Congratulation to Christiane Völling. A German court has become the first in the world to find a surgeon guilty of conducting non-consensual surgery on an intersex child.
A formal submission supporting the campaign for marriage equality.
We are pleased to report that the Australian Passport Office, in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, has made first steps in reforming its practices in relation to what it calls ‘sex and gender diverse’ people. We thank them for this. It should be noted, though that DFAT’s new position is essentially a return…
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The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has released a paper titled Surgery on intersex infants and human rights. We deeply regret the report’s equivocation on surgery to modify the appearance of intersex infants and children. The report acknowledges such interventions without commenting on their necessity or lifelong consequences. It is available for download here.
According to two regional newspapers, Glenda Graban of Picton, NSW, has persuaded the NSW Health Department to change the name of the NSW Birth Defect Register to something kinder and more humane. Great work, Glenda! It is reported that NSW Minister for Health John Della Bosca has agreed in principle to the change of name,…
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Our submission on the Federal Department of Health & Ageing’s new National Women’s Health Policy.
Our submission on the Australian National Human Rights Consultation.
OII Australia is sensitive towards photographic depictions of intersex individuals. The reasons for OII Australia’s sensitivity are exemplified in this article about non-consensual photography. We can’t help but wonder if the photographic voyeurism, and staff attitudes towards this person’s body, impacted on the quality of care that was given – the person is known to…
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If you are writing about intersex people, our bodies, identities and human rights concerns, this page outlines why we use words the way we do.
There are two fundamental issues that must be considered when considering terminology around intersex. Intersex is a scientific term that describes all differences of sex biology within the animal kingdom that are not hermaphroditic…
From the Sydney Morning Herald of 3rd June, this report by Andrew Darby: Routine operation may be a crime Once routine, now often thought unkind, the cut may also be illegal. Parental consent might not be enough to protect the circumcisers of baby boys from later legal action. In a rare legal analysis of the…
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James Pate, MD has kindly provided us with the following: The first mention of “disorder of sex development” I could find was by CE Ford in 1961 (Ford CE. The cytogenetic analysis of some disorder of sex development. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology. 82:1154-61, 1961 Nov.) Other historical terminology I found was: Disorder of…
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