What is Intersex Awareness Day?
October 26, 1996 marks the anniversary of the first public demonstration by intersex people in the United States. Members of the now defunct Intersex Society of North America and their allies arrived in Boston, MA at the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics. They demonstrated and shared their pain in a very public way, denouncing non-consensual infant genital surgeries and demanding the medical industry take notice. Doctors dismissed the activists as a vocal minority in a 1997 New York Times article covering the intersex action. The tides are slowly changing.
TODAY, intersex people and our allies are following in their footsteps, organizing in cities around the U.S., and around the world.
In 2018, LGBT advocacy group Voices 4, intersex supermodel Hanne Gaby Odiele, Intersex Justice Project, and interACT teamed up in New York City to protest Dr. Dix Poppas, a leader in performing clitoral surgeries on minors, who came under fire for using vibrators on young intersex children to test his surgical results. Poppas faced no discipline and still practices at Cornell. In August 2018, he quoted that he “should have videotaped” the tests. Intersex Justice Project led their third action at Lurie Children’s in Chicago, calling for the institution to #EndIntersexSurgery. In 2020, the institution finally issued an apology.
In 2022, the Department of State expressed that governments are responsible for protecting the human rights of intersex individuals, and pledged solidarity with intersex advocates and activists.
Read more about the day’s history from Besty Driver, an early openly intersex elected official in the U.S.
Read our FAQ page for more information about intersex basics. And, here’s a handy list of 26 things you can do for Intersex Awareness Day.
Intersex Awareness Day Week 2024
On Intersex Awareness Day, we ask the world to support intersex people in our right to live authentically and unapologetically. But one day hasn’t been enough—so welcome to #IntersexAwarenessWeek!
Access our full social media toolkit of #IntersexAwarenessWeek graphics & sample tweets here.
Intersex Awareness Week Educational Toolkit
New Resource! Reproductive justice matters to intersex people, too—who deserve the freedom to make our own decisions about our bodies. Did you know some intersex people are still forcibly sterilized? When babies undergo medically unnecessary “normalizing” operations, like removing gonads that don’t match their assigned sex, they are stripped of their right to fertility in the future.
Reproductive rights mean more than the right to be free from unwanted pregnancy. We can’t forget reproductive justice—the right to preserve fertility, have children & be supported if we so choose. Intersex people are often left out of these conversations due to misconceptions about our bodies and our fertility. But everyone deserves the freedom to make informed decisions about their own reproductive health.
Intersex Awareness Day 2023
This year we’re highlighting Medical Voices for Intersex Choices.
Our question to providers: what kind of care do you want to provide intersex patients?
Our question to intersex patients: what kind of healthcare do you need and deserve?
Access our full social media toolkit of #IAD2023 graphics & sample tweets here.
Intersex Awareness Day 2022
This year our allies can educate the world on intersex lives and needs!
Access our full social media toolkit of #BornBeyondBoxes graphics & sample tweets here.
Intersex Variations Glossary
A new resource free to download or print that offers people-centered definitions of intersex variations free from stigma and unnecessary gendering.
Intersex Awareness Day: A Demonstration that Inspired a Movement
interACT member Marissa tells a short history of Intersex Awareness Day and the movement that brought us to 2022.
“IAD is a day to recognize the strength and diversity of human experience and biology. It’s not new – it actually marks an event that took place 26 years in the past. The celebration of Intersex Awareness Day was created by the intersex activists Emi Koyama and Betsy Driver to commemorate several individuals’ brave protest 26 years ago…”
Talkin’ Bout My Variation
Justin
Justin talks about hypospadias and PAIS—and how much all intersex people’s experiences vary! Either way, we all deserve better treatment. Listen on TikTok!
Irene
Irene shares her journey of discovering she has XY chromosomes and how being intersex is what made her love her body. Check out her TikTok on her story and on loving intersex community!
Mari
We talk a lot about chromosomes, gonads & genitalia as being intersex — but hormone variations can be too! Mari explains it all in their Instagram reel and TikTok!
Intersex Awareness Day 2020
This year, our intersex youth, allies, and community members created an essay series exploring health topics affecting intersex adults. Read it here.
Intersex Awareness Day Instagram Graphics
Celebrate and spread awareness by downloading and sharing #IntersexAwarenessDay graphics!
Download our full social media toolkit of #MyIntersexBody graphics here.
The Genders & Sexualities Alliance Network, in collaboration with our interACT Youth Program, published a resource guide on How to Make Your GSA Intersex Friendly. This two-page guide lists five direct actions GSAs can take to become more Intersex friendly and provides supporting information and links to online resources to help them do so.
interACT worked with Buzzfeed to create the “What it’s like to be intersex” video, which now has over 3 million views. It is a great introductory video for learning about being intersex. The video features interACT Youth members and has been used in workshops and trainings across the globe including the United Nations.
The What We Wish Our Friends Knew brochure was created by interACT Youth members who wanted a resource to help their friends know that there is not ONE intersex experience. The brochure shares how to provide a safe space, respect the privacy and support the emotions of an intersex friend. Other intersex brochures can downloaded from this link as well.
In 2016 in recognition of the 20th anniversary of Intersex Awareness Day,
interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth joined together with the signatories of the attached resolution, including over twenty international intersex-led organizations, calling for intersex people to have control over their medical decisions, to be free from medically unnecessary interventions, and to have access to psychological and peer support.
U.S. Department of State
In Recognition of Intersex Awareness Day
Intersex Awareness Day, the United States stands in solidarity with intersex persons around the world.
We recognize that intersex persons face violence, discrimination, stigma, harassment, and persecution on account of their sex characteristics, which do not fit binary notions of typical male or female bodies.
Intersex persons routinely face forced medical surgeries that are conducted at a young age without free or informed consent. These interventions jeopardize their physical integrity and ability to live free.
Celebrating Our Intersex Youth
One of interACT’s most effective tools in the fight to protect intersex children has become our youth program. We empower and engage young intersex people in awareness raising while helping them to develop leadership and advocacy skills.
Intersex Voices in the Media
Our intersex youth share their experiences:
- Video stories: the lived experiences of intersex people
- Learning I’m Intersex Changed My Life — By Telling Me I’m Not Broken
- 9 Young People on How They Found Out They Are Intersex
- What Dating As An Intersex Person Taught Me About Self-Acceptance
- We Need to End Intersex Erasure in Queer Communities
- Intersex People Deserve Proper Healthcare — So We Created a Hospital Policy Guide
- I Didn’t Know I Was Intersex — Until I Made a Film About an Intersex Character
- ‘LGBTQ&A’ Podcast: River Gallo on Being Intersex
- not invisible: debunking 10 intersex myths
- GLAAD Ambassadors Talk Black And Queer Identities In New Black History Month Video
- This Young Man Wants You To Know What It’s Like Being Intersex
- Are You Still Queer if People Can’t Always Perceive Your Identity?