Intersex Human Rights: Supporting a Growing Movement & Exploring Intersections with LGBTQ Justice

Intersex Human Rights: Supporting a Growing Movement & Exploring Intersections with LGBTQ Justice

Thursday, March 31st · 4:00pm — 5:10pm

Intersex people face invisibility, stigma, discrimination and violence in the US and around the world. Medical frameworks continue to dominate discussions of intersex issues, leading to support for “normalizing” interventions that violate the human rights of intersex people. Intersex children are widely subjected to non-consensual, medically unnecessary and harmful surgeries and other treatments with lifelong consequences, including sterilization and genital mutilation.

A movement of intersex human rights activists is fighting back, demanding the rights to bodily autonomy, physical integrity and self-determination. Intersex rights are beginning to be recognized in international human rights system and in domestic law in a few countries. In the US, intersex issues are receiving unprecedented visibility, including via a viral Buzzfeed video featuring intersex youth speaking out and an intersex character on the MTV show “Faking It.”

While the movement is making impressive strides, it is nascent and deeply under-resourced. In partnership with intersex activists, Astraea created the world’s first Intersex Human Rights Fund. The Intersex Fund supports intersex-led activism to ensure the human rights, bodily autonomy, physical integrity and self-determination of intersex people worldwide.

While intersex issues are relevant to many sectors, including children’s rights, disability rights and women’s rights, it is LGBTQ funders who have provided the first funding for intersex organizing. What are the most pressing issues at stake for intersex people, and how do they relate to LGBTQ issues? What does the intersex movement look like today? What can LGBTQ funders do to support the intersex movement? Come to this table talk to find out.

Sponsors:
Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice