Who We Are

The Intersex Justice Project (IJP) seeks the end of medically invasive and unnecessary surgeries in the United States that target intersex children and adolescents by empowering intersex people of color to advance that change. IJP is dedicated to the inalienable rights of intersex people of color in the United States, however we are committed to forming alliances and coalitions with other intersex people of color both nationally and globally.

Ultimately, we want to exist freely in our communities without scrutiny from the medical establishment. We demand that we be allowed to exist freely in the bodies we were born with. We also desire a world where future intersex children are free from medical harm and are in partnership with their parents and doctors to decide the course of their medical treatment.

Our Mission

We recognize that our mission to end medically invasive and unnecessary surgeries on intersex infants and children is not the end point to liberation; we must coalesce with other groups across movements that include but are not limited to: reproductive justice, prison abolition, black liberation, indigenous people’s rights and sovereignty, latinx liberation, and other groups working toward freedom from oppression. We have outlined the following tactics that will help us achieve that end:

1. Working with other intersex organizations in the United States and globally who are committed to ending intersex genital surgeries.

2. Educating the people about intersex human right violations via empowering intersex people of color as leaders in this movement.

3. Clearly articulating our demands, in coalition with other groups, to protect the bodily sovereignty of intersex children and young adults.

4. Targeting hospitals that are performing these surgeries through direct action organizing with intersex groups and allies.

5. Developing media that is aligned with our interest as intersex people of color that represents our voices, our passions and our goals.

Our People

Sean Saifa Wall,
co-founder & strategist

Sean Saifa Wall is an intersex activist, documentarian and public health researcher.  Born and raised in the Bronx, he attended Williams College and after a short stint in New York City, moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where he lived for nine years.  He now lives in Atlanta, Georgia with his dog, Justice. He is the former board president of InterACT, a legal advocacy organization protecting the human rights of intersex young adults and is a co-founder of the Intersex Justice Project (IJP), a project whose mission is to #endintersexsurgery. 

Saifa's story has been featured in Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation, Trans Bodies, Trans Selves, Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics journal, the Washington Blade, The Guardian, and The Remedy: Queer and Trans Voices on Health and Healthcare. He is a TEDx speaker and has been a guest on Huffington Post Live, ABC News Nightline and Afropunk: Solutions Sessions. Recently, IJP was highlighted in the Google/Stink Films documentary, Stonewall Forever. You can learn more about him at seansaifa.com

pronouns: he/him

Lynnell Stephani Long,
co-founder

Lynnell Stpehani Long is an Intersex activist & educator, photographer, and paramedic. Her passion for activism grew from being a long-term patient at a university hospital in her native Chicago. For the past 15 years the heart of Lynnell's advocacy has been in helping intersex children, preventing genital mutilation, and ending the unnecessary shame and secrecy suffered by Intersex adults.
Lynnell began speaking out as a volunteer with Intersex Society of North America's  Speakers Bureau. Before long she was speaking on college campuses and educating medical professionals throughout the U.S. and Canada.
She currently serves as Vice President on the Board of Directors for InterACT. She is also a member of the Board of Directors for AIS-DSD Support Group and is active on AIS-DSD's Diversity Committee.
Lynnell has been featured in several documentaries, including Intersexion (2012) and One in 2000 (2006), and appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Montel Williams Show. In 2015, her story was published by Narrative Inquiry of Bioethics. Follow Lynnell's work at lynnellstephani.blogspot.com.

pronouns: she/her

Pidgeon Pagonis,
​co-founder and former organizer

Pidgeon Pagonis has slowly, oftentimes not so quietly risen to visibility as an activist on behalf of intersex people. Whether advancing intersex advocacy as the co-founder of the Intersex Justice Project, producing informational videos that go viral on Buzzfeed, creating art that centers intersex voices, appearing on the cover of National Geographic “Gender Revolution” special issue or being honored as a LGBT Champion of Change in 2015 by the Obama White House, Pidgeon has staked out a place at the fore of debates on intersexuality and otherness. You can find out more about Pidgeon at pid.ge.

pronouns: they/them