News

Emi Koyama of Intersex Society of North America will be the keynote
speaker for the "Queer Revelations: A Revolutionary Queer
Conference" presented by EQUAL (Empowered Queers United for Absolute
Liberation) of Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colorad from
December 3 thru 7. Emi's presentation is titled "Conflicts and

February 18, 2002

Contact: Emi Koyama, emi@isna.org

ISNA Kicks Off National Initiative to Educate Playgoers

January 7, 2002

For more information, contact:

Emi Koyama

Program Assistant, Intersex Society of North America

Community Board Chair, Survivor Project

Web: http://www.isna.org/events/vday

Intersex activists will speak at several sesssions during this year's Creating Change, the largest national conference for gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans (and now intersex) activists, in Milwaukee this month.

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. Thanks to naive beliefs about sex and gender, the Department of Homeland Security finds itself arguing with the Board of Immigration Appeals about whether or not a person’s chromosomes determine her/his sex.

In its disagreement with Homeland Security, the Board of Immigration Appeals noted that the facts about intersex negate Homeland Security’s overly simplistic beliefs about sex and gender identity. In making its decision, the Board referred to legal scholar Julie Greenberg’s masterful Arizona Law review article called Defining Male and Female: Intersexuality and the Collision Between Law and Biology.

Today the San Francisco Human Rights Commission issued A Human Rights Investigation into the Medical ‘Normalization’ of Intersex People, declaring that the standard medical approach to intersex conditions leads pediatric specialists to violate their patients’ human rights.

“In issuing this report, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission has essentially declared me a human being,” said Cheryl Chase, Executive Director of ISNA. “They have agreed that I—and children born like me—deserve the same basic human rights as others.” Chase, who was born with mixed sex anatomy internally and externally, went on: “No longer should we be lied to, displayed, be injected with hormones for questionable purposes, and have our genitals cut to alleviate the anxieties of parents and doctors. Doctors’ good intentions are not enough. Practices must now change.”

Today the San Francisco Human Rights Commission declared that the standard medical approach to intersex conditions leads pediatric specialists to violate their patients’ human rights.

“In issuing this report, the San Francisco Human Rights Commission has essentially declared me a human being,” said Cheryl Chase, Executive Director of ISNA. “They have agreed that I—and children born like me—deserve the same basic human rights as others.” Chase, who was born with mixed sex anatomy internally and externally, went on: “No longer should we be lied to, displayed, be injected with hormones for questionable purposes, and have our genitals cut to alleviate the anxieties of parents and doctors. Doctors’ good intentions are not enough. Practices must now change.”

Congratulations to long-time ISNA ally Mani Mitchell: The documentary film “Mani’s Story,” which traces Mani’s life and intersex activism, has won the Quantas Award for best television documentary in New Zealand! (This is the equivalent of the U.S. “Oscars.”) Also featured in the film are American intersex activists Angela Moreno (board member of ISNA) and David Vandertie. 

This documentary was produced by Greenstone Pictures and is not currently available in the US. But you can get a copy of Hermaphrodites Speak! by making a donation to ISNA.

What has happened to people with intersex in countries outside North America?

Read the story of Tony Briffa of Australia at the website of Melbourne’s The Age. You’ll see there how the concealment-centered model of treatment developed at Johns Hopkins in the 1950s spread across the world, unintentionally hurting people with intersex as far away as Australia.

An important thing to note: Though the title of this article is “Choosing the Right Gender,” being assigned the “wrong” gender (the gender he didn’t ultimately identify with) is just a part of Tony’s story. He also tells a story of being medically displayed “like a freak”, being lied to and mislead, and struggling with his sexuality following his medical treatment.