Guest post by: interACT Board Member, Lynnell Stephanie Long When I was a child, and in the University of Chicago Hospital, I contemplated death more than life. At the age of 14 I was told I was infertile. The doctor told me matter of fact, and never offered any sort of emotional support. I was
MTV has done an amazing thing recently by adding an intersex character to "Faking It!" In said program, the character Lauren Cooper (portrayed by Bailey De Young) has Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. This means that she has XY chromosomes, developed as female, and her body no longer produces hormones so she takes estrogen pills.
Guest post by Pidgeon Pagonis My family’s favorite past-time, or the one they engage in the most, is watching TV. Our apartment featured a TV in the kitchen, my grandmas room, grandpa’s room, and the front-room. Growing up, I watched a LOT of MTV, and I also had really low self-esteem. When I went
By Georgiann Davis, Ph.D. When I was a teenager I phoned The Jerry Springer Show seeking help in resolving my family’s conflict around finances. My working-class family and I saw the show as a legitimate source of assistance. The show didn't return my call, but my search for help was very real. Roughly 20 years later
Hope. Change. Acceptance. Celebration. To me, those are the words I think of as I’m getting ready for Intersex Awareness Day. Intersex people spend much of our lives in a negative loop. Sometime it’s a loop told to us by doctors. Sometimes it’s friends. Or family. Or school. Or society as a whole. Sometimes,
I was nine years old when I asked my mother to verify that I would never have a period -- just like Aunt Kacki. I pointed out passages of "Are You There God, It's Me Margaret," and asked repeatedly if that would happen to me. We had never spoken about Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome, the term
Last week in Cincinnati, Ohio I attended my seventh Androgen Insensitivity – Differences of Sex Development Support Group (AIS-DSD SG) conference and am still basking in the “orchid love.” There is nothing quite like it. About eight years ago I discovered the support group and attended my first conference in Dallas. Mind blown . Not
“Hold on honey,” I imagine myself saying to one of my daughters as I veer from a stream of hurried travelers at the crowded Dallas airport and head toward a desperately needed women’s restroom after a long flight from Boston. “Stay here with daddy for a few minutes while mommy uses the restroom, be right
For the last few years I have written a piece for AIC reflecting on my birthday and I want to do the same this year. It’s hard to know where to start. I come to this birthday with a heavy heart as my long-time colleague and fellow intersex activist Sally Gross will not join me
Yesterday was Intersex Awareness Day. AIC teamed up with Kitty Anderson, Chair of Intersex Iceland, to create a post in which Kitty shares their story of how a small group of people can change the world! Before Intersex Iceland, little else was known besides that one surgery a year was performed to determine an intersex
