Last Year's 2016 Statement

As this year is coming to a close, the intersex people of color movement has seen triumph and setback. M.C., a young Black intersex child whose genitals were mutilated by the state of South Carolina while in foster care, received a court victory when his case settled out of court for $440,000. Although the sum is a pittance for the trauma that this young person has endured and what he will face in the future, this is the first time that the state has recognized the sovereign rights of an intersex child, let alone a Black intersex child. M.C.'s bravery allows us as intersex people of color to assert ourselves and claim our rightful places in the movement for bodily sovereignty. Thank you M.C.

Traducción de Brujula Intersexual: Un doctor me pidió conversar acerca de por qué no deberían cortar a los bebés intersexuales – Aquí está mi respuesta. Por Pidgeon Pagonis http://bit.ly/2yGHh3i

On October 5th, the Washington Post published this amazing long-form article on the intersex movement--featuring a number of my dear friends and fellow activists. It’s not often that a major publication dedicates 6,000 words of thoughtful, nuanced journalism to our community.

The piece featured intersex people talking about our painstaking work to end a decades-old and thoroughly debunked medical paradigm that says our bodies are so wrong that doctors should be able to surgically alter us however they want--without our consent and when we are too young to participate in the decision. This is what happened to me at Lurie Children’s (formerly Children’s Memorial) in Chicago; I was operated on three times as a kid, for no medical reason, and without my knowledge or consent. I’ve been living with the fall-out ever since. It was mutilation.  And I’m not alone in my conviction--three former US surgeons general came out against the practice, as have the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association, the United Nations, the World Health Organization...and the list goes on…