Hans Lindahl serves as Director of Communications and Outreach for interACT, the only organization in the U.S. centering intersex youth voices in human rights and policy work. If you have any comments or queries on this page or other content please let us know via our Contact page. To date, no hospital system has issued clear policy prohibiting unnecessary genital surgeries on infants, despite calls for action from organizations such as the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association. Intersex people, especially those of us who carry trauma from forced normalizing treatments, inherit anxiety. I’ve had many positive experiences, too, but the ignorance hurts. Sure, plenty of us love smashing binaries, but intersex people do not exist to be arguments. This document has antecedents in Intervisibility by OII Europe; Brief Guidelines for Intersex Allies by Hida Viloria and Claudia Astorino; a 2008 FAQ by OII; and a 2003 FAQ and Introduction to Intersex Activism A Guide for Allies by the Portland Intersex Initiative. We have so much in common, and so much to learn from one another. We’re not here to validate anyone else’s identity. Thoughtful inclusion in surveys and forms. “Genital surgery [for intersex] individuals is quite common in infancy and adolescence.”. Intersex people, like all people, have health issues. Ad Choices, We Need to End Intersex Erasure in Queer Communities, "We desperately need room in queer spaces to explore, to heal, and to self-identify. Many medical studies of people with intersex variations explicitly identify fears of stigma, gender identity issues and non-heterosexual behaviours as reasons for medical treatment. Make surveys relevant to our concerns and lived experience. Intersex advocates and human rights institutions have called for clinical frameworks to be reviewed to ensure they meet human rights norms. We were formerly known as OII Australia. Are you really a lesbian if you’re intersex? PO Box 51, Altona On this Intersex Solidarity Day, also (and originally) observed as the Intersex Day of Remembrance, we send our deepest thanks to … © 2020 Condé Nast. Intersex Human Rights Australia is a charitable company, registered in 2010. We engage in systemic advocacy, community-building and education. What is intersex? The term hermaphrodite has origins in Greek mythology. In biology it has come to define an organism that combines both “male” and “female” functioning reproductive capacity. Intersex is pathologized as a physical disorder. Get the best of what's queer. Gay, lesbian, and transgender identities have been historically pathologized as mental disorders by the healthcare industry. We face two sides of the same coin. Here is a highlight of a few items from their list: Think about the language you use to describe bodies. We face body shaming and stigmatisation in education, healthcare, sport, work and other settings. Engage with as many perspectives as you can find. Who will love me? Make sure intersex people are included in your curricula and sex ed materials. There are many ways to be intersex, but all of us are united by the dangers we face: To be born intersex is to experience violence at the hands of a medical system determined to erase you, literally cutting your intersex parts away for the sake of “normalcy.”. Members of Australian and Aotearoa/NZ intersex organisations, and independent advocates, in Darlington, Sydney, in March 2017. Are queer partners ready for our bodies and the traumas they carry? Current medical protocols promote interventions designed to make the bodies of intersex people more typically female or male. Instead we share an experience of stigmatisation and discrimination due to our physical characteristics. For some of us, proximity to the acronym is an issue of safety. Though not all intersex people identify with the LGBTQ+ community at all, by virtue of their intersex status alone, the “I” has started to make appearances in the LGBTQ+ acronym. Natural intersex bodies are most often healthy. them. When they are, we risk our identities being co-opted. Intersex status is distinct from sex, sexual orientation and gender identity, and not contained within LGBT. ABN: 73 143 506 594, © Copyright 2009-2020, Intersex Human Rights Australia Ltd. We acknowledge with thanks the generous support of an anonymous donor and the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. The last few letters tend to … Some individuals use their physical traits as arguments that they are more “valid.” All of this breaks my heart, because all of us are valid, and all us of deserve bodily autonomy. 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