fighting for a Europe where everyone can be free and safe regardless of their gender or other characteristics.
On this Valentine’s Day, we’re calling upon all MEPs [Members of the European Parliament] to show their love for intersex people and vote in favor of this crucial motion!
Movie Release -- Ponyboi
Ponyboi is an intersex runaway. He works at a laundromat and hustles as sex-worker. But after a mysterious encounter with a man from his dreams, he learns that perhaps he is worthy of leaving his seedy life in New Jersey behind…
2018
http://aisdsd.org/
Here’s a snapshot of our old website from December of 2018!
See what’s changed and see what’s the same…
Dateline Australia Explains: Intersex
What is Intersex? We asked a bunch of people and no one quite knew. Dateline explains the ‘I’ in LGBTQI…
Born Intersex: we are human! | TEDxJacksonville
Mx. Anunnaki Ray Marquez is the rare intersex individual whose genitals were not surgically altered at birth. Anunnaki is in the process of receiving a birth certificate recognizing that his true biological sex is intersex and not a disorder…
The Complicated Relationship Between Testosterone and Muscle Growth
NOTE From The Curator: For A.I.S., P.A.I.S., and M.A.I.S., this article explains why it’s hard to find x.A.I.S. body builders…
As an Intersex Person, Coming Out Is a Continual Struggle
Once it was clear that I am intersex, the doctor encouraged me to undergo medical procedures in order to “normalize” and “correct” my body. Like many other intersex people, I was told that I had a birth defect. I was not told that there is no health or medical reason that makes being intersex a “defect”…
Its Intersex Awareness Day - here are 5 myths we need to shatter
Although there are still a lot of misconceptions around the meaning of intersex, there are lots of amazing intersex activists around the world who are fighting to raise awareness and protect human rights…
Intersex human rights: clinical self-regulation has failed
October 14, The New York Times recently disclosed that the Trump administration may seek to redefine gender to refer to two unchangeable biologically-determined sex categories. As can be seen in many of the responses to this proposal, not everyone has innate biological sex characteristics that neatly line up with XX or XY sex chromosomes…
'You can't undo surgery': More parents of intersex babies are rejecting operations
Kristina Turner will never forget the moment doctors at a hospital in Washington state told her something was different about her baby. Shortly after Ori was born in 2007, the medical staff noticed that the infant had abnormal genital swelling. Other than that, doctors assured Turner, everything was fine…
Intersex, and Erased Again
I woke up Sunday morning to the news that the Trump administration is planning changes to federal civil rights laws that would define sex “as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals a person is born with,” and that any confusion would be clarified through genetic testing. Most people have interpreted this effort as a blow to transgender rights — and it is. But amid all this, the fate of intersex people seems to have been forgotten…
The Department of Inhumanity and Ideological Services
A memo was recently leaked from the Department of Health and Human Services. In it, the HHS defines sex as a binary determined by chromosomes (presumed to come in only two forms, XX or XY), and states that sex cannot be changed. The memo has caused outrage…
Colorado Is the First U.S. 'State' to Issue an Intersex Birth Certificate
Anunnaki Ray Marquez is the first intersex person outside of [New York City] to obtain a medically accurate birth certificate…
US Medical Association Stands Against Unnecessary Intersex Surgeries
The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), one of the United States’ oldest and largest medical organizations, has issued a policy opposing medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children…
Intersex-Affirming Hospital Policy Guide Published Following First U.S. Legislative Acknowledgement of Non-consensual Surgical Procedures on Intersex People
interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth, Lambda Legal, and Proskauer Rose LLP have released the nation’s first intersex-affirming hospital policy guide, offering concrete steps for medical providers to provide sensitive, non-discriminatory care to intersex patients…
River Gallo: Intersex People Are 'Objectified By The Medical Community'
While the intersex community celebrated a landmark moment this week when California became the first state to condemn surgeries on intersex children, the fight for intersex rights has yet to truly begin. As filmmaker River Gallo says, the first steps are explaining what it is and letting people know intersex people exist…
These Children Aren’t Sick — But They Are Still Having Operations
Attorneys, with focuses as diverse as human rights and science, consider these surgeries to be (at times grievous) bodily harm. But there are virtually never any legal consequences for the doctors who perform them…
Resolution Affirms Intersex Rights, Condemns Unnecessary Surgery on Intersex Children
“California’s leadership on the protection of intersex children’s rights is not only an expression of solidarity and dignity, but a reminder that doctors take an oath do no harm…”
NetFlix Release -- Follow This: Intersex
[In episode 3 of part 1] Follow This looks at intersex community in Germany. Buzzfeed LGBT* reporter Juliane Löffler examines the issues surrounding people born with genitalia ambiguous between male and female…
Nonconsensual Intersex Surgery as Physical Conversion Therapy
Are the days of conversion therapy over? They are not. I am going to argue to you that “corrective,” “normalizing” surgeries performed on intersex children who cannot give or withhold consent are conversion therapies…
Intersex People Want to End Nonconsensual Surgeries. A California Resolution Is Their ‘Warning Shot.’
A growing number of patients have spoken out in recent years about how surgeries, performed when they were too young to understand—much less give consent—have deprived them of sexual pleasure, sterilized them, traumatized them, or altered their bodies to reinforce a gender assignment that is not theirs…
Book Release -- Raising Rosie
“Loving parents want to believe doctors would only advocate the best options for their children, but this is not always the case. The Lohmans describe their skepticism, how they learned the right questions to ask, and how they questioned harmful, patriarchal practices in medicine…” — Hans Lindahl
Secular Hub Podcast: Episode 17 – Queer Secularism
Meet Kim. Hub founder and leader for years, she recently took the opportunity to visit the Secular Hub and speak about gender identity. Societal norms on the subject are in the process of a great and substantial shift and it’s thanks to all those who have stood up to fight for basic human rights and dignity for so many years… What does it mean to be intersex?
Intersex Studies: A Systematic Review of International Health Literature
The review aimed to explore how people with somatic intersex variations have been studied “as a holistic group” to better understand how the health of “the group as a whole” has been constructed in recent research…
Intersex veteran back in court to fight for passport that reflects gender identity
The battle to get a passport that accurately represents a Fort Collins veteran began in 2014 and continued Tuesday morning with another federal hearing to petition the U.S. State Department for a box other than male or female on the passport application…
Exorcising Intersex and Cripping Compulsory Dyadism
With her thesis Celeste E. Orr explores if and how much intersex existence coincides with disability.
Stemming from their original medically defined ‘disordered’ status, intersex individuals have been fighting to be seen as a variation of people to be respected and not as disordered patients to be fixed…
Reproducing Intersex Trouble: An Analysis of the M.C. Case in the Media
by Jamie M. Lane
A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Women’s and Gender Studies College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida.
(was added as it lists a number of great references…)
Iceland Violates Human Rights By Performing Surgery On Intersex Children
According to Piet de Bruyn, General Rapporteur on the rights of LGBT people appointed by the Council of Europe, Iceland has been violating the human rights of countless individuals for decades by performing irreversible surgery on intersex children, RÚV reports…
Intersex babies killed at birth because ‘they’re bad omens’
Because her mother and grandmother — both present at the birth — were “disappointed in the child” and its ambiguous genitalia, the three “agreed to kill the child and be silent [about it]”.
Diagnosing sex: Intersex surgery and ‘sex change’ in Britain 1930–1955
The medical ‘management’ of individuals with atypical sex characteristics, or intersex variations, has been under scrutiny since the beginnings of intersex activism in the 1990s. This article explores a history of intersex surgeries in Britain…
Human Rights Watch: Ending The Intersex Exception
… The truth, when it finally came, was both liberating and traumatizing: Bo discovered she had been born with atypical genitalia, which surgeons had operated on to make her look—arbitrarily—more typically female, inflicting irreversible harm on her in the process, and telling her parents that they should never reveal to Bo the surgery she had undergone as an infant.
2017
Alicia Roth Weigel: On Coming Out as Intersex in Front of the Texas Legislature
Alicia Roth Weigel has dedicated her career to working with marginalized populations and advocating for women’s rights. But up until this year, the 27-year-old carried a secret about her identity and didn’t feel safe advocating for her own rights and needs…
Germany: Personal Status Act Must Allow Third Gender Option for Intersex People
The German Federal Constitutional Court held that the Personal Status Act is incompatible with the German Basic Law, the country’s constitution, to the extent that it only allows the registration of a female or male gender at birth or no gender entry at all. It stated that forcing intersex people to register a gender but not offering a third positive option in addition to male and female violated intersex persons’ general right to personality and the prohibition on discrimination.
7 Major Steps People Took For Intersex Rights In 2017
This November 8 marks Intersex Day of Solidarity. Established by intersex activists, the date marks an important opportunity to do precisely what it says: raise awareness of what it means to be intersex, show solidarity, and recognize that intersex rights are human rights.
Protest Held Outside Lurie Children’s Hospital On Intersex Awareness Day
“When I was one-years old they removed my undescended testes. And when I was 11 they performed a botched vaginoplasty that left me with scar tissue and insensitivity and other problems to make me, quote-unquote, a normal girl. Even though I have XY chromosomes.
I should have been allowed to decide myself. Like all intersex people should be…”
AMSA Issues Statement to Defer Gender “Normalizing” Surgeries for Children Born as Intersex
In recognition of Intersex Awareness Day, the American Medical Student Association joins the call to end medically unnecessary, non-consensual genital “normalizing” surgeries that continue to be performed on intersex youth across the country, despite condemnation from the United Nations, the World Health Organization, and Amnesty International.
HRC Commemorates Intersex Awareness Day with Global Intersex Advocate Interview
After discovering that she was intersex at the age of 22, Irene became one of the very few intersex activists in Russia and Ukraine. She is co-founder of Intersex Russia, which is focused on providing accurate and positive representation of the intersex community in Russia…
Unnecessary Surgery on Intersex Children Must Stop
Amidst growing concerns within the international medical community about surgical interventions on intersex children, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) today called for an end to all medically unnecessary surgical procedures that seek to alter gonads, genitals, or internal sex organs of children born with atypical sex characteristics, until the child is old enough to participate meaningfully in decisions about their body and health.
The Washington Post: THEIR TIME
After generations in the shadows, the intersex rights movement has a message for the world: We aren’t disordered and we aren’t ashamed…
Raising Awareness of Intersex Issues
Every Friday night, for years, Mo Cortez and Koomah attended the same youth group. As teenagers, they sat in a room together for hours, neither knowing they each harbored the same secret: they were born intersex.
“We both didn’t talk about it, because there was a lot of shame and stigma,” said Koomah, who goes by one name. “We sat next to each other for years feeling like the only person on the face of the planet…”
Book Release -- An Unkindness of Ghosts
“… [Rivers] Solomon thoughtfully creates a world in which they explore issues of sexual identity, race, class, and historical trauma. At a time when the world seems to be crumbling on all sides I found myself drawing strength from Aster and Giselle who are driven to challenge official narratives and seek change…” — Alana Victoria
Conservative Evangelicals Embrace Intersex Genital Mutilation
A large group of conservative evangelical Christian leaders signed and released a document they call the “Nashville Statement.” … We knew conservative evangelical activists oppose LGBT rights. What’s new is that this declaration officially puts intersex advocacy in the very same boat. Intersex advocates are sinners now…
What’s Truly Outrageous About Intersex?
… Most readers don’t make it to the bottom of the page, apparently, and even among my intersex circles and the rest of my educated friends on Facebook, people are wondering: “Can this be true?”
I was an intersex child who had surgery. Don't put other kids through this.
Doctors and parents are doing irreversible harm solely due to discomfort with difference. We are erased before we can even tell them who we are…
Momentum builds to end surgery on intersex newborns
“I did not want anyone else to go through the loneliness and isolation that I had gone through.” Parents of intersex children need to know that it’s possible to raise healthy, happy kids with the bodies they were born with, says Dr. Baratz…
Performing Surgeries to 'Correct' Intersex Children Is Inhumane and Wrong
Intersex children are often forced by their parents or physicians to undergo procedures that they don’t understand or consent to. Chandler described the trauma of a childhood spent wondering why she needed so many surgeries, and the “internal confusion” the experience caused her…
A Landmark Lawsuit About An Intersex Baby’s Genital Surgery Just Settled For $440,000
After four years in court, a first-of-its-kind legal battle over operating on “intersex” babies who are born with ambiguous genitalia has finally settled for $440,000, according to court records made public on Wednesday…
Pressure mounts to curtail surgery on intersex children
Children whose sexual characteristics don’t neatly align with the norm have for decades faced surgery to rearrange their anatomy to resemble that of more typical boys and girls — long before they were old enough to have a say in the decision.
But now the practice is under assault, as never before. The American Medical Association is considering a proposal discouraging it…
US: Harmful Surgery on Intersex Children
Doctors in the United States continue to perform medically unnecessary surgeries that can inflict permanent harm on intersex children, Human Rights Watch and interACT said in a report released today…
Intersex patients 'routinely lied to by doctors'
A leading paediatric consultant told BBC Radio 4 that withholding the truth of patients’ diagnoses had been “widespread”.
Jeanette, now 71, was operated on at the age of 16 to remove her hidden testes. She discovered the truth only when she was 50…
First, Do No Harm: ensuring the rights of children born intersex.
‘Is it a boy or a girl?’ It is often the first question people ask parents about their baby. It’s a question based on the assumption that the world is divided into two groups of people, male and female, and that everyone’s biological and genetic characteristics fit neatly into one of two categories.
But that is not always the case…
Book Release -- None of the Above
“None of the Above is a powerful story of discovering one’s true identity. This book will open hearts and change minds.” — Stephen Chbosky
“None of the Above is a sensitive, beautifully written story, told with heart (break) and humor. Gregorio deftly explores the isolation of being ‘other’ in a highly relatable way. Bravo!” — Kristin Elizabeth Clark
Book Release -- Born Both: An Intersex Life
“Hida Viloria’s touching and generous memoir shines a beautiful light of understanding not only on what it’s like to discover, explore, and own one’s identity as an intersex person, but also on what it means to be human. Through heartbreak and humor, Viloria writes with welcome candor and insight–and shows us that there is so much more beauty, brilliance, and complexity than can ever be contained in the categories ‘male’ or ‘female.'”
―Sam McConnell
Timeline of intersex history
(while curating the Media Library page, this Wikipedia entry was discovered)
The following is a timeline of intersex history…
'I'm Intersex,' A Supermodel Says, Hoping To End Stigma
Saying she doesn’t want other kids to suffer the way she did, supermodel Hanne Gaby Odiele has announced that she was born intersex — and she wants to “break the stigma” that can lead to intersex children having surgery to align them with the male or female gender…
First US person to have 'intersex' on birth certificate: 'There’s power in knowing who you are'
Sara Kelly Keenan didn’t think a Google search would change her life. But in 2009, at age 48, a few clicks revealed the truth that her parents and doctors had hidden for decades: Keenan is intersex – biologically a mix between male and female…
2016
Intersex children subject to “unnecessary” medical treatment
Children, whose gender cannot be defined as male or female are often forced by their parents to undergo surgery in an attempt to “normalize” their bodies, according to a UN official.
Charles Radcliffe, head of the UN Free & Equal Campaign, said that this medical procedure could leave “terrible scars”, such as incontinence, loss of sexual sensation and mental illness…
The taboo of Kenya's intersex children
In Kenya children who are born intersex cannot get birth certificates or identity cards, or register for exams.
Gathoni Muchomba is campaigning to get the government to recognize them as a third gender…
In Recognition of Intersex Awareness Day
On the occasion of Intersex Awareness Day, the United States stands in solidarity with intersex persons around the world.
Intersex persons routinely face forced medical surgeries that are conducted at a young age without free or informed consent. These interventions jeopardize their physical integrity and ability to live free.
UN Free & Equal: Intersex Awareness
The United Nations is calling on governments and parents to protect intersex children from harm. Help us spread the word!
Kids Born With Disorders of Sex Development
Just like many other 15-year-old boys, Josh* is starting to take an interest in girls. He likes hunting and fishing, and he’s proud to show off one of his big catches, now on a mount and displayed in his bedroom. He’s a big fan of sports, especially the Detroit Tigers, and watching TV shows about ghost hunting is cool in his book.
But Josh struggles with something other 15-year-old boys never have to think about…
Intersex activist calls for increased awareness about ‘corrective surgeries’
Intersex activist Pidgeon Pagonis called for increased awareness on the impact of sex assignment surgeries on intersex individuals Thursday. “It’s a social emergency…”
This issue of VOICES presents "Normalizing Intersex"
These authors offer an honest look into the lives of people diagnosed as intersex by allowing them to tell their own stories.
Intersex people put gender binary on trial in Karlsruhe
Intersex people want Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court to officially allow them to use their own gender designations rather than relegating them to “male” or “female.” For them, it’s about dignity and recognition…
Kenyan MP pushes for law to recognise intersex people
A Kenyan MP has asked the country’s parliament to pass a law to recognize a third gender to end discrimination against those who identify as intersex…
The Life and Murder of Stella Walsh, Intersex Olympic Champion
On the night she was murdered, Stella Walsh was in a great mood. The Cleveland resident spent much of December 4, 1980, thinking about her two passions: sports and Poland, the country she ran for when she won two Olympic medals…
These Women Athletes Were Barred From Competing Because They Weren’t “Female” Enough
Last summer, 19-year old sprinter Dutee Chand’s ability to compete in the Rio Olympics was in limbo. Her fate was not tied up in her race time, but rather a controversial rule for Olympians that said female athletes could be disqualified if their natural testosterone levels were too high…
The Problematic Ideology of Natural Sex
… science and religion are often understood to be enemies. It’s believed they offer two competing explanations of how the world works. What I want to show you is how, when it comes to understanding human nature, Christianity and Science are in fact complete bedfellows.
The Humiliating Practice of Sex-Testing Female Athletes
For years, international sports organizations have been policing women competitors for “masculine” qualities — and turning their Olympic dreams into nightmares.
Intersex Athletes of the Times
The NY Times Magazine is running a story on the binary sex policing of intersex athletes. Well, I should say, intersex woman athletes–nobody is testing to find out if men who are competing in international sporting competitions have intersex traits. Because what is really at stake here is ideology, not fact…
Oh, I will become what I deserve
After a number of doctor visits, blood tests, a positive test result for testosterone (a hormone typically found in males), and finally a karyotype blood test to determine my sex chromosomes. The doctor called me in with my test results, and they read as follows…
The spectrum of sex development: Eric Vilain and the intersex controversy
As a medical student in Paris in the 1980s, Eric Vilain found himself pondering the differences between men and women. What causes them to develop differently, and what happens when the process goes awry? At the time, he was encountering babies that defied simple classification as a boy or girl…
At 12 I grew a beard and had a period
When Alec Butler was born in 1959 it was assumed Alec was female. But after being brought up as a girl, Alec – now an award-winning writer and film-maker – realised they were intersex…
Intersex conditions pose unique challenges for UNC, Duke doctors
When Georgiann Davis was 17, she underwent surgery to remove what doctors called precancerous ovaries. Years later, as an adult, Davis obtained her medical records. They revealed that what her doctors had removed were actually internal testicles. She said she was never told about her condition.
“Doctors lied to me, and they encouraged my parents to do the same…”
This Girl Has Balls | TEDxUNLV
Are you male or female? This seems to be a simple question, but drawing on her personal experience and research in the intersex community, Georgiann Davis tells us why it isn’t.
Is the world finally waking up to intersex rights?
“The surgeon’s approach was that I didn’t identify as a woman because I didn’t have a vagina,” says Mauro Cabral. After growing up in Argentina being treated as a girl, he discovered at the age of 14 that he didn’t have any internal female organs. Although he had always felt male, and still does, he was forced to undergo surgery to create a vagina…
2015
Beyond 'he' and 'she': The rise of non-binary pronouns
In the English language, the word “he” is used to refer to males and “she” to refer to females. But some people identify as neither gender, or both…
Nicky Phillips at the Laughter Zone 101 Gala
Click here to watch Nicky Phillips, an InterConnect Support Group member, who has made her debut as a stand up comedian!
What Does It Mean To Be Intersex?
If you’ve never heard of intersex, you’re not alone, says Georgiann Davis, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas sociology professor and intersex person…
Welcome To XYSuZ - Long Version
A website for Intersex persons and non-Intersex persons to come and see Intersex from another perspective.
I hope you like it. Visit XYSuZ.com
New YouTube Channel For Intersex Awareness Day
Emily Quinn opens new channel to discuss intersex experiences. Click here to see her first video!
Bailey De Young Opens Up About Her ‘Faking It’ Alter Ego
In honor of Intersex Awareness Day, the actress talks about her MTV character.
10 Awesome Things Intersex Activists Are Doing Around The World
Supported by the Astraea Foundation’s Intersex Human Rights Fund, these activists fearlessly push for our collective gender liberation on the daily–and look good doing it.
Intersex Awareness Day- October 26th
As a child I knew unicorns were not real, but as an adult I learned what it felt like to be some what mythical. In the year 2003, I was in my early 20’s when I decided to further investigate my medical records…
Society should respect intersex people and their identification
Intersex people exist, and it’s time society respects them for who they are—not what everyone wishes them to be.
French Court Recognizes Third Gender Option
A high court in France has officially recognized a third gender option in a case that’s being described in the country as a crucial victory for intersex rights.
My intersex body: more than an object of fascination or repulsion to be ‘fixed’
Being born intersex wasn’t so bad in of itself, but I could not help but get the pervasive sense that I was very different, and not in a good way. These negative impressions had a profound impact on my self-esteem and they seemed to come from everywhere – my family, my doctors and even the media…
5 Things I Wish You Knew About Intersex People
by Georgiann Davis
My colleague asked the host, “What about intersex people?” The host quickly responded in the microphone she was holding, “Intersex? What’s that? International sex?” The audience erupted in laughter…
PBS Digital Studio's First Person "Growing Up Intersex"
Host Kristin Russo talks with intersex activist and blogger Claudia Astorino about societal misconceptions surrounding intersex identity and her mission to end medically unnecessary surgical procedures on intersex children…
Parental choice on normalising cosmetic genital surgery
This editorial by Liao et al and subsequent responses highlight the ongoing clashes of opinion among various clinician specialists and people who live with diverse genitalia.
Intersex Surgeries Are A Human Rights Violation, Says U.N. Group
This week in 2015 the United Nations convened its first meeting to address the issue of human rights violations against people with ambiguous genitalia, also known as intersex.
When Teenage Girls Find Out They're Genetically Male
For Stephanie, telling a partner about her male chromosomes was never a problem—mainly because her first doctor didn’t even tell her about them.
Book Release -- Contesting Intersex: The Dubious Diagnosis
“Just finished reading this, and I highly recommend it. Academic books are not always beautifully written, but this one was absolutely readable, well-structured and fascinating. The author has a gift for research and for clarity of thought. She elegantly uses aspects of her own story and those of other intersex individuals to draw out and provide concrete examples of the human implications of her research. Even if you don’t think you’d be interested in intersex issues/politics/medical interventions, you will be from the moment you pick up this book…” — Tricia Bogle
New UN Intersex Fact Sheet
“The UN’s new fact sheet provides a poignant summary of various intersex human rights violations and makes a straightforward call for action including outlawing all medially unnecessary procedures on intersex children and ensuring families and children receive adequate counseling and peer support…”
Faking It's' Bailey De Young Teases Upcoming Season!
Check out this video clip! Bailey De Young mentions attending the AIS-DSD Support Group Conference in her latest interview about the upcoming season of MTV’s hit show, Faking It.
How MTV’s Faking It Overcame Its Flimsy Premise
MTV’s Faking It, which premiered in April of 2014, seemed like a show crafted entirely on a flimsy gimmick: Two teen girls, tired of their status as high school nobodies, pretend to be lesbians to become popular and get elected homecoming queens…
Medicine: Disorders of Sex Development
Noi Liang was sitting on a couch in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2009 flipping through her old medical records when she noticed an unusual letter in the file… “The patient is recovering well. As we discussed, I did not reveal the full diagnosis or chromosomal status to the patient.”
My Journey: Two intersex paths that merge into one story
“Telling my story is rather challenging and difficult. Sometimes I wonder why anyone might want to read about me. I remind myself that I have a story to tell to hopefully inform people about intersex…”
Biology that isn't binary
University of Pittsburgh ”Let’s Talk About Sex” article on the greater acceptance of intersex variations in society.
Caster Semenya: I was born like this
Click here to view Caster Semenya’s brave voice in her interview with BBC’s Ben Smith…
Book Release -- Sex Difference in Christian Theology: Male, Female, and Intersex in the Image of God
“A lucid survey of the literature about intersex people leads into profoundly helpful reflections on their theological significance, and the consequences for recent Protestant and Roman Catholic insistence on gender complementarity. A rewarding read that provides many insights from the author and the theologians from whom she quotes.” — Tina Beardsley
Faces - United Nations Free & Equal
The United Nations Free & Equal campaign celebrates the contributions that millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people make to families and local communities around the world.
Our Own Kimberly Zieselman
Meet 13 Emerging Leaders in Social Justice Selected as Arcus Fellows.
Changing Attitudes Spark Movement Against Intersex Surgeries For Infants & Children
She was born to a young Chicago couple, named Jennifer, and grew into a beautiful long-lashed child with wavy dark hair, big brown eyes and a yearning, youthful desire to be just like all the other girls… Only she wasn’t.
Asexuality and Intersex Conditions Are Television’s New Frontier
In the last year or so, the range of sexual and gender identities being represented on television has expanded in new and interesting ways: The USA comedy Sirens has an asexual character, and at the beginning of Season 2, MTV’s Faking It revealed that one of the core characters is intersex.
Malta Passes Law to Ban ‘Normalization’ Surgery on Intersex Infants, Allow Self-Determination of Gender
Malta’s parliament just passed new legislation that allows self-determination of gender (with a simple process to legally change gender), and outlaws unnecessary surgery on intersex babies. This bill makes Malta the first country to ban unnecessary surgery on intersex infants…
This Video Explains What It's Like — And What It Isn't Like — To Be Intersex
A new BuzzFeed video, “What It’s Like to Be Intersex,” is attempting to help the public better understand this “biological variation” and combat stigma around intersex identity.
9 Ways Intersex Youth Want You to Support Them
“For most of my life, I haven’t felt in control of my body. But what I can control is how people perceive this condition and my relationship with it. And I want to say that this is my body. And my story. Let me decide what’s to be done with it.”
"No Regrets?" Nightline on intersex
Thank you to Nightline, AIC Board President Sean Saifa Wall, The Crawford Family and everyone else involved who put their energy and hard work into getting this on the air. We hope our edits can help clarify some lingering questions help heal our community.
When Intersex People are Collateral Damage in Transphobic Battles
As intersex people, we have to deal with a host of issues because our bodies lie between the socially-expected bodily norms of male and female. Our bodies are treated as disordered, as problems to be solved by the medical profession…
Knowing me, knowing you
As the parent of a growing daughter who has a Y chromosome, I find myself both bemused and excited on a daily basis…
Nature International Weekly Journal of Science: Sex Redefined
The idea of two sexes is simplistic. Biologists now think there is a wider spectrum than that.
Intersex in the Media
Last summer at CONvergence/SkepchickCon, I attended a break out session called “Not Men or Women: Everyone Else in Fiction.” The panel members explored the gender binary and ways to incorporate these types of characters mostly into fiction writing…