Why is today intersex day?
GAYLES.TV.- El Intersex Day of Visibility, October 26, marks the first public demonstration by intersexual people in the US. Morgan Holmes and Max Beck of the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) joined the allies of Transsexual Menace and other organizations, which took place on October 26, 1996 in Boston, Massachusetts, at a conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics.
According to Intersexday.org, almost 1.7% of babies are born with sexual characteristics that do not conform to the typical definitions of male and female sex. This makes being intersex as common as being a redhead!
Being intersexual has to do with biological sexual characteristics of someone. This includes genitals, gonads, hormone levels and chromosomal patterns. It is different from sexual orientation and gender identity; an intersex person can be heterosexual, gay, lesbian, bisexual or asexual and can be female, male, both or both.
The various surgeries and treatments to which intersex children are subjected to "correct" their sex and appearance are often irreversible and can cause permanent sterility and lifelong pain; incontinence, loss of sexual sensitivity and psychological suffering.
In general, there are no medical reasons for performing these procedures that have many possible serious negative effects on children. Carrying out these procedures without consent violates human rights.
Intersex people should be able to decide for themselves whether or not to undergo such procedures when they are old enough to make their own decisions with due information.
La Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has published a statement and launched a new website that promotes intersex visibility, asking governments to protect intersex children and adults from harm.
According to the words of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein: "Because their bodies do not meet the typical definitions of masculine or feminine, intersex children or adults are frequently subjected to forced sterilization and irreversible surgeries and suffer discrimination in schools, at work and elsewhere."
Source: Intersexday.org
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