Mani Bruce Mitchell speaks at Health in Difference, 7th National LGBTI Health Conference, Sydney, May 2010

New Zealand intersex activist Mani Bruce Mitchell attended the National LGBT Health Alliance conference Health in Difference, Doing Diversity in Sydney from 29th April to 1st May.

Health in Difference, Doing Diversity is the seventh such conference and it is the first to include intersex.

Mani Bruce Mitchell, "I am not a monster", by Rebecca Swan for her project "Assume Nothing". Photograph © copyright Rebecca Swan 2010 and reproduced by kind permission of Mani Bruce Mitchell and Rebecca Swan.

Mani speaks about the early days of ISNA - the Intersex Society of North America. She is depicted with fellow ISNA members in the slide behind her. ISNA's intersex membership was later thrown out of the organization when Bo Laurent aka Cheryl Chase and Alice Dreger aided and abetted the pathologization of intersex by creating the DSD concept - Disorders of Sex Development - and turned ISNA into the Accord Alliance, betraying ISNA's original ideals. Laurent aka Chase is at far left. Photograph © copyright Angela Erde 2010.

Mani Bruce Mitchell, New Zealand intersex activist, apologizes for the late, notorious John Money, the New Zealand-born sexologist who invented various theories of gender to justify his proposed treatments for intersex newborns. His view that nurture could overturn nature resulted in contentious assignments and miserable lives for many intersex. Photograph © copyright Angela Erde 2010.

Mani listens to Gina Wilson, president of OII Australia, the Australian affiliate of Organisation Internationale des Intersexués, responding to a question during the conference plenary panel session. Photograph © copyright Angela Erde 2010.

Members of OII Australia attended and OII Australia president Gina Wilson co-presented Intersex Health 101: An Introduction to Intersex, Our Special Needs and their Legal Aspects with Rosslyn Mayne of ICLC – the Inner City Legal Centre. Gina also participated in the final plenary of the conference alongside Mani Bruce Mitchell and others.

External links:

Mani Bruce Mitchell, Intersex Awareness New Zealand
National LGBT Health Alliance
Rebecca Swan