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…

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…

“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 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…

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…

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…

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…

[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.

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

“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.”

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…

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…

Insight is Australia’s leading forum for debate and powerful first-person stories…

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…

Here’s a snapshot of our old website from December of 2018!

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

What is Intersex? We asked a bunch of people and no one quite knew. Dateline explains the ‘I’ in LGBTQI…

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…

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”…

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…

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…

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…

Anunnaki Ray Marquez is the first intersex person outside of [New York City] to obtain a medically accurate birth certificate…

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…

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…

“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…”

[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…

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…

“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

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…

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…

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…)

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…

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…

… 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.

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…

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.

“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…”

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.

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.

After generations in the shadows, the intersex rights movement has a message for the world: We aren’t disordered and we aren’t ashamed…

“… [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

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…

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…

“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…

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…

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…

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…

‘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…

“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

(while curating the Media Library page, this Wikipedia entry was discovered)

The following is a timeline of intersex history…

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…

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…

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…

The United Nations is calling on governments and parents to protect intersex children from harm. Help us spread the word!

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…

These authors offer an honest look into the lives of people diagnosed as intersex by allowing them to tell their own stories.

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…

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…

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…

For years, international sports organizations have been policing women competitors for “masculine” qualities — and turning their Olympic dreams into nightmares.

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…

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…

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…

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.

“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…

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…

Click here to watch Nicky Phillips, an InterConnect Support Group member, who has made her debut as a stand up comedian!

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

Emily Quinn opens new channel to discuss intersex experiences. Click here to see her first video!

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.

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…

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.

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…

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…

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.

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.

“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

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.

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…

“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…”

University of Pittsburgh ”Let’s Talk About Sex” article on the greater acceptance of intersex variations in society.

“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

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.

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.

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.

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.

“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.”

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…

As the parent of a growing daughter who has a Y chromosome, I find myself both bemused and excited on a daily basis…

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…