Abbreviation | AISSGA |
---|---|
Formation | 1985 |
Type | NGO |
Purpose | Intersex peer and family support |
Region served | Australia |
President | Bonnie Hart |
Website | aissga.org.au |
The Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group Australia (AISSGA) is possibly the oldest known intersex organization, established in 1985. [1] It provides peer and family support, information and advocacy. The group is run by volunteers, for people with intersex variations such as androgen insensitivity syndrome. [2] [1]
The Androgen Insensivitity Syndrome Support Group Australia may be the oldest intersex organization, established in 1985, [1] prior to the Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group (UK), established in 1988, [3] and the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) in 1993. [4]
The AISSGA was founded by Dr Garry Warne, then the Director of Paediatric Endocrinology at the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne. [1] It is now run by a board of people with intersex variations, and parents. Notable members include Bonnie Hart, Phoebe Hart and Tony Briffa. Many members of the group took part in Phoebe Hart's 2010 autobiographical road movie, Orchids, My Intersex Adventure .
The core activity of the Group is to provide peer and family support, information and advocacy. [2] It produces regular newsletters, known as dAISy, an annual conference, and regular meetings in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney. [2]
The group has advocated on intersex human rights issues since at least the turn of the century, with submissions on discrimination and prenatal terminations dating back to 2003. [1] Tony Briffa was published in Nature in April 2004, calling for an end to irreversible sex assignment treatments in infancy. [5] The group has also made a similar submission to a 2013 Australian Senate inquiry on involuntary or coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities. [6] [7] [8]
In March 2017, representatives of Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group Australia participated in an Australian and Aotearoa/New Zealand consensus "Darlington Statement" by intersex community organizations and others. [9] The statement calls for legal reform, including the criminalization of deferrable intersex medical interventions on children, an end to legal classification of sex, and improved access to peer support. [9] [10] [11] [12] [13]
Andie Hider, then president of AISSGA, took part in the ABC television program Four Corners in July 2005. [14] Current president Bonnie Hart appeared on Australian television with Intersex Human Rights Australia president Morgan Carpenter in March 2015, [15] and in a short video for the National LGBTI Health Alliance QLife project, later that year. [16]
The AISSGA is a member of the National LGBTI Health Alliance.
Disorders of sex development (DSDs) are medical conditions involving the reproductive system. More specifically, these terms refer to "congenital conditions in which development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomical sex is atypical."
Intersex people are individuals born with any of several variations in sex characteristics including chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, or genitals that, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". Such variations may involve genital ambiguity and combinations of chromosomal genotype and sexual phenotype other than XY-male and XX-female.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in Western Australia have seen significant progress since the beginning of the 21st century, with the Parliament of Western Australia passing comprehensive law reforms in 2002. The Australian state decriminalised male homosexual acts in 1990 and was the first to grant full adoption rights to LGBT couples in 2002. However, the Surrogacy Act 2008 bans single people and same-sex couples from altruistic surrogacy agreements, making Western Australia the only jurisdiction within Australia to maintain such a prohibition.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Australia's Northern Territory enjoy the same legal rights as non-LGBT residents. The liberalisation of the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Australia's Northern Territory has been a gradual process. Homosexual activity was legalised in 1983, with an equal age of consent since 2003. Same-sex couples are recognised as de facto relationships. There was no local civil union or domestic partnership registration scheme before the introduction of nationwide same-sex marriage in December 2017, following the passage of the Marriage Amendment Act 2017 by the Australian Parliament. The 2017 Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, designed to gauge public support for same-sex marriage in Australia, returned a 60.6% "Yes" response in the territory. LGBT people are protected from discrimination by both territory and federal law, though the territory's hate crime law does not cover sexual orientation or gender identity. The territory was the last jurisdiction in Australia to legally allow same-sex couples to adopt children.
Tony Briffa is an Australian-Maltese person who has Partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. Briffa is an independent councillor, and former mayor and deputy mayor in the City of Hobsons Bay, Victoria. Briffa is considered the world's first openly intersex mayor and public office-bearer.
Intersex Human Rights Australia (IHRA) is a voluntary organisation for intersex people that promotes the human rights and bodily autonomy of intersex people in Australia, and provides education and information services. Established in 2009 and incorporated as a charitable company in 2010, it was formerly known as Organisation Intersex International Australia, or OII Australia. It is recognised as a Public Benevolent Institution.
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. The Alliance is currently chaired by Susan Ditter; Rebecca Reynolds is Executive Director.
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 groups, including the earliest, were open to people with specific intersex traits, while others are open to people with many different kinds of intersex traits.
Phoebe Hart is an Australian filmmaker, lecturer and intersex rights activist, born with Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. Hart lectures in film, television and digital media at the Queensland University of Technology, and is principal of Hartflicker, a video and film production company. She is known particularly for her autobiographical road trip movie, Orchids, My Intersex Adventure.
Morgan Carpenter is a bioethicist, intersex activist and researcher. He became president of Intersex Human Rights Australia in September 2013, and is now a co-executive director. In 2013 he created the intersex flag, and in 2015, he cofounded a project to mark Intersex Awareness Day. Australia's Gay News Network included him in their "LGBTI people to watch in 2014".
Founded by Mani Mitchell in 1996, Intersex Trust Aotearoa New Zealand, also known as Intersex Awareness New Zealand is a national advocacy and peer support organisation for intersex people in New Zealand.
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."
The Quigley scale is a descriptive, visual system of phenotypic grading that uses seven classes between "fully masculinized" and "fully feminized" genitalia. It was proposed by pediatric endocrinologist Charmian A. Quigley et al. in 1995. It is similar in function to the Prader scale and is used to describe genitalia in cases of androgen insensitivity syndrome, including complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, partial androgen insensitivity syndrome and mild androgen insensitivity syndrome.
Bonnie Hart is an artist, film maker, and intersex human rights activist, born with androgen insensitivity syndrome and president of the Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group Australia. Hart performs nationally and internationally, and speaks on intersex issues nationally and internationally. In 2016, Australia's Gay News Network included her in their "25 LGBTI people to watch in 2017".
Intersex rights in New Zealand are protections and rights afforded to intersex people. Protection from discrimination is implied by the Human Rights Act and the Bill of Rights Act, but remains untested. The New Zealand Human Rights Commission states that there has seemingly been a "lack of political will to address issues involved in current practices of genital normalisation on intersex children".
Intersex rights in Australia are protections and rights afforded to intersex people through statutes, regulations, and international human rights treaties, including through the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) which makes it unlawful to discriminate against a person based upon that person's intersex status in contexts such as work, education, provision of services, and accommodation.
The Malta declaration is the statement of the Third International Intersex Forum, which took place in Valletta, Malta, in 2013. The event was supported by the ILGA and ILGA-Europe and brought together 34 people representing 30 organisations from multiple regions of the world.
Intersex people in the United Kingdom face significant gaps in legal protections, particularly in protection from non-consensual medical interventions, and protection from discrimination. Actions by intersex civil society organizations aim to eliminate unnecessary medical interventions and harmful practices, promote social acceptance, and equality in line with Council of Europe and United Nations demands. Intersex civil society organizations campaign for greater social acceptance, understanding of issues of bodily autonomy, and recognition of the human rights of intersex people.
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 the typical definitions for male or female bodies". Such variations may involve genital ambiguity, and combinations of chromosomal genotype and sexual phenotype other than XY-male and XX-female.