Intersex Awareness Day
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Intersex Awareness Day is an internationally observed
awareness day Lists of holidays by various categorizations. Religious holidays Abrahamic holidays (Middle Eastern) Christian holidays *Christmas (Nativity of Jesus, Nativity of Jesus Christ, the beginning of Christmastide) *Solemnity of Mary, Mother ...
each October 26, designed to highlight human rights issues faced by
intersex Intersex people are those born with any of several sex characteristics, including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binar ...
people.


History

The event marks the first public demonstration by intersex people in North America, on October 26, 1996, outside the venue in Boston where the
American Academy of Pediatrics The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is the largest professional association of pediatricians in the United States. It is headquartered in Itasca, Illinois, and maintains an office in Washington, D.C. The AAP has published hundreds of poli ...
was holding its annual conference. Intersex activists Morgan Holmes and Max Beck participated for the (now-defunct)
Intersex Society of North America The Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) was a non-profit advocacy group founded in 1993 by Cheryl Chase (activist), Cheryl Chase to end shame, secrecy, and unnecessary genital surgeries on intersex people.Matthews, Karen (Oct 22, 2000). Debat ...
, alongside allies from Transsexual Menace including
Riki Wilchins Riki Anne Wilchins (born 1952) is an American activist whose work has primarily focused on the impact of gender norms. Background Wilchins founded the first national transgender advocacy group ( GenderPAC). Their analysis and work broadened ...
. Holmes has written that the event was intended not as a demonstration but as participation in the conference. She states that Beck and Holmes had intended to deliver an address, "on long-term outcomes and to challenge their still-prevailing opinion that cosmetic surgery to "fix" intersexed genitals was the best course of action", but were "met, officially, with hostility and were escorted out of the conference by security guards". The group only later demonstrated, carrying a sign saying "Hermaphrodites With Attitude". The commemoration day itself began in 2003 with the establishment of a central awareness raising site by Betsy Driver and
Emi Koyama Emi Koyama (born 1975) is a Japanese-American activist, artist, and independent scholar. Koyama's work discusses issues of feminism, intersex human rights, domestic violence, and sex work among many others. Koyama is best known for her 2000 essay ...
. A central
awareness raising Consciousness raising (also called awareness raising) is a form of activism popularized by United States feminists in the late 1960s. It often takes the form of a group of people attempting to focus the attention of a wider group on some cause or ...
site was later re-established in 2015 by Morgan Carpenter with Laura Inter of
Brújula Intersexual Brújula Intersexual (Intersex Compass) is a voluntary organisation for intersex people that promotes the human rights and bodily autonomy of intersex people in Mexico, and across Latin America. Founded in 2013, Brújula Intersexual provides peer s ...
, and support from
Open Society Foundations Open Society Foundations (OSF), formerly the Open Society Institute, is an American grantmaking network founded by business magnate George Soros. Open Society Foundations financially supports civil society groups around the world, with the s ...
.


Observance

Intersex Awareness Day is an international day of grass-roots action to end
shame Shame is an unpleasant self-conscious emotion often associated with negative self-evaluation; motivation to quit; and feelings of pain, exposure, distrust, powerlessness, and worthlessness. Definition Shame is a discrete, basic emotion, d ...
, secrecy and unwanted genital cosmetic surgeries on intersex children. The day also provides an opportunity for reflection and
political action In sociology, social action, also known as Weberian social action, is an act which takes into account the actions and reactions of individuals (or ' agents'). According to Max Weber, "Action is 'social' insofar as its subjective meaning takes acco ...
. Between October 26 and November 8,
intersex organizations Intersex civil society organizations have existed since at least the mid-1980s. They include peer support groups and advocacy organizations active on health and medical issues, human rights, legal recognition, and peer and family support. Some gr ...
bring attention to the challenges
intersex Intersex people are those born with any of several sex characteristics, including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binar ...
individuals face, culminating in the
Intersex Day of Remembrance Intersex Day of Remembrance, also known as Intersex Solidarity Day, is an internationally observed civil awareness day designed to highlight issues faced by intersex people. It marks the birthday of Herculine Barbin, a French intersex person who ...
on November 8, the birthday of
Herculine Barbin Herculine Adélaïde Barbin, later known as Abel Barbin (November 8, 1838 – February 1868), was a French intersex person who was assigned female at birth and raised in a convent, but was later reclassified as male by a court of law, after an ...
, also sometimes known as Intersex Solidarity Day.


Notable observances


2013

On Friday 25 October 2013, the day before Intersex Awareness Day that year, the
Australian Senate The Senate is the upper house of the Bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Australia, the lower house being the Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives. The powers, role and composition of the Senate are set out in Chap ...
published a report on an inquiry titled the ''Involuntary or coerced sterilisation of intersex people in Australia''. On 11 November 2014, the
New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. Along with the New South Wales Legislative As ...
in Australia passed a motion marking Intersex Awareness Day and calling on the State government to "work with the Australian Government to implement the recommendations" of the 2013 Senate committee report.


2014

For Intersex Awareness Day 2014, the Senate of the German Land of Berlin issued a statement calling for
self-determination Self-determination refers to a people's right to form its own political entity, and internal self-determination is the right to representative government with full suffrage. Self-determination is a cardinal principle in modern international la ...
for intersex people. Also in 2014, the Human Rights Commission of Mexico City, Distrito Federal, held a visibility event on intersex issues.


2015

In 2015, institutional events included the launch of an Intersex Human Rights Fund by
Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice The Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice is an international charitable foundation based in the United States focused on human rights of LGBT people, intersex people, and people of color. The organization provide grants to individuals and org ...
, and a motion submitted to
New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament House ...
in Australia by Greens MP Jenny Leong. A lawsuit was filed by Dana Zzyym of the
Intersex Campaign for Equality The Intersex Campaign for Equality (IC4E) is a non-governmental organization that advocates for the human rights of intersex people. It was formerly the US affiliate of Organisation Intersex International. History and staff The Intersex Campaign ...
, with
Lambda Legal The Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, better known as Lambda Legal, is an American civil rights organization that focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) communities as well as people living with HIV/AIDS ( PWAs) throug ...
, suing the
United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...
for legal gender recognition on their passport as nonbinary and intersex.
BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet mass media, media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Seward Johnson III, John S. Johnson III to ...
reported that over 4.2 million people saw personal stories posted on social media in an action coordinated by activist Pidgeon Pagonis.


2016

In 2016, the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights launched an awareness website, while UN experts, including the Committee against Torture, the
Committee on the Rights of the Child The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) is a body of experts that monitor and report on the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The committee also monitors the convention's three optional protoco ...
and the
Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities The Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities is a United Nations body of 18 experts that meets two times a year in Geneva to consider the reports submitted by 164 UN member statesAs of March 2015. on their compliance with the ''Conven ...
, along with the Council of Europe
Commissioner for Human Rights The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent and impartial non-judicial institution established in 1999 by the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, to promote awareness of and respect for human rights in the council's 46 ...
, the
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (the IACHR or, in the three other official languages Spanish, French, and Portuguese language, Portuguese CIDH, ''Comisión Interamericana de los Derechos Humanos'', ''Commission Interaméricaine des ...
and
United Nations Special Rapporteur Special rapporteur (or independent expert) is the title given to independent human rights experts whose expertise is called upon by the United Nations (UN) to report or advise on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective. De ...
s called for an urgent end to human rights violations against intersex persons, including in medical settings. Multiple governmental bodies made statements, alongside many
civil society organizations A civil society organization (CSO) is a group of people that operates in the community in a way that is distinct from both government and business. Please see: *Civil society *Non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) ...
. Official recognition included statements by the
United States Department of State The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy of the United State ...
and
Australian Human Rights Commission The Australian Human Rights Commission is the national human rights institution of the Commonwealth of Australia, established in 1986 as the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission (HREOC) and renamed in 2008. It is a statutory body fu ...
also made statements, The South African government acknowledged a need for action to prevent human rights violations, and there was a first event in
Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...
. In June 2017, the State Department statement was cited in a policy paper by
Joycelyn Elders Minnie Joycelyn Elders (born Minnie Lee Jones; August 13, 1933) is an American pediatrics, pediatrician and public health administrator who served as Surgeon General of the United States from 1993 to 1994. A Vice Admiral (United States), vice admi ...
,
David Satcher David Satcher (born March 2, 1941) is an American physician, and public health administrator. He is a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the 11th Assistant Secretary for Health, and the ...
, and
Richard Carmona Richard Henry Carmona (born November 22, 1949) is an American physician, nurse, police officer, public health administrator, and politician. He was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as the seventeenth Surg ...
, three former Surgeons General of the United States, calling for a rethink of early genital surgeries on children with intersex traits.


2017

Australians held an intersex awareness day event in their national parliament. The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a statement for Intersex Awareness Day, 21 years after a demonstration outside its conference that is now marked by the Day. The
State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...
issued a statement recognizing violence of forced medical practices.


2018

In 2018, OII Europe,
ILGA-Europe ILGA-Europe is the European region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA World). It is an advocacy group promoting the interests of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) people, at the Eur ...
and the European Parents' Association published a multilingual guide to parenting intersex children. US advocates wrote about proposals to define gender strictly in accordance with genitalia observed at birth. This was accompanied by news reports on children who have not undergone
intersex medical interventions Intersex medical interventions (IMI), sometimes known as intersex genital mutilations (IGM), are surgery, surgical, hormonal and other medical interventions performed to modify atypical or ambiguous genitalia and other sex characteristics, primar ...
. Australian intersex organizations held parliamentary meetings, and awarded the 'Darling Award' to the
National LGBTI Health Alliance LGBTIQ+ Health Australia (formerly the National LGBTI Health Alliance) is a peak health organisation for LGBT and intersex organisations in Australia. A not-for-profit company, it was established in August 2007. Key areas of activity Key fo ...
to recognize work beyond affirmation of the Darlington Statement, a regional community declaration.


2019

* On October 25, the intersex flag was raised at London City Hall, Ontario, Canada for the first time ever. * The spire of Arts Centre in Melbourne was colored in colors of intersex flag, to celebrate the day.


See also

*
Intersex Day of Remembrance Intersex Day of Remembrance, also known as Intersex Solidarity Day, is an internationally observed civil awareness day designed to highlight issues faced by intersex people. It marks the birthday of Herculine Barbin, a French intersex person who ...
*
Intersex human rights Intersex people are born with sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, gonads, or genitals, that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies." Intersex pe ...


References


External links


Intersex Day
{{Intersex Civil awareness days Intersex-related events History of LGBTQ civil rights in the United States LGBTQ events in the United States October observances Awareness days LGBTQ awareness periods Recurring events established in 2003