Articles by Leslie J

A RED LETTER DAY AS MALTA MAKES HISTORY!

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Malta today became the first country in the world to adopt comprehensive legislation banning medically unnecessary, non-consensual infant genital surgeries on intersex infants and young children. A combined effort by intersex and trans activists over many years today culminated in the first comprehensive provisions to offer legal protections for intersex, trans* and genderqueer people in…
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Green Party Spring Conference, Liverpool 2015

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A little piece of history was made on Sunday when Leslie J was invited to speak to a UK party political conference, about intersex human rights issues. As the speaker, I would like to thank everyone for the very warm reception given to me in Liverpool, and the many expressions of interest in asking how…
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Musing on binary essentialism

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There’s definitely something stirring in the ether. Claire Ainsworth was first out of the traps with their article in Nature, openly stating that science has known for years that sex is a spectrum, and nothing like the immutable binary that everyone is told about in class, all the way from primary school thru to med….
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Reflections

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I am quite sure every empire that has ever bestrode the world believed it would last forever. They never do. The hubris that informs such sure and certain beliefs hold the seeds that hasten their downfall. During 2005 a group of clinicians from around the world, and a single US activist, met in a Chicago…
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Knowledge is power

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It is a truism of all social reform movements that the message of change has to be constantly repeated and reinforced to ensure it remains in people’s minds. Present-day attitudes toward intersex embodiment did not spring out of thin air. They have a provenance, a history. In order to address how we have got here,…
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Ground-Breaking Legislation in Malta

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A Landmark Moment in the Struggle for Intersex Rights The Maltese Government became the first legislative body in the world to acknowledge the human rights issues surrounding intersex when it launched a consultation exercise for it’s proposed Gender Identity Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Bill (GIGESC) in October this year. This proposed bill is the…
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