Media Library

 

 

 

Recently Added

DNA showed a mother was also her daughter’s uncle...?

“The answer to that medical mystery, sparked by a confusing paternity test result, is “When the genes of a vanished twin brother live on in the mother’s DNA.” The finding, which genetics experts reported earlier this month, suggests that such human “chimeras” — people with DNA from more than one embryo — could be more common than we thought.”

On Intersex Awareness Day

“On October 26, we commemorate Intersex Awareness Day and honor the many contributions intersex voices have made in the global struggle for inclusion, equality, and dignity for all…”

Older Intersex People Need Our Support

For older intersex people, the long-term impact of intersex genital mutilation, secrecy, shame and lack of access to medical records may be devastating, resulting in lasting distrust of medical professionals, fear of institutionalisation and lack of access to necessary health care…

New trans healthcare standards: what should intersex people know?

“Healthcare for transgender people is guided by The World Professional Association for Transgender Health Standards of Care. First released in 1979, the standards are updated periodically, and increasingly they’ve included guidance on care for intersex people…”

VIDEO: Intersex Health -- Information and Resources for Medical Students

Our goal with this webinar was to increase confidence for medical students about how to engage with intersex people — people with variations of sex characteristics — and their parents and whānau…

Podcast -- Turner Syndrome: Let's talk about X

You may have come across the definition of Turner syndrome as a genetic condition resulting from the partial or complete loss of an X chromosome, but what does that actually mean? What is the X chromosome, what does it do, and why is it so important?

Book Release -- Religion and Intersex: Perspectives from Science, Law, Culture, and Theology

Centered in interviews conducted with German intersex Christians, this book argues that moving from a paradigm of sexual dimorphism to sexual polymorphism will help promote the full humanity and flourishing of intersex people…

VIDEO: Medicine’s Fixation on the Sex Binary Harms Intersex People

”Normalizing” infants’ and children’s genital appearance to match a sex assigned in early age isn’t medically necessary and can negatively impact quality of life…

Breaking Human Rainbows into Binaries

“Over time, various groups claiming authority under the regime of binary sex to decide who was “really male” and who was “really female” have drawn the line in different places in the middle of the spectrum. You might imagine that a rainbow of sex diversity would just be split evenly down the middle… But that’s not what doctors do.”

Historic Day for the Protection of Intersex Human Rights of children in Greece

“Following European developments, Greece becomes the 4th country in the European Union and the 5th in the world after Malta, Portugal, Germany and Iceland to ban gender reassignment operations on intersex infants and children…”

''Male and Female created He them''

The Bible often speaks of humanity in poetic binaries. The young and the old. The rich and the poor. The male and the female… [But]

Podcast -- Competent Intersex Counseling: Are We There, Yet?

“The Original Intersex Connect – Live” is an interactive Live Stream broadcast where people in and affecting the Intersex community meet to converse, educate, share, entertain, and more…

Intersex Among Us

“… I’ve heard several stories about people with intersex variations being told that they are the “only one.” While each individual diagnosis may be relatively rare, the sum total of intersex variations is as common as red hair–between one and two percent of the population.”

How the Political Right Shifted its Focus from Homophobia to Transphobia

To kick off Pride Month, William Eskridge, Yale Law School professor and author of many books… reflects on how transphobia has replaced homophobia as the most common form of hate and fearmongering directed toward LGBTQ folks [and intersex].

Early intervention on intersex children and children’s rights

“Every child is a rights holder in his or her own capacity, and every child has the right “to an open future” – a right to have one’s future options kept open until one can make one’s own decisions…”

A Proclamation on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, And Intersex Pride Month

“This month, we remind the LGBTQI+ community that they are loved and cherished. My Administration sees you for who you are — deserving of dignity, respect, and support…”

Trans Exclusion In Sports: A Discriminatory And Erroneous Tradition

“I am also a trans and intersex person, a lifelong athlete, and a biologist. I vehemently believe trans women belong in women’s sport…”

I believe that people are created by God to be male or female

“The governor’s simplistic statement is not about science, or medicine. It is about insisting on a traditional worldview that doesn’t include the real range of Oklahomans. It is about erasing anyone who is transgender or intersex or nonbinary…”

VIDEO: Intersex Explained With Pop'n'Olly

Pop’n’Olly’s YouTube Channel is a free resource for children, parents and teachers, providing LGBT+ educational videos, which teach about equality and diversity…

Destigmatizing Intersex with Alicia Roth Weigel

[T]here is a broad, natural variation of ways to be human, and sometimes we don’t fit the mold dictated to us. Being intersex is still generally stigmatized, and we need to change that narrative and normalize talking about it…

Older Women On HRT Are Half As Likely To Die From COVID

Women have consistently had a lower death rate than men throughout the pandemic, with high levels of the female hormone estrogen thought to be playing a role…

The Think Tank for Inclusion & Equity

“TTIE is uniquely situated to empower underrepresented writers and transform the industry into one in which all writers and all stories can thrive.” Check out their fact page on including intersex people in television and movies…

Back Roads meets Rob Wilson, a world-renowned chicken breeder who solved his own genetic mystery

More surgical interventions, as well as daily testosterone tablets from the age of eight, would leave Rob with a lifetime of medical problems…

Inter_view: Ep 06 Sasha and Sonia Komarova

Dani speaks with intersex twins Sasha and Sonia Komarova, models and creatives based in Latvia. After ‘coming out’ with Vogue Russia last March, they joined the global chorus of intersex activists demanding the end to nonconsensual surgeries, stigma, and shame…

Dani Coyle’s new podcast celebrates the joy of being intersex

“My experience, like many of the guests on this podcast, has followed a similar pattern. Secrecy, misunderstanding, shame, and a limited understanding of my body. I feared what ‘coming out’ would mean. It did not feel like an option. But once you do – it’s a process of unlearning and healing…”

Bill Banning Unnecessary Surgeries on Intersex Children Fails

State Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat from San Francisco, has previously tried to pass similar bills over the past few years. His most recent bill would have prohibited unnecessary surgeries on intersex children until they were 12 years old…

This Intersex Woman Had To Flee Her Home Country — Now She Wants the World To Know Her Story

“I hadn’t spoken to my parents in a year, and they asked me to come home. They said, ‘You are our daughter. We love you. We accept you. And we’re sorry for how we dealt with this before.’ The universe slowly started being kind to me, and it gave me back my family…”

2021

MAGAZINE: YOUth&I -- An intersex youth anthology

These stories discuss the struggles of not being heard, the frustration at people making assumptions about what intersex is and the frustration in some of our relationships with family members, friends and people close to us who misunderstand or choose not to listen…

I’m Tired of Apologizing for My Intersex Trans Body

It was assumed I would outgrow my childhood desire to be or become a boy, and I was prepared by puberty books for the changes that would represent my physical passage into sex-normative white womanhood. My body, however, had other ideas…

West Michigan’s Jackie Green named Mrs. America

Green is most proud of her platform and being able to speak to a national audience about what it means to be intersex. Green explains that she was born with XY chromosomes, along with internal testes instead of a uterus and ovaries, but externally, she looks like a typical “female…”

America finally issued me an accurate passport

I had been asking the U.S. Passport Agency for an accurate passport since September 2014. Importantly, I was not asking for a special or unique passport just for me; I was asking for an accurate passport with a gender marker that reflected who I am…

Biden White House holds largest meeting with intersex advocates

White House officials met virtually with nearly 20 intersex advocates Tuesday in the Biden administration’s second formal talk with organizers on how to advance intersex rights domestically…

Intersex people have been challenging 'gender-normalizing surgery.' Doctors are starting to listen.

These so-called gender-normalizing surgeries have been performed on intersex babies and toddlers since at least the 1950s — usually in secrecy, without ever telling the children when they get older. Until recently, doctors saw a genital difference as a “psychosocial emergency” and rushed to assign a gender and perform surgery…

Key Issues Facing People With Intersex Traits

People with intersex traits experience significant discrimination, stigma, and prejudice… Policymakers have a responsibility to implement robust nondiscrimination protections, [and] human rights safeguards.

Austin City Council passes resolution committing to protect intersex human rights

The resolution, brought forward by Mayor Pro Tem Natasha Harper-Madison, was approved 10-1 and marks Austin as the first city in the South to act and protect intersex residents’ human rights…

The Silly Idea of Your "Real" Binary Sex

Today, a lot of people insist that they can tell you what your “real (binary) sex” is.  Let’s talk about how strange that is…

Book Release -- An Ordinary Wonder: A Novel

“Reading Otolorin’s coming of age story was like unraveling a vibrant tapestry. As noted in other reviews, some of the content is heavy, but Oto, who must bear the weight of so much intergenerational trauma, carries the reader too. There is much beauty in this protagonist–courage, cleverness, a deep capacity for love–the reader will not want to leave Oto’s side.” — Jen G

An Intimate Portrait of Intersex People Living Around the World Today

The ongoing series “My Own Wings” by photographers Carla Moral and Katia Repina showcases the stories of people harmed by the narrow confines of binary gender essentialism…

Protest Demands End to Harmful Surgeries on Intersex Children

Protesters picketed Weill-Cornell… demanding the hospital cease medically unnecessary surgeries on children born with intersex traits, and investigate a surgeon who conducts these operations.

VIDEO: Introduction to Intersex Health by Hans Lindhal

Hans presented “Introduction to Intersex Health” at the Stanford WHSDM (Women’s Health & Sex Difference in Medicine) Center’s 12th Annual Women’s Health Forum: Sexual and Gender Minority Health” webinar on May 24, 2021

A look back at the intersex movement in Sonoma County

There were no Facebook groups or smartphone apps for the intersex community to find one another in the early 1990s. So Bo Laurent published a letter in a science magazine announcing the formation of the Intersex Society of North America…

1,000-Year-Old Remains May Be Of A Highly Respected Nonbinary Warrior

Archaeologists first discovered the grave in 1968… But the use of DNA analysis decades later found chromosomes that didn’t match what’s expected for males or females.

Anyone can be Born Intersex: A Photo-Portrait Story by Intersex-Nigeria.

The photo story is an opportunity to remind the Nigerian society of the fact that sex is not binary and that government regulations, service and infrastructure provision need to take this into account…

VIDEO: A Literary Approach To Intersex Justice

Charis Books welcomes Sean Saifa Wall, I.W. Gregorio, and Sol Santana. In this conversation, the panel will use the power of story to demedicalize intersex bodies by introducing all readers to the reality of intersex lives….

State Department to Allow X Gender Markers on U.S. Passports

The U.S. State Department today unveiled a new U.S. passport gender marker policy and stated it is working towards adding an “X” gender marker for non-binary, intersex, and gender non-conforming applicants…

AUDIO: Why do LGBTQI Christians celebrate Pride?

In this special Pride edition #AskingForAFriend episode, our panelist, Marissa Adams, shares her perspective on Pride as Intersex Christian…

What it's like to be a Black intersex woman

Like many children born with variations of sex development that don’t meet the average expectations of doctors, Tatenda instinctively knew that there was something different about her body…

New Administration Materials Clarify Title IX Protects Intersex Students

The U.S. Departments of Education and Justice released two new resources explicitly affirming that intersex students…are entitled to protection from discrimination and harassment in educational settings.

Op-Ed | Don’t forget the “I” in LGBTQIA+

Medical professionals often encourage parents and guardians to agree to procedures to treat intersex traits and variations in sex characteristics, even when such procedures are medically unnecessary…

VIDEO: We Need To Talk About The Intersex Experience

Pride month has arrived! But while the progress made with LGBTQIA+ rights thus far deserves a resounding “yes kween!”, there’s nothing to be proud about when it comes to the treatment of intersex people…

Why is the U.S. lagging behind on intersex rights?

Although ‘LGBTQ’ and ‘LGBTQIA’ may be umbrella terms to cover everyone who’s not heterosexual or cisgender, there’s one group that often gets overlooked: those who are born intersex…

My Child Is Intersex And Keeping It A Secret Would Send A Wrong Message To Them

When anyone asks me if my child is a boy or a girl. I have a standard response—they are intersex. Some understand, while most don’t. For me, people’s opinions do not matter. My child’s well-being and their self-respect do, and I know my priorities…

Doctors Push to Rethink Sex Designations on Birth Certificates

“We believe that it is now time to update the practice of designating sex on birth certificates, given the particularly harmful effects on such designations on intersex and transgender people…”

Germany adopts law banning IGM. But there is still room for improvement

On March 25, 2021, the German Bundestag adopted a draft law from the federal government “for the protection of children with variants of sex development”…

A Beginner's Guide To Talking About Gender

A quick and easy guide to understand and explain the differences between sex and gender!

Taiwanese Movie “Born to Be Human” Interrogates Medical Violence Against Intersex Individuals

Through the lens of its intersex protagonist, “Born to Be Human” explores the harmful impacts of coerced surgeries and transition for intersex people…

Tales Of An Intersex Soccer Mom

My biggest fear? Periods. Not my own — I know I will never experience a visit from Aunt Flo. But I knew someday my daughters probably would, and that fact petrified me for nearly a decade…

What does it mean to be intersex?

Being intersex is not a disease. It is a naturally occurring variation in humans. Likewise, being intersex does not affect an infant’s physical health, though it may cause complications as time goes on… This article will explore what it means to be intersex, including its relationship with sexuality and identity.

Memorandum on Advancing the Human Rights of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex Persons Around the World

All human beings should be treated with respect and dignity and should be able to live without fear no matter who they are or whom they love. Around the globe, including here at home, brave lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) activists are fighting for equal protection under the law, freedom from violence, and recognition of their fundamental human rights.

How Ana Roxanne Made the Most Soothing, Meditative Album About Being Intersex

Roxanne’s latest record, Because of a Flower, is a culmination of five years of writing and two decades spent coming to terms with her gender identity, after she first learned she was intersex at age 18…

A Parent's Resource About Intersex Kids

We usually think of sex as binary, but some individuals are born with a different combination of sex characteristics than what we identify as female or male. Parents of intersex children face some unique challenges…

75 Nonbinary Names to Chose For Your Little One

Are you looking for a nonbinary name for either yourself or your child? Our list of 75 nonbinary names can help you get started! Gender is a fluid spectrum, and having a choice of gender-neutral names that reflect identity is important…

Momentum Builds Around Intersex Protection in India

The child rights agency for India’s capital city this week recommended a ban on medically unnecessary “normalizing” surgeries on children born with intersex variations…

South African Department of Home Affairs seeks to amend identity laws to include a third gender

“I would like it very much if the government were to introduce this third gender to accommodate people like my child because for the next few years we will always have to explain why she looks or is dressed in a certain way when her ID says something else. It would also help other future mothers who would find themselves in my position having to make impossible decisions.”

An age-by-age guide to talking to your kids about gender

No matter your kid’s age, it’s not too early (or late!) to talk to them about gender. Here’s how to start the discussion, and keep it going as they grow…

The Gender Spectrum: A Scientist Explains Why Gender Isn’t Binary

The gender spectrum is an understanding that gender is not binary (female/male), but rather a spectrum of biological, mental and emotional traits that exist along a continuum…

2020

What Is 5-Alpha-Reductase Deficiency?

Individuals with this condition have testes [that] do not make sufficient dihydrotestosterone to cause the genitals to virilize, or masculinize, prior to puberty. Therefore, infants are born with what appears to be a clitoris and a vagina, and they are often assigned female at the time of birth…

Harvard Medicine: The Body, The Self

“We’ve basically been thinking about sex development and gender identity all wrong for a very long time, and that has done a disservice to an entire population of people who do not fit our traditional expectations…”

Hollyoaks star Ki Griffin feels pressure of being soap’s first intersex and non-binary actor...

Speaking exclusively to The Sun Online, the actor opened up about how they feel they have some big boots to fill considering they are the show’s first non-binary and intersex actor.

Romanian Court Slams Law Banning Discussion of Gender in Education

The law threatened the right to health, particularly for transgender, non-binary, and intersex children, for whom denying access to information about gender could have pernicious physical and mental health consequences…

Failed Assignments — Rethinking Sex Designations on Birth Certificates

Sex designations on birth certificates offer no clinical utility, and they can be harmful for intersex and transgender people. Moving such designations below the line of demarcation wouldn’t compromise the birth certificate’s public health function but could avoid harm…

Gender stereotypes are fuelling a mental health crisis among children and causing ‘serious, long-term harm’

Rigid ideas and expectations of gender were identified by researchers as the root of children and teen’s negative mental health that ripples into adulthood, ranging from body image issues, eating disorders, rocketing rates of male suicide and violence against women and girls…

My Intersex Story - Sarah Hobbs

This video I have put together to chat about my intersex journey – so far…

Kid Quick Is the New Nonbinary Superhero of Color Coming to DC Comics

DC Comics’ latest groundbreaking superhero is Jess Chambers, or Kid Quick, who will make their debut next month in DC’s Very Merry Multiverse, a holiday-themed comic book anthology available on December 8…

U.K. -- Surgery on intersex children may stop

Surgery to alter the reproductive organs of children who are born intersex could be stopped, leaked papers show.

In draft proposals by NHS England, genital or gonadal surgery for children born with differences in sex development (DSD) would not go ahead until children could consent for themselves.

Let’s celebrate Intersex Awareness Day 2020!

In times of crisis and pandemic, all people around the globe struggle to cope with fear, stress and worry. But can you imagine struggling for the whole of your life from the time you were born? Intersex people don’t just imagine it…

Myth Busting: Intersex

It’s Intersex Awareness Day (IAD), and today’s blog post is about intersexuality! IAD is all about raising awareness of intersexuality, so we’re here to bust some harmful myths surrounding this term!

Intersex Awareness Day: New guides on how to be an intersex ally

Intersex Human Rights Australia (IHRA), Intersex Peer Support Australia (IPSA) and partners have revealed a range of new resources, aimed at changing current practices and promoting genuine inclusive practice…

How intersex Latter-day Saints struggle to stay in a ‘two gender’ faith

“I spent a lot of time wondering if my body was normal,” says Skaggs, a 29-year-old who lives in Southern California. “I felt a lot of shame and secrecy, even lying to my friends about getting my period. I got really good at hiding and putting up walls…”

Boston Children’s Hospital will no longer perform two types of intersex surgery on children

[Boston Children’s Hospital] has agreed to stop performing certain types of genital surgeries on intersex children if they are too young to meaningfully consent – a decision that activists say could be a watershed moment for intersex rights…

‘Stories of Intersex and Faith’: Vanderbilt to host film screening and discussion

Stories of Intersex and Faith, a documentary in which five intersex people offer insight into their extraordinary lives and challenges…

Book Release -- Intersex Rights: Living Between The Sexes

For decades, intersex persons used to be invisible but during the 1990s they started “coming out”, addressing injustice and demanding full integration in societies and recognition under the law…

(though the book is in English, the author is not a native speaker and there are some artifacts in the text that should not reflect negatively on the importance of this work…)

I discovered I was intersex when I was 38 but I’m no longer ashamed

When my mum started crying down the phone, I sat in stunned silence. At 38, after decades of feeling like something was wrong with me, I’d finally found the reason why. I was intersex…

After years of protest, a top hospital ended intersex surgeries. For activists, it took a deep toll.

Intersex youth surgeries have deep ties to racism in the U.S. Last month, Lurie Children’s Hospital became the first in the country to end the operations…

42 Everyday Gender-Neutral Terms to Use

Gender-neutral terms are nothing new, but people don’t always think to use them. These terms, also called gender-inclusive, remove the sexism or gender indications from words that don’t need to be gender-specific.

Austria issues first intersex birth certificate after four-year battle

Austria issued its first intersex birth certificate on Thursday, after a four-year battle, as a growing number of countries offer identity documents with options other than male and female…

Are hasty operations on intersex children becoming a thing of the past?

“I thought that was a terrible idea,” she says. “If you remove something, it’s gone forever. Who knows if this person is going to grow up to want to have a vagina or to have penetrative sex? And whose business is it to make these decisions except the person?”

Intersex Texans Still Fighting to be Seen

“I had brought a friend with me for moral support. It was the big secret I hadn’t told anyone, not even my own brother,” said Weigel. “I wore heels, and I wanted to walk in and drop that bomb to them, that their notion of what it means to be a woman, their notion of what gender is, is just so false…”

How was the intersex flag created?

Thinking about the importance of symbols, we wanted to share the thought process that was behind Morgan Carpenter’s creation of the intersex flag…

Court orders State Department to reconsider intersex passport application

A federal appeals court has ordered the State Department to reprocess the passport application of a former sailor and intersex activist who was denied a nonbinary passport with an “X” gender marker instead of the traditional “M” or “F.”

Emily Quinn: Male Or Female Is The Wrong Question—How Can We Rethink Biological Sex?

Artist Emily Quinn is intersex. She’s one of over 150 million people in the world who don’t fit neatly into the categories of male or female. She explains how biological sex exists on a spectrum…

Isolation for intersex people: coronavirus revives trauma

Jeanette Clark, who lives on her own in London, had internal testes removed at 16. She was told the surgery was necessary but not what it was or why. When she turned 50, Clark found out she was intersex after accidentally seeing her medical records.

“I’ve gone through absolute hell with it all…”

Understanding people with intersex variations

Just like all our bodies are different, intersex variations are normal variations that can happen in people’s bodies. They do not define who a person is or what they are or what they’re capable of…!

Book Release -- XOXY: A Memoir

“XOXY is a genuine, moving, and inspiring account of a brave, incredibly motivated woman’s journey to deal with her body – and society – on her own terms. The medical establishment made ill-informed, irreversible decisions while she was a teenager that reflected a bias that the author has made it her life mission to change. I cried, but I also cheered as the author triumphed against odds in a battle that continues today.” — Robyn Schlesinger

No longer invisible: A conversation with Intersex Ireland

A small group of individuals have come together to form a new organisation called Intersex Ireland – a group set up to support intersex people and their families, educate wider society, and advance the rights and equality of all intersex individuals across the country…

VIDEO: VICE Investigates -- Defending Champions

Sports have historically been organized into two strict categories: male and female. But what about those who challenge the binary…?

UNAIDS -- Feature story: Be proud

Ronie grew up as a boy until the age of 16 years.

“That’s when my body started developing some female features, despite the fact that I associated myself with being a boy,” the Zimbabwean said.

Ronie’s father panicked and sent Ronie to live in another town…

Audio Release -- Undark: Confronting Knowledge Gaps in Intersex Health Care

As surgeries for intersex infants face increased scrutiny, research on health care outcomes remains limited…

Stephen Fry calls for intersex people to be treated with ‘common politeness and decency’

Fry appeared on the BBC regional investigations show Inside Out as it followed intersex activists who are campaigning for an end to the shame, secrecy and unnecessary surgeries for people born with non-binary sex characteristics…

Intersex woman fights to have gender changed on legal documents

Juleigh Mayfield was born James Bradford Mayfield and grew up playing football, believing she was a boy until she turned 17.

That’s when she learned she was born intersex, meaning she has an extra chromosome…

California lawmakers reject intersex surgery ban proposal on infants

California lawmakers have rejected what would have been a first-of-its-kind ban on medically unnecessary treatment for infants born with ambiguous or conflicting genitalia. The measure would have banned all procedures on intersex children 6 and under unless the Medical Board of California deemed them medically necessary…

She's 7 and was born intersex. Why her parents elected to let her grow up without surgical intervention

“I knew that surgeries were common for intersex kids, but I didn’t really understand how it would work,” Eric said. “And so, my fear at the time was that they were going to take Rosie out of the room, and they were going to suggest doing the surgery right away…”

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