Out legislators urge communities to fight harder for the intersex community

Out legislators Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) and Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) have introduced a resolution to officially recognize October 26 as Intersex Awareness Day. The resolution also encourages educational, medical, and governmental officials and groups at the international, federal, state, and local levels to advocate for greater awareness of and advocacy for the intersex community and its needs.

The resolution’s full text encourages the aforementioned groups to observe the day with appropriate programs and activities; increase public knowledge about the community and its needs; and encourage people to celebrate, respect, and empower intersex individuals.

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Healthcare providers are encouraged to offer culturally and clinically competent care to the intersex community, medical schools are encouraged to educate healthcare students about the intersex community, and healthcare providers are encouraged to connect people to resources for young people with intersex variations and their families.

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The resolution also encourages governments to engage in bilateral and multilateral aid efforts to prioritize the health and human rights of intersex people.

“Intersex people must be recognized as valid and seen within the LGBTQI+ community,” Balint, a House Equality Caucus Co-Chair said. “This resolution is an important step in uplifting the intersex community and fighting interphobia.”

“For far too long, intersex people have been left out of the conversation when discussing inclusivity, health equity, and equality for all,” said Equality Caucus Co-Chair Mark Pocan added. “Today and every day we must uplift members of the intersex community and recommit to ensuring all levels of government are prioritizing the needs of the intersex community.”

Intersex is a term that refers to having innate variations in physical traits that differ from typical expectations for male or female bodies regarding the development, appearance, or function of sex-related characteristics. This includes variations in one or more traits such as genitals, gonads, and other reproductive organs, hormone production or response, or chromosome patterns, which may present at birth or may occur naturally at a later time.

The Intersex Day of Awareness marks the first public demonstration of intersex people in North America. In 1996, intersex activists demonstrated outside of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ annual conference in Boston as a way to highlight the Academy’s opinion that intersex individuals needed cosmetic surgery to “fix” their genitals or other biological variations.

Since then, October 26 has become a day of grassroots action to end the shame and secrecy around intersex identity; to reflect on what it means to be intersex; and a day of political action and education to help end the ignorance, discrimination, violence, and nonconsensual medical procedures that are still inflicted upon intersex individuals worldwide.

The resolution notes that three former U.S. Surgeons General have agreed that early, nonconsensual surgeries on intersex children can cause “severe and irreversible physical harm and emotional distress” and “violate an individual’s right to personal autonomy over their own future,” “clearly infring[ing] on the child’s right to physical integrity, preservation of sexual and gender identity, and procreative freedom.”

The Department of State has also said that these surgeries are “routinely” forced onto young intersex people “at a young age… without free or informed consent,” and “jeopardize their physical integrity and ability to live freely.”

The American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) opposes these surgeries, saying that they should only be performed to resolve significant functional impairment or reduce imminent and substantial risk of developing health- or life-threatening conditions.”

Their resolution also notes that President Joe Biden and various federal agencies in his administration, including the Department of Justice, have opposed discrimination based on intersex characteristics.