Issue Areas: Intersex Human Rights

Roma Women of Vojvodina

The Association of Roma Women Vojvodina’s intersex project aims to educate Roma youth about the intersex population, reduce prejudices and stereotypes of Roma youth about intersex persons, and begin the process of stopping the isolation of intersex persons.

The Association of Roma Women Vojvodina is a non-governmental and non-profit association founded in 2007 to improve the Roma population’s social development (health, education, culture, economy, housing) and to reduce inequality in all aspects of society through providing adequate support to Roma men and women by encouraging them to be self-organized. They want to bring especially Roma women and youth to engage in social wisdom on an equal basis with all national communities and nations. Their intersex project aims to educate Roma youth about the intersex population, reduce prejudices and stereotypes of Roma youth about intersex persons, and begin the process of stopping the isolation of intersex persons. The long-term goal is to end the stigma and discrimination of intersex people by increasing the empathy and cooperation of young Roma towards and with persons belonging to the intersex population.

Bangladesh Intersex Forum

Bangladesh Intersex Forum’s goal is to create awareness of intersex issues among the masses and support intersex people’s livelihood and human rights through capacity building, grassroots organizing, advocacy, research, and strategic litigation.

Bangladesh Intersex Forum (BIF), formally formed on December 7, 2020, with the support of Intersex Asia, is the first organization in Bangladesh led by intersex people. Its goal is to create awareness of intersex issues among the masses and support intersex people’s livelihood and human rights through capacity building, grassroots organizing, advocacy, research, and strategic litigation. In Bangladesh, parents are quick to do “correctional” surgery on intersex bodies very early on in their lives. Thus, intersex people suffer from levels of extreme trauma and are stuck in a vicious dark circle. BIF wants to break that curse by genuinely empowering them with consultations and capacity building programs. It has collected intersex stories from grassroots to publish in the Daily Star, a popular national newspaper, and to empower intersex people by buying cattle or training them in garment sewing for their livelihood. BIF has a strong partnership with Oboyob–Diversity Circle.

Asociación Peruana de Personas Intersexuales

Asociación Peruana de Personas Intersexuales’ goal is to create a space to support and assist intersex people and their families in Peru since intersex issues are entirely invisible in the country, and there is a great deal of misinformation around the topic.

Asociación Peruana de Personas Intersexuales was founded in 2020 by an intersex woman with CAH with the support of Brújula Intersexual (Mexico). The goal was to create a space to support and assist intersex people and their families in Peru since intersex issues are entirely invisible in the country, and there is a great deal of misinformation around the topic. Asociación Peruana de Personas Intersexuales is the only Peruvian intersex organization. It seeks to create a large community of intersex people in the entire Peruvian territory to support, inform, give value, and create societal consciousness in Peru around intersex experiences. They plan to do this by creating a welcoming, empathetic and understanding space made up by intersex people —while at the same time distancing themselves from the pathologizing rhetoric, the binary and heteronormativity.

IntersexualesChile

IntersexualesChile’s main goal is to ensure an active network that can support intersex people as well as help and support families in making decisions regarding the health of future intersex children.

IntersexualesChile (previously Brújula Intersexual Chile) was founded in 2016 with the support of Brújula Intersexual (Mexico). Their main goal is to ensure an active network that can support intersex people as well as help and support families in making decisions regarding the health of future intersex children. The organization also aims incentivize personal well-being rather than performing corrective and aesthetic surgeries, which only end up harming the person being operated in a physical, psychological and social way. In addition to directly helping families, they are interested in being part of various working groups at the Ministry of Health to ensure that Chile complies with Memo 17, which stipulates that genital surgery cannot be performed on intersex babies. They see it as essential to have their rights openly known as well as respected.

Groupe Intersexe Désirs / Inter-Désirs

GIDE’s goal is to disseminate knowledge about intersex people in the wider communities, to promote intersex people’s desires for physical integrity and self-determination, and to encourage a change of approach to the intersex issue

GIDE was created on November 8, 2020 in the wake of the celebration of International Intersex Awareness Day (celebrated in the West but little known in French-speaking Africa) to gradually contribute to disseminating knowledge about intersex people in the wider communities, to promote intersex people’s desires for physical integrity and self-determination, and to encourage a change of approach to the intersex issue, wrongly considered a disorder by the medical and educational world and a taboo by the rest of society. The main goal is to free intersex people from the yoke of customs and disorders and allow them to achieve their full potential. Thus the mission of GIDE is to contribute to social change concerning the perception of intersex to remove it from the realm of disorders and evil taboos and to gradually succeed in reducing and even eradicating all acts of social intolerance and physical violence perpetrated on the bodies of intersex children for the sake of social conformity without their prior consent.

Intersex Philippines

Intersex Philippines’ goal is to advocate for the collective need to be included in society without stigma and prejudice.

Intersex Philippines started as an online group until its members decided to form the group and register as an organisation to represent the intersex community of the country. Their goal is to advocate for the collective need to be included in society without stigma and prejudice. The main idea of the group was to give support to fellow intersex individuals in the form of online counseling and sharing of experience since intersex individuals are isolated thus making it difficult for them to discuss their body, health, sexual orientation and other issues. The group organized its first-ever IntersexPhilippines Forum in December 2019, giving rise to its membership and visibility in online and other forms of broadcast media in the country. The organization aims to uplift its members’ lives by giving them the opportunity to learn skills that they can use for their income building capacity to support themselves since intersex individuals face difficulties in finding economic means of living.

Meet our Intersex Human Rights Fund grantee partners

This year, Astraea awarded $275,000 in grants to 41 grantee partners across 33 countries, including two regional networks in Europe and Asia. 

Today, on Intersex Awareness Day, it is with great excitement that we share our fourth cycle of the Intersex Human Rights Fund grantee partners.

This year, Astraea awarded $275,000 in grants to 41 grantee partners across 33 countries, including two regional networks in Europe and Asia. 65% of these grants are to existing partners, affirming our commitment to providing long-term support and promoting sustainability. While the intersex movement is growing across all regions, in this cycle, 35% of the grants are to new groups from intersex-led organizations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

These are some of the fiercest intersex activists and advocates who are addressing human rights violations and stigma faced by intersex people, and collaborating with other intersex organizations, human rights organizations, educational and healthcare institutions, and allies.

This past year, intersex rights activists held regional meetings across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Europe. The regional meetings—several of which were supported by the Intersex Human Rights Fund—were the first intersex spaces that many activists in the Global South had experienced. Activists emphasized the criticality of movement-building and the need for increased visibility for the intersex community as a whole.

2018 is Astraea’s largest-ever pool of Intersex Human Rights Fund grantee partners, signaling a major growth in the global intersex movement and advocacy efforts. However, the lack of funding for intersex rights continues to be a major barrier in realizing those rights and shifts in norms.

Our grantee partners have been instrumental in:

  • Organizing to end the pathologization and medicalization of intersex bodies by providing accurate and positive representations of the intersex community: Collectif Intersexes et Allié-e-s was formed on Intersex Awareness Day in 2016 as a collective that provides peer support but also to act politically and be a representative voice for intersex rights in France. The group takes a firm stand against pathologization of intersex people, working to end mutilations and non-consensual treatments, removing gender in legal documents, and including intersex variations in educational resources across the country.
  • Raising awareness about intersex human rights violations by establishing regional networks to end discrimination and protect the rights of intersex people: Intersex Asia was born out of the Asia regional meeting in 2018, to affirm intersex peoples’ rights to bodily integrity, physical autonomy, and self-determination. The network was created by 14 activists across 10 countries in Asia and reflects the growth of the movement in the region.
  • Serving as catalysts for information dissemination, awareness raising, and advocating for the rights of intersex people: Intersex South Africa (ISSA) was revived in 2017 after a South African meeting of intersex activists highlighted major gaps concerning intersex issues in the country. ISSA’s works to ensure that intersex people have the right to accurate information and access to medical records concerning their bodily autonomy, as well as providing support to and awareness around the intersex community in South Africa.

Please join us in celebrating the work of these powerful grantee partners and read more about their work and the work of this global movement, in the links below*:

AIS Suport Group Australia Inc. // Associação Brasileira de Intersexos // Bilitis Resource Center// Brújula Intersexual // Campaign for Change // Collectif Intesexes et Allié-es// Comité Visibilité Intersexe // Egalite Intersex Ukraine // Fundación Reflejos de Venezuela // The Houston Intersex Society // Intersex And Faith // Intersex Archive Project // Intersex Asia // Intersex Danmark // Intersex Human Rights Australia // Intersex Ísland // Intersex South Africa // InterAction // IntersexUK // ITANZ // Ivy Foundation // Mulabi // NNID // Oii Chinese // OII Deutschland/IVIM // OII Italia // OII Sverige // Organization Intersex International Europe (OII-Europe) // Rainbow Identity Association // Srishti Madurai LGBTQI+// Trans Smart Trust // TZK’AT, Red de Sanadoras Ancestrales del Feminismo Comunitario // Verein Intergeschlechtlicher Österreich (VIMÖ/OII Austria) // Vivir y Ser Intersex // XY Spectrum

*We do not publicize some of our courageous grantee partners because of the security threats they face in their local contexts, so groups may be missing from this list.

P.S. By supporting Astraea you are creating ecosystems of resistance that are smart, effective, and unique. We are answering the call of this moment. We will win. And we will do so because of your support.

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Watch a video about our Intersex Fund grantee partners’ recent work:

Fundacja Interakcja

Fundacja Interakcja was founded by Polish intersex activist Magda Rakita and the mother of an intersex child.

Fundacja Interakcja was founded by Polish intersex activist Magda Rakita and the mother of an intersex child. They give talks in different contexts, such as on “intersex101 + how to support intersex people at work” for Google Poland and the University of Wrocław. Fundacja Interakcjahas done many translations of YouTube videos on intersex issues into the Polish language. Their work is also specialized on families: they developed a chapter on intersex to be included in a brochure for a program run by Polish LGBT organization, KPH, for parents of LGBT+ youth, and are currently working on a booklet “How to talk to your child about intersex” for parents and guardians of children with intersex traits, as well as publishing a short story for children (about an intersex dragon) translated from Finnish.

Intersex Community of Zimbabwe (ICoZ)

Intersex Community of Zimbabwe (ICoZ) was formed in October 2018. They are raising awareness on intersex reality with social media and live interviews, as well as sensitisation workshops for healthcare professionals.

Intersex Community of Zimbabwe (ICoZ) was formed in October 2018. They are raising awareness on intersex reality with social media and live interviews, as well as sensitisation workshops for healthcare professionals. They are also working in having intersex people included in the HIV and AIDS debates, with participation in panels on the topic. They engage in advocacy with UN with a contribution about The Rights of Intersex Women and Girls in Zimbabwe, as an NGO submission for the 75th session of the Pre–Sessional Working Group of Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. They are also involved in the UPR process in Harare, and participated in the Child Rights Coalition Conference.During covid–19 they created a specific program with donations across their territories, to empower the intersex community (intersex adults and families of intersex children) with skills to make different products such as hand sanitizers, orange juice for vitamine C, soap making, and gardening activities (to promote healthy eating and to help raise funds by selling fresh vegetables). They are also involved in regional meetings and international intersex networks. In 2019, ICoZ was part of a delegate representing the African Intersex Movement (AIM) at the African Commission which traveled to The Gambia to present an information note on The Rights of Intersex Persons in Africa.

Intersex Justice Project (IJP)

The Intersex Justice Project (IJP) was formed in 2017, centering voices and leadership of intersex people of color.

The Intersex Justice Project (IJP) was formed in 2017, centering voices and leadership of intersex people of color. They build partnership with other intersex organizations and organizers (such as InterACT), as well as allies, such as artists, public figures, or organizers. They do awareness raising work through social media, live chats, interviews and podcasts. They opened the Queer March in New York and their core work is centered around  their #EndIntersexSurgery campaign at Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, in front of which they have been organizing repeated protests. These actions were successful with Lurie apologizing for the harm done to intersex people and committing to suspend cosmetic and medically unnecessary surgeries for six months as they explore “comprehensive and informed intersex care” with intersex consultants. Following this success they have been holding press conferences and interviews, strengthening their national visibility.