Or, How we learn about ourselves from the names we are given by others “All my life, my heart has yearned for a thing I cannot name” ~ Andre Breton Words fascinate me. Well, that’s not quite accurate. Language fascinates me, which isn’t quite the same thing. I was born in Oxford, that city of…
Read more →
Human Rights
Statement of the European Intersex Meeting, Riga, 2014
On Wednesday, the 8th of October 2014 the European Intersex Meeting took place in Riga. Under the umbrella of OII Europe and facilitated by ILGA Europe, this meeting gathered European intersex organisations working for intersex human rights. The goal of the meeting was to identify objectives and strategies to advocate for the full implementation of…
Read more →
Official position on medical care
On Medical Care Our societies have accepted a binary construct between male and female which does not reflect Nature and the enormous variety of possible sexes which overlap one another in various gradations on a spectrum with male at one end and female at the other. The arbitrary division of biological sex into only…
Read more →
Equal Rights Trust publishes testimony on intersex issues
The UK Equal Rights Trust has just published testimony by OII Australia president, Gina Wilson, in The Equal Rights Review, Vol. 10. Gina talks about her personal background, her work as an activist, and the issues we face in seeking human rights, including intersex and the sex binary, the medical model, invisibility in human rights…
Read more →
Report on the intersex inclusive House of Lords LGBTI event ‘Human Rights for Sexual Minorities’ on 24th January 2012
United Nations Event: Human Rights For Sexual Minorities Report by: Anis Akhtar, intersex activist in the UK. Introduction: The event was held at the House of Lords on Tuesday 24th January 2012 and there were 3 speakers who presented to an audience, in a conference room. Unfortunately, I missed the begining. Speakers: Stuart Milk, Harvey…
Read more →
Letter from UK’s Government Equalities Office about “the difficulties intersex people can face”
IN what amounts to something of an understatement, an officer of the Government Equalities Office – GEO – has replied to an intersex activist in the United Kingdom about the many examples of discrimination that he has shared with them in letters and emails. Thank you for your e-mail of 03/01/2012 2:50:17 PM about intersex people. Please…
Read more →