Councillor Tony Briffa JP has joined OII Australia. Tony has been working as an intersex activist for 15 years; along with Michael Noble and Chris Somers XXY, our vice president, this means that all of Australia’s first intersex activists are members of OII Australia. A deep commitment to Tony’s local community saw Tony re-elected as a genuine independent Councillor in the City of Hobsons Bay, Victoria, in 2012, after first being…
The Senate of Australia is currently engaged in an inquiry on the recognition of foreign same-sex marriages. Tony Briffa married Manja last year, in New Zealand, in a marriage that is not recognised as either opposite sex, nor same-sex, marriage. Tony wrote a personal submission to the inquiry, which OII Australia supported. Tony spoke at a hearing of the Senate inquiry in Melbourne on 21 August 2014, and the Senate Committee reported on 25…
Five years ago today, Organisation Intersex International Australia Limited was officially registered by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission as a not-for-profit company. We later obtained status as a Public Benevolent Institution, and we remain a volunteer-run organisation, without core funding, nor any significant public or philanthropic funding. Registration followed a dialogue initially established between Karin Gottschalk…
I am a combination of male and female. That is the way that nature made me. And there’s nothing wrong with that. OII Australia and AISSGA board member Tony Briffa appeared in a segment on intersex, trans and gender diverse people tonight on ABC’s 7.30 current affairs programme and a matching news article. Tony did a brilliant job at explaining some of the issues that intersex people face, and raised both the non-consensual…
Rachel Cook in MCV/Gay News Network interviews Tony Briffa in a great extended review of Tony’s life and work, published today. On finding out about Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome and taking testosterone: At the age of 29, (after she had been in a straight marriage with a man for two years from 19 to 21 and after coming out as a lesbian at 26), Briffa was told the truth about her condition. “I had some idea about what had…
Tony and Manja speak on marriage equality at a rally in Melbourne, 2014. Tony Briffa, our Vice President, is getting married to Manja today in council chambers in Dunedin, NZ. Tony is a Councillor and former Mayor of Hobsons Bay, Victoria. We share Tony and Manja’s excitement! We hope that today is beautiful for both Tony and Manja and we wish them heartfelt best wishes for a wonderful future together. Love and hugs from everyone in OII…
Morgan and Tony at the federal parliament in March 2014, about to hear the first Senate speeches on intersex health and human rights, following publication of a report of an inquiry on the involuntary or coerced sterilisation of intersex people in Australia National Intersex Organisation Finally Achieves Funding for Part Time Staff The Board of OII Australia is excited to announce that, after many years of operating entirely through the…
Tony Briffa writes on becoming mayor of Hobsons Bay, Victoria. Tony Briffa has written for the Intersex Day Project on becoming the world’s first openly intersex elected public official. In 2009 and 2010 I was elected to the position of Deputy Mayor, and in 2011 I was elected Mayor. I am currently an elected Councillor. This all means that I became the first publicly ‘out’ intersex person elected to office anywhere in the world, but it…
“Coming out” means something different for people with intersex variations, in contrast to the experience of LGB and trans/gender diverse people. Throughout childhood Briffa learned, often one piece at a time, the details of the intersex variation Briffa was born with: at five, that Briffa couldn’t have children; at 11, that Briffa wouldn’t have periods; not long after that, that Briffa had internal testes. Rather than go through…
Tony Briffa has been interviewed by Claudia Calleja of the Times of Malta, while a Gender Identity Gender Expression and Sex Characteristics Bill proceeds through that nation’s parliament. Tony and OII Australia take a keen interest in Maltese developments: our former Vice-President is a dual national and her parents were both born in Malta; and the Bill will create a world-first right to children’s physical integrity. The draft…
From 1 December 2016, we have two joint and philanthropically-funded co-executive directors, each paid to work on a part-time basis: Morgan Carpenter and Tony Briffa. Morgan Carpenter JP – Co-Executive Director Articles by Morgan Articles about Morgan Morgan’s website Morgan Carpenter was elected to the role of president in 2013 and joined Tony Briffa as co-chair from November 2015. A founding director, Morgan was diagnosed late,…
Tony Briffa appears in an article in the “Body and Soul” magazine today, in the Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Mail (QLD), Sunday Mail (SA), Sunday Territorian, Sunday Times and the Sunday Tasmanian. It’s based on Tony’s own words, and we’re proud of Tony for doing this! It’s a challenge living in a society that’s divided so clearly into men and women. But I feel very…