The Lavender (LGBTQIA+) Caucus of the Green Party is asking for your assistance.
We ask for your support of Intersex Solidarity Day, also known as Intersex Day of Solidarity or as Intersex Day of Remembrance. November 8 is the date chosen to highlight the continued need to advocate for the right to be biologically different. The goal is gender equality and independent bodily self-determination for people whose biological sex does not conform to the myth or stereotype that people are born only either male or female.
November 8th was chosen to honor the birthday of Herculine Barbin, a 19th-Century intersex person who was forced into the public eye after doctors found her to be intersex and whose short and often unhappy life highlights the need for increased acceptance of intersex people. The goals of this day include education, showing the need to stop Intersex Genital Mutilation, upholding intersex rights to dignity and equality, equal access to prenatal medical care, and solidarity of intersex people and friends, families and supporters.
Intersex Education and Intersex Population Statistics
Intersex is the medical reference term for people who are biologically in between the currently accepted medical definitions of the male to female gender classification system. This can be through variations of expected hormones, chromosomes, internal or external genitalia, or any combination of any or all primary and/or secondary sex characteristics. While some individuals are identified or diagnosed as intersex at birth, many are not. As intersex is only about biological sex, it is distinct from gender identity and sexual orientation.
Some intersex people are also chimeras. The word Chimera refers to when twins, triplets or other numbers of multiples merge in the womb, resulting in the birth of a composite person whose body is made of multiples merged into one. The person is a chimera; the phenomenon is chimerism. With the increase in IVF and other fertility treatments, we are noticing more DNA variations and chimerism and even have observed individuals in the uterus that are Siamese twins that rejoin into a single body before birth. There are many ways for a person to be born with unusual DNA and atypical appearances.
If you consider all known intersex variations, such as hormones, chromosomes and genitalia variations, intersex birth rates were seen 20 years ago as being 1 in every 100 live births, but now intersex people have been coming forward as frequently as 1 in 10 people, 1 in 5 from another source. One in every 8 pregnancies start out as multiples, and many of these result in chimeras being born. This shows these communities to be larger than previously known. Adults were previously unaware of their own medical status, unless the variations on the gender spectrum were visible. It is evident that many infants in next generations will be identified as intersex in the womb, and that our society members of all ages from seniors to developing fetuses and children need equal rights to medical care.
Bodily Self-Determination & Stopping Intersex Genital Mutilation
A person has the inherit right to make informed decisions about what happens to their own body, including changes to their sexual and reproductive systems. People have the right to make consensual medical decisions based on fully informed consent as to what happens to their bodies. Currently many doctors encourage unnecessary non-consensual cosmetic surgery on/for intersex people, specifically young children, infants and babies. The stated goal is often only to make the child’s body conform to the chosen assigned gender. These surgical procedures are also a form of forced sterilization, as the child’s testes and/or overies are often removed in the process. The United Nations has declared surgery of this form an outright form of torture, three retired United States Surgeons-General have declared it inappropriate when done without informed consent, and prior Green Party Presidential Candidate Dr. Jill Stein made stopping Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM) part of her campaign. It should be considered a natural inherent right for all infants to be allowed to keep their reproductive organs without mandatory gender conformity surgery.
Equality for Medical, Legal and Political Rights
Non-binary (NB) is recognized as an acceptable alternative to male/female gender identification. The Green Party supports the inherent reproductive right that pregnant individuals be allowed to give birth to children identified as intersex during ultrasound or other medical diagnostic methods without the children being subject to gender discrimination at birth. This includes helping support efforts to make the medical system more respectful of intersex peoples' bodies, opposing restrictive/hateful legislative bills in your communities and supporting efforts to gain increased human rights protection, recognition, and equality under the law for all people, regardless of gender identity.
NLGC Statement 11.8.19
Cited Resources Include: Wikipedia article on Intersex Day of Remembrance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intersex_Day_of_Remembrance
Intersex Day of Solidarity, also known as Intersex Day of Remembrance:
www.intersexday.org
Intersex Campaign For Equality (IC4E):
www.intersexequality.com
Intersex, Friends and Families (IFF):
https://www.facebook.com/groups/747602648624184/
