![a pink and white orchid, close up view](https://i0.wp.com/ihra.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/iad2013-cine.jpg?fit=300%2C168&ssl=1)
Intersex Awareness Day, 2013
Here are this year’s Intersex Awareness Day words, by Morgan Carpenter, OII Australia president.
For an introduction to these issues, see our page on bodily integrity
Here are this year’s Intersex Awareness Day words, by Morgan Carpenter, OII Australia president.
The Australian Senate’s Community Affairs References Committee today published its long anticipated report, “Involuntary or coerced sterilisation of intersex people”. This is the first federal inquiry or report on intersex issues in Australia, and one of only a few internationally. It was the first and most significant opportunity that we have ever had to raise…
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On 18 June 2013, The Guardian newspaper kindly published an article by OII Australia president Morgan Carpenter on recent progress for intersex people in Australia.
Given a time extension for the Senate Inquiry on involuntary or coerced sterilisation, and also a rapidly changing context due to new information, we took the opportunity to make a concluding submission to the Senate Committee on Community Affairs.
This 2008 case before the Family Court of Australia saw a request for confirmation of sterilisation associated with a changed sex of rearing in a 4-year old. The case is entitled, Re: Lesley (Special Medical Procedure) [2008] FamCA 1226. The judge in the case reports at length on affidavits supplied by the paediatric surgeons and…
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We welcome the Health Minister’s announcement today that Medicare will be gender and sex neutral. For intersex people, the fact that our bodies do not conform to sex norms means that the healthcare issues we face sometimes do not conform to the way medical services and procedures have been defined, and made available, by Medicare….
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It’s time to stop. In 2013, cosmetic genital surgeries still take place on intersex infants in Australia to make them “appear normal”. The surgeries are carried out primarily for social reasons: fears of family and social stigma. Clinicians themselves acknowledge that there is no firm evidence of good outcomes, especially for sexual function and sensation….
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The Australian Senate is currently conducting an Inquiry into the involuntary or coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities and intersex people. Two recent submissions by the Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group (APEG) and the Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne (RCH) to the Inquiry offer some surprising admissions: medical interventions take place for social rationales, sometimes portrayed as…
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The Senate’s Community Affairs Committee has announced that the final report of its inquiry on the involuntary and coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities will now be split into two reports. The first report, in relation to people with disabilities, will be released on the scheduled date of 17 July. A second report, focusing on…
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Here we look in detail at a case selected by the Chief Justice for mention in her February 2013 submission to the current Senate inquiry into the involuntary or coerced sterilisation of people with disabilities, and intersex people. The case is entitled, In the Matter of the Welfare of a child A (1993) FLC 92-402…
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We have made a fourth submission to the Senate Inquiry on involuntary or coerced sterilisation. It follows a submission by the Australasian Paediatric Endocrine Group, a feature article in The Age, and new developments in Europe and the US.
The Age newspaper printed two articles on intersex by journalist Andrew Bock on Thursday this week: It takes more than two and Call to end intersex genital operations. The news article contains a call by OII Australia and the AIS Support Group Australia to end appearance-related genital surgeries on intersex infants. This reflects our call…
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