ÇÃO PELA IDENTIDADE – API (Action for Identity) was formed in 2011 and officially registered in 2015 as an organization for the defense and study of intersectionality, bodily diversity and sex characteristics as well as gender diversity.
API would like to see terms like intersex, sex characteristics and bodily integrity becoming more visible in political discourse, including legislation and policies. They have a focus on Afro-Portuguese communities and aim to ensure access to stakeholders, and address racism in policies; API would like to see increased media representation of black, trans and intersex people. AÇÃO PELA IDENTIDADE – API (Action for Identity) was formed in 2011 and officially registered in 2015 as an organization for the defense and study of intersectionality, bodily diversity and sex characteristics as well as gender diversity. It’s leader is a black intersex artivist Santiago D’Almeida Ferreira who became the first intersex person out in Portugal, after their coming out in the Portuguese Parliament back in May, 2015. Since then API, with the help of the other founder and trans activist Júlia Mendes Pereira, have been advocating for the Human Rights of intersex persons, and gender self-determination, achieving already the Portuguese Government’s commitment by several meetings and official workshops and a public announcement that a new legislation securing the prohibition of surgeries on intersex babies will be presented in 2017. Their goal is to broaden up the human rights recognitions, policies and protections regarding bodily integrity, gender diversity, and intersecting discriminations in Portugal.
They have a focus on Afro-Portuguese communities and aim to ensure access to stakeholders, and address racism in policies; API would like to see increased media representation of black, trans, and intersex people.
This Body, Too is a feature-length documentary written, directed by and starring Arisleyda Dilone, a young intersex woman living in the U.S. The film aims to capture Aris’s experience growing up intersex in a Dominican-American family. Aris focuses on the influences of outside forces (her partner, her friends, the medical field and, most importantly, her family) as she seeks to understand her identity as an intersex-woman and a Dominican-American. Her journey takes her back to the Dominican Republic, where there is a long history of medical research of intersex bodies. This Body, Too will tackle issues of sex identity, gender identity, surgical interventions and mainstream perceptions of feminine identity.
Funding enabled her to shoot an interview with her former doctor that operated on her body as a teen (this interview will form part of the feature film This Body, Too) and complete a short film, Mami y Yo y mi Gallito (16mins, 2015), which revolves around her first conversation with her mother about her body.
IntersexUK is a volunteer-run organization led by two intersex women. It was founded in 2010 to prevent irreversible medical and surgical abuses being inflicted on intersex bodied children.
IntersexUK (iUK) was Co Founded by two intersex VSC women, Holly Greenberry and Dawn Vago, with advocate support in 2010 (Holly and Dawn are parents also). iUK has grown over the last 12 years. The team now includes Jeanette (Uk’s most senior public intersex speaker and activist), and Joe (who was the UK’s youngest Intersex person to speak out publicly). All of the iUK team have a strong ethos and focus to also engage and work with independent intersectional intersex people and support creating spaces for intersex / VSC inclusion and voices.
The key focus of iUK’s work is to deliver fact, testimony, demands and consultancy with a focus on legislation and policy by means of expert education. iUK have consulted and reported as lead stakeholders in cross party settings, and with various government departments, as well having worked in unity on numerous UN projects. A fundamental goal of iUK is to support cross party understanding of intersex / VSC issues and to recognise and enact the need for bodily autonomy and bodily integrity for all intersex bodied people with a variation of sex characteristic (VSC). They focus heavily on unity, advocacy and stakeholder consultation delivering Intersex / VSC demands based on co authored International demands statements. iUK have also delivered numerous co authored reports to UN treaty bodies regarding the UK’s approach to ‘managing’ intersex / VSC people (especially children / minors). They deliver fundamentally important education across all levels, including working with academics, guest lecturing at universities and delivering expert key note speakers, forums, workshops and panels. Their work with the media is extensive. They administer some vital online support groups, as well as offer one to one peer support to intersex individuals as well as to parents and carers. They work with and are advocated by many professionals, parliamentarians, organisations: women’s, children’s, mens and LGBT+ organisations to list but a few.
Intersexioni was founded in 2013 by a group of volunteer activists and scholars interested in the intersectionalities between different issues, with a special focus on intersex human rights.
Intersexioni was founded in March 2013 by volunteer organizers and scholars of different backgrounds and experiences. Since the beginning, their main focus has been the advocacy for intersex human rights. They have been the first group in Italy to analyze the intersex issues in a scientific and academic way, and to advocate for intersex rights, to lobby, to inform, and to disseminate as well, and, up to this day, we are the only one. The main reason for which this group was founded was to advocate and analyze the logic of discrimination, inequality, domination and oppression over different groups by adopting an intersectional approach.
The choice of the group’s name ‘intersexioni’ – that means ‘intersections’ with the X of ‘intersex’, instead of the Z of the italian word ‘intersezioni’ –reflects their goal to bring and join together the intersectionalities between different forms of discrimination based on sex characteristics, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnic and somatic characteristics; the intersection of sexism, racism, and classism; sex/gender–based violence, bullying, homo–transphobia, and intersex–phobia; the intrinsic hierarchies on a dualistic vision of the world.
Their overall mission was and is to analyze and deconstruct the logic of domination and oppression, with the goal to promote the respect of the fundamental rights of every living being in order to build a better, more equal, fair, and welcoming society.
ITANZ was formed in 1996. They are strongly involved in regional and global intersex networks, on activism and on research.
ITANZ was formed in 1996. They are strongly involved in regional and global intersex networks, on activism and on research. Locally, they are currently working with the Ministry of Health on health pathways for intersex children as well as on clinic reference groups for intersex/VSC people. They are also advocating on statistics and registration. They are part of a national network of rainbow organizations supporting youth, and they have developed a new family focused resource. They also participated in an intersex chapter in a human rights work national report.
Intersex Ísland was founded June 2014 to tackle the utter lack of visibility of intersex people in Iceland.
Intersex Ísland was founded June 2014. The association is working closely with OII Europe, one of the OII Europe Co–Chair being from Intersex Ísland. They also have several OII Europe brochures translated in Icelandic. They work closely with Samtakanna 78, the national queer organization, and with Amnesty International in a campaign for intersex rights in Iceland. They do awareness raising through media interviews and public screenings, as well as marches.
Founded originally as OII-USA in 2010 by intersex Latina activist Hida Viloria, ICE is a multi-gendered, multi-orientation, multi-racial NGO working for the human rights of intersex people, particularly the rights to bodily integrity, self-determination, legal recognition, and de-pathologization of intersex traits and non-binary identities in medicine and society.
Founded originally as OII-USA in 2010 by intersex Latina activist Hida Viloria, ICE is a multi-gendered, multi-orientation, multi-racial NGO working for the human rights of intersex people, particularly the rights to bodily integrity, self-determination, legal recognition, and de-pathologization of intersex traits and non-binary identities in medicine and society. ICE strives to create a world where all intersex people are viewed and treated equally by: providing peer support and rights-based information to intersex individuals; advocating for legal recognition and protection from discrimination; and providing information about the goals of the intersex advocacy community and the life experiences of intersex people from diverse communities to all those working with or allied to intersex people. In 2013, the group published the groundbreaking resource “Your Beautiful Child: Information for Parents,” a resource for parents of children born with variations of sex anatomy that uses equality-based, non-stigmatizing language. The resource is being used by health care professionals throughout the U.S. and has been adapted for distribution throughout Australia.
EMERGE is a project that creates social impact through visual artistry. EMERGE is the culmination of Sean Saifa Wall’s achievements to date that reflect his documentation of community and history through art. EMERGE is also the parent project for a series of socially motivated projects that will raise awareness of inequity and juxtapose that with resilience.
The funded project, Letters to an Unborn Son (LUS), is a multi-media performance focusing on Saifa and his father, who was incarcerated for four years and died while in prison from AIDS-related complications. LUS draws from letters that he sent during that time to his wife and Saifa, who was assigned female at birth and later transitioned to male. LUS intends to educate people about the experiences of those born with intersex bodies and discuss intersectional issues related to institutional racism, incarceration, poverty, state violence against non-normative bodies, and addiction. Funding will enable EMERGE to develop and stage a performance in Atlanta, as well as start work on the video component of the project.
Check out our 2016 Intersex Awareness Day video, featuring Sean Saifa Wall:
Intersex Ukraine was founded in 2013 by Julia, an intersex woman, to address social isolation and in Ukraine.
Intersex Ukraine was founded in 2013. They have since developed tools for awareness–raising such as a brochure in Ukrainian (the second expanded edition was recently published): “Who Are Intersexes And How To Be Full Members Of Society Without Losing Themselves” with a lot of social and legal information. Their awareness raising manifests itself as well in a first photo exhibitions about intersex people, and a first documentary on the same topic in the national Ukrainian TV. They also created a short public video about intersex rights, that was presented by two national TV stations and then performed as a social video in a cinema in Kiev, for a week, before each screening. They are also involved in international advocacy, participating or being represented in the CEDAW press conference as well as in the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights “Meeting with partners”. They have strong European connexions, participating in the European Intersex Community Event as well as the ILGA Europe Conference.
Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org is an international intersex human rights NGO based in Switzerland.
Zwischengeschlecht.org / StopIGM.org is an international intersex human rights NGO based in Switzerland. It was co-founded in 2007 by Daniela Truffer, an intersex person and IGM survivor, and her partner, Markus Bauer.
The NGO confronts and exposes perpetrators and accessories of intersex genital mutilation (IGM), promotes human rights, and raises awareness of intersex and IGM practices.
StopIGM.org has authored and co-authored soon 20 international NGO reports, resulting in UN treaty bodies globally condemning IGM as a harmful practice, torture and other violations of international law. It supports intersex persons seeking redress and justice, has organised over 100 nonviolent protests in 7 European countries and was featured in over 200 media reports around the globe.
