Intersex Campaign for Equality

Last updated
Intersex Campaign for Equality
AbbreviationIC4E
FormationFebruary 2011
Type NGO
Purpose Intersex human rights
Region served
United States
Executive Director
 Hida Viloria
Website intersexequality.org

The Intersex Campaign for Equality (IC4E) is a non-governmental organization that advocates for the human rights of intersex people. [1] It was formerly the US affiliate of Organisation Intersex International. [2]

Contents

History and staff

The Intersex Campaign for Equality was founded as an affiliate of Organisation Intersex International in February 2011. [1] The founder and director is author and activist Hida Viloria. [1] [3] Dana Zzyym has been the associate director since February 19, 2015, when intersex activists Dani Lee Harris, Hida Viloria, and Zzyym re-branded the Intersex Campaign for Equality (IC4E). [4] In November 2017, the Campaign announced their departure from Organisation Intersex International. [2] Intersex activist Elder Andrea Vickie Boisseau serves as IC4E's New England Director.

Mission

IC4E aims to campaign for the human rights of intersex people, particularly rights to self-determination and bodily integrity. It also aims to support intersex individuals, and provide information on the actual life experiences of people with intersex variations to professionals working providing services to them, including medical personnel, psychological experts, sexologists, sociologists and academics.[ citation needed ]

The Intersex Campaign for Equality is a multi-gendered, multi-orientation, multi-racial NGO founded by and for intersex people.[ citation needed ] The Intersex Campaign for Equality's mission is to attain human rights—particularly the rights to bodily integrity, self-determination, legal recognition, and de-pathologization—for all intersex people regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, race, ability or class, recognizing that some intersex individuals, particularly those with nonbinary gender identities, remain marginalized even within the intersex community. [1]

Advocacy

IC4E advocates for human rights for intersex people in the United States via personal communication, consulting, public speaking, publishing, and lobbying. The organization also provides peer support, news updates, information, and educational events and lectures. They have lobbied extensively in the press and in print against intersex genital mutilation, aka medically unnecessary "normalizing" genital surgeries and hormone treatments of intersex infants and minors, and against discriminatory regulations for intersex female athletes.

In 2011, founder and director Hida Viloria lobbied the U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for inclusion of intersex people, as the "I" in "LGBTI", in LGBT anti-discrimination policies.

Physical integrity and bodily autonomy

Attaining the right to physical integrity and bodily determination through an end to the practice of nonconsensual medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex infants and minors—a.k.a. Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM)—is one of IC4E's founding goals and a primary focus of our education and advocacy work. In 2012, IC4E called for an end to IGM as participants of the Second International Intersex Forum in Stockholm. In addition, upon suggestion of our participating representative Hida Viloria, Forum participants called for IGM to be framed as human rights issue. This was done in an open letter authored by Viloria [5] signed by participants of the Forum and delivered to United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. In 2013, Viloria served as the sole American co-organizer of the Third International Intersex Forum in Malta, which culminated in the creation of the Malta declaration (International Intersex Forum), the most widely agreed upon list of human rights demands—including an end to IGM—by the global intersex community.[ citation needed ]

In addition, IC4E team members have been advocating individually, since for IC4E's founding, for an end to IGM. Southeastern Regional Rep. Dani Lee Harris, of Atlanta, has been educating and advocating for an end to IGM for years via lectures in his Southern Baptist community, and did so in the 2012 intersex documentary Intersexion. Associate Director Dana Zzyym has been advocating against IGM for many years as a college lecturer, and also in the mainstream media, including interviews on ABC NEWS, since filing their groundbreaking lawsuit for a non-binary U.S. passport on Intersex Awareness Day, October 26, 2015, with Lambda Legal as their legal representative. (The case is still pending as of December, 2017.)[ citation needed ]

Founding E.D. Hida Viloria has been advocating against IGM since 1996 via numerous television, film and radio interviews. They have also published extensively on the issue, discussing opposition to IGM in the majority of her numerous published essays, [6] as well as specifically in essays in the Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics , [7] The Advocate, [8] and CNN.com. [9] In addition, Viloria provided expert testimony, in Spanish, in 2013 for the Spanish language television court show Caso Cerrado , [10] and was interviewed on BBC World Service radio regarding the ground-breaking U.S. lawsuit by the parents of an intersex child against the doctors that operated on him as an infant. [11] Ending IGM is a primary topic of their memoir, Born Both: An Intersex Life, the first book by an openly intersex person to be published by a Big Five publishing house, Hachette Book Group, in 2017.

Third Gender Identification documents

On Intersex Awareness Day, October 26, 2015, Associate Director Dana Zzyym made history by announcing that they, along with their legal representatives from Lambda Legal, the U.S.'s oldest LGBT legal rights organization, are suing the United States Department of State for legal gender recognition on their passport as someone who is neither male nor female. Zzyym was born intersex and identifies as non-binary and is seeking accurate federal gender recognition.

The lawsuit received extensive coverage in national venues such as The Washington Post , [12] The Huffington Post , [13] CNN.com, [14] The New York Times, [15] The Los Angeles Times , [16] and The Advocate, [17] bringing widespread mainstream attention to the existence of, and the need for equal rights for, intersex people.

Articles specifically focusing on intersex birth registrations by Hida Viloria can be found at The Advocate [18] and The Global Herald. [19] In November 2013, Viloria was interviewed regarding Germany's third gender law for intersex infants. [20] Viloria provided an introduction to intersex on Huffington Post Live in November 2013. [21]

Access to sport

Hida Viloria has experience in advising the International Olympic Committee on intersex perspectives in access to sport. [22] [23] [24] With Spanish hurdler Maria José Martínez-Patiño, [25] Viloria has argued that Olympic sex testing is applied in a way that targets only "butch" women, those who are "masculine looking". [23] On International Human Rights Day 2013, Vilora spoke as director of IC4E at the United Nations event, "Sport Comes Out Against Homophobia". [26] [27]

On Human Rights Day 2013, Viloria spoke at the United Nations, educating about the human rights violations intersex people face and the need for legal protection from discrimination at the event, "Sport Comes Out Against Homophobia". [28]

In addition, in early 2010, before founding the organization, Viloria lobbied the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for equal treatment of intersex female athletes after the gender verification testing of South African track star Caster Semenya. This resulted in Viloria participating, by invitation, at the IOC 's 2010 meeting of experts in Lausanne, Switzerland, where they lobbied that intersex female athletes be allowed to compete as is, without having to undergo unnecessary medical treatments, and that the use of the pathologizing term "disorders of sex development"/DSD to describe these athletes be discontinued.[ citation needed ]

In 2014, Viloria spoke about discrimination against intersex female athletes on Al Jazeera's The Stream . [29]

Media and visibility work

Founder and Director Hida Viloria is one of the first individuals in the world to come out publicly as intersex, via numerous television, film and radio interviews beginning in 1996. Viloria's media and visibility work includes appearances on such high-profile television programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show , ABC's 20/20, and The Tyra Banks Show , reaching an estimated 100 million viewers via broadcast and additional YouTube views.

Since founding the organization in 2011, Viloria has published extensively on intersex issues, in publications such as The American Journal of Bioethics , The New York Times , The Daily Beast , The Huffington Post , The Global Herald, and Ms. [6]

In 2015, on October 26, Intersex Awareness Day, IC4E Associate Director Dana Zzyym announced the filing of their groundbreaking lawsuit for a non-binary U.S. passport. The case has garnered widespread attention by the mainstream media, including ABC News, The Washington Post, The Washington Blade, and many others, and is expected to continue to as it develops (case still pending as of December 2017).

In March, 2017, Viloria became the first openly intersex author to be published by one of the Big Five publishers, Hatchette Book Group, with the release of their memoir, Born Both: An Intersex Life. [30] They have subsequently been featured in interviews in Rolling Stone , Psychology Today , and NPR. The memoir has garnered widespread attention by the mainstream media, including praise in the New York Times and The Washington Post , and selections by People Magazine as one of six Best New Books, [31] School Library Journal as one of ten best adult books for teens, [32] and more.

Publications

On Intersex Awareness Day, October 26, 2012, the organization published the free educational resource Brief Guidelines for Intersex Allies. [33] In May 2013, IC4E published Your Beautiful Child: Information for Parents, a resource of non-stigmatizing information for parents, authored by Viloria, which includes links to unbiased medical studies regarding medically unnecessary surgeries for intersex people, [34] and is being utilized by health care providers around the world.[ citation needed ]

In 2015, IC4E assisted[ citation needed ] the United Nations Free & Equal Campaign in drafting their resource, the Intersex Fact Sheet, [35] and in 2016, Viloria's essay, "What's in A Name: Intersex and identity", which calls for a non-stigmatizing, equality based linguistic approach to discussing intersex people, was published in the college curriculum textbook, Queer: A Reader for Writers, by Oxford University Press. [36]

International work

IC4E has also been heavily involved in the international intersex human rights movement. On Human Rights Day, December 10, 2012, founder and director Hida Viloria spearheaded a global call for human rights by and for intersex people, via the "Open Letter: A Call for the Inclusion of Human Rights for Intersex People", [37] which they authored and delivered to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights with participants of the 2nd International Intersex Forum in Stockholm signing on in support. The following year, Viloria served as one of three intersex participants chosen by ILGA-Europe to co-organize the third International Intersex Forum, in Malta, which led to the creation of the Malta Declaration, an internationally agreed declaration of the demands and human rights goals of the international intersex community.[ citation needed ]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Organisation Intersex International</span>

The Organisation Intersex International (OII) is a global advocacy and support group for people with intersex traits. According to Milton Diamond, it is the world's largest organization of intersex persons. A decentralised network, OII was founded in 2003 by Curtis Hinkle and Sarita Vincent Guillot. Upon Hinkle's retirement, American intersex activist Hida Viloria served as Chairperson/President elect from April 2011 through November 2017, when they resigned in order to focus on OII's American affiliate, OII-USA's transition into the independent American non-profit, the Intersex Campaign for Equality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex</span> Atypical congenital variations of sex characteristics

Intersex people are individuals 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 binary notions of male or female bodies".

Discrimination against non-binary people, people who do not identify exclusively as male or female, may occur in social, legal, or medical contexts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex Awareness Day</span> Awareness day observed annually on October 26

Intersex Awareness Day is an internationally observed awareness day each October 26, designed to highlight human rights issues faced by intersex people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hida Viloria</span> American activist (born 1968)

Hida Viloria is an American writer, author, producer, and human rights activist of Latin American origin. Viloria is intersex, nonbinary, and genderfluid, using they/them pronouns. They are known for their writing, their intersex and non-binary human rights activism, and as one of the first people to come out in national and international media as a nonbinary intersex person. Viloria is Founding Director of the Intersex Campaign for Equality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Intersex Forum</span>

The International Intersex Forum is an annual event organised, then later supported, by the ILGA and ILGA-Europe that and organisations from multiple regions of the world, and it is believed to be the first and only such intersex event.

Zwischengeschlecht is a human rights advocacy group campaigning on intersex bodily autonomy issues. The group demonstrates outside medical events where surgical interventions are discussed or performed, engages with the media, and participates in consultations with human rights institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex human rights</span> Human rights for 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 typical binary notions of male or female bodies."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal recognition of intersex people</span>

Intersex people are born with sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, gonads, or genitals that, according to the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Discrimination against intersex people</span>

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". "Because their bodies are seen as different, intersex children and adults are often stigmatized and subjected to multiple human rights violations".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pidgeon Pagonis</span> American activist, writer, artist, and consultant

Pidgeon Pagonis is an American intersex activist, writer, artist, and consultant. They are an advocate for intersex human rights and against nonconsensual intersex medical interventions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legal recognition of non-binary gender</span>

Multiple countries legally recognize non-binary or third gender classifications. These classifications are typically based on a person's gender identity. In some countries, such classifications may only be available to intersex people, born with sex characteristics that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex and LGBT</span> Relationship between different sex and gender minorities

Intersex people are born with sex characteristics that "do not fit the typical definitions for male or female bodies". They are substantially more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) than endosex people. According to a study done in Australia of Australian citizens with intersex conditions, participants labeled 'heterosexual' as the most popular single label with the rest being scattered among various other labels. According to another study, an estimated 8.5% to 20% experiencing gender dysphoria. Although many intersex people are heterosexual and cisgender, this overlap and "shared experiences of harm arising from dominant societal sex and gender norms" has led to intersex people often being included under the LGBT umbrella, with the acronym sometimes expanded to LGBTI. Some intersex activists and organisations have criticised this inclusion as distracting from intersex-specific issues such as involuntary medical interventions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex rights in Australia</span> Overview of intersex peoples rights in Australia

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex rights in the United States</span> Overview of intersex peoples rights in the United States of America

Intersex people in the United States have some of the same rights as other people, but with significant gaps, particularly in protection from non-consensual cosmetic medical interventions and violence, and protection from discrimination. Actions by intersex civil society organizations aim to eliminate harmful practices, promote social acceptance, and equality. In recent years, intersex activists have also secured some forms of legal recognition. Since April 11, 2022 US Passports give the sex/gender options of male, female and X by self determination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malta declaration (International Intersex Forum)</span> Statement of the Third International Intersex Forum, which took place in Valletta, Malta, in 2013

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex rights in Germany</span> Overview of intersex peoples rights in Germany

Intersex people in Germany have legal recognition of their rights to physical integrity and bodily autonomy, with exceptions, but no specific protections from discrimination on the basis of sex characteristics. In response to an inquiry by the German Ethics Council in 2012, the government passed legislation in 2013 designed to classify some intersex infants as a de facto third category. The legislation has been criticized by civil society and human rights organizations as misguided.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intersex human rights reports</span>

Intersex people are born with sex characteristics, such as chromosomes, gonads, 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dana Zzyym</span> American intersex activist

Dana Alix Zzyym is an intersex activist and veteran of the U.S. Navy. After the culmination of a six-year legal battle, they became the first U.S. citizen to receive an official U.S. passport with an "X" sex/gender marker.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Our Mission". Intersex Campaign for Equality. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  2. 1 2 Intersex Campaign for Equality (November 8, 2017). "New Mission and Independent Status for IC4E as Viloria resigns from post as OII Chair".
  3. ↑ Viloria, Hida (June 12, 2013). "Op-ed: Intersex, the Final Coming-Out Frontier". The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  4. ↑ "Who We Are". IC4E. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  5. ↑ Open Letter: A Call for the Inclusion of Human Rights for Intersex People Archived 2017-12-14 at the Wayback Machine , ILGA Europe, 10 December 2012
  6. 1 2 Hida Viloria Bibliography, HidaViloria.com. Retrieved 13 December 2017.
  7. ↑ Promoting Health and Social Progress by Accepting and Depathologizing Benign Intersex Traits, Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics,VOICES: Personal Stories from the Pages of NIB, "Normalizing Intersex," Issue 2, 2016, p. 29.
  8. ↑ Viloria, Hida (September 27, 2013). "Op-ed: Why We Must Protect Intersex Babies". The Advocate. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  9. ↑ Commentary: My Life as a Mighty Hermaphrodite, CNN.com, 18 September 2009.
  10. ↑ justices1989 (October 15, 2013). "Bebé intersexual #700 (3 3) Caso Cerrado" . Retrieved January 12, 2017– via YouTube.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  11. ↑ "Newshour, Dealing with Syria". BBC World Service. May 16, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  12. ↑ Rein, Lisa (October 27, 2015). "Intersex applicants face passport discrimination, says lawsuit seeking option other than 'M' or 'F'". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  13. ↑ Coffman, Keith (October 27, 2015). "Intersex Navy Veteran Sues State Department For Denying Passport". The Huffington Post.
  14. ↑ Essaid, Salim (July 23, 2016). "Intersex veteran sues over passport denial". CNN. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  15. ↑ "Intersex person Dana Zzyym denied passport, sues U.S. government". The New York Times. July 22, 2016. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  16. ↑ Branson-Potts, Hailey (July 20, 2016). "Intersex person who was denied a passport over gender designation sues U.S. government". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  17. ↑ Daley, Elizabeth (October 27, 2015). "Intersex Veteran Denied Passport For Refusing to Choose Gender, Files Lawsuit". The Advocate. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  18. ↑ Viloria, Hida (November 6, 2013). "Op-ed: Germany's Third-Gender Law Fails on Equality". The Advocate. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  19. ↑ Viloria, Hida (November 4, 2013). "Germany's Third Gender Law: Not What Intersex People Most Need". The Global Herald. Archived from the original on January 16, 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  20. ↑ "Germany Intersex;Pakistan Taliban leader reported dead, World Have Your Say". BBC World Service. November 1, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  21. ↑ Is being intersex a third gender?, Huffington Post Live, in 2013 Archived 2013-12-07 at the Wayback Machine
  22. ↑ The IOC's unkind cuts Archived 2013-12-12 at the Wayback Machine , Roger Brigham, Bay Area Reporter, March 11, 2010.
  23. 1 2 Hida Patricia Viloria; Maria Jose Martínez-Patino (2012). "Reexamining Rationales of "Fairness": An Athlete and Insider's Perspective on the New Policies on Hyperandrogenism in Elite Female Athletes". The American Journal of Bioethics. 12 (7): 17–19. doi:10.1080/15265161.2012.680543. PMID   22694024. S2CID   20865730.
  24. ↑ Gender Rules in Sport – Leveling The Playing Field, Or Reversed Doping? Archived 2013-05-14 at the Wayback Machine , Hida Viloria, The Global Herald, April 11, 2010.
  25. ↑ Epstein, David (September 7, 2009). "Well, Is She Or Isn't She?". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  26. ↑ "Sport Comes Out Against Homophobia". UN Web TV. United Nations. December 10, 2013. Archived from the original on March 1, 2019. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  27. ↑ "At UN human rights event, Navratilova and Collins decry homophobic violence". UN News Centre. December 10, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  28. ↑ "International Human Rights Day 2013: Sport Comes Out Against Homophobia". OutRight Action International . December 10, 2013. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  29. ↑ "No games for women with 'too much' testosterone". Al Jazeera. September 2, 2014. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  30. ↑ "Born Both". Hachette Book Group. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  31. ↑ Intersex memoir praised in the New York Times, Washington post, and more, Intersex Campaign for Equality, 31 May 2017.
  32. ↑ Fears, & Female Empowerment: Adult Books 4 Teens, School Library Journal, 13 September 2017.
  33. ↑ "Brief Guidelines for Intersex Allies". IC4E. October 25, 2012. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  34. ↑ "Your Beautiful Child: Information for Parents". IC4E. May 16, 2013. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
  35. ↑ "LGBT Rights: Frequently Asked Questions" (PDF). Free & Equal. United Nations. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  36. ↑ "Queer: A Reader for Writers". Oxford University Press. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
  37. ↑ Viloria, Hida (December 10, 2012). "Open Letter: A Call for the Inclusion of Human Rights for Intersex People" (PDF). ILGA Europe. Retrieved January 12, 2017.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.