Article about access to sport, and competing in sporting activities. Read our briefing page.
The Darlington Statement is a joint consensus statement by Australian and Aotearoa/New Zealand intersex organisations and independent advocates, agreed in March 2017. It sets out the priorities and calls to action by the intersex human rights movement in our countries.
Body shaming is an intersex issue, perhaps even more than any other issue. This post intersperses quotations about intersex infants and children with quotations about the bodies of public figures.
Much of the reporting on some women athletes participating in the Rio Olympics is insupportable. It makes assumptions about their bodies, sex, gender identity and expressions that is deeply concerning. Much reporting fails to acknowledge the lack of scientific evidence for body policing by sporting institutions, and the deep personal cost of such assumptions, which…
Read more →
OII Australia and eight partner organisations collaborated in Rainbow Votes, coordinated by Corey Irlam. The Rainbow Votes coalition appreciates the comprehensive responses by the Australian Greens, Australian Labor Party and Liberal National Coalition to our 2016 LGBTI election survey. Members of the Rainbow Votes coalition of LGBTI rights and health organisations have assessed the content…
Read more →
Last November/December, I was very kindly invited to Geneva for a meeting with Dainius Pūras, the UN Special Rapporteur on health, in connection with a report now published on sport and healthy lifestyles and the right to health. The report (A/HRC/32/33) is an important one, particularly given an exemption in federal Australian anti-discrimination law that…
Read more →
In the past few weeks, new IOC policy positions on both gender identity and sex characteristics have been published. The statements have received widespread media coverage, focused mostly on improved (albeit imperfect) access to competition for trans athletes. The IOC “consensus meeting” policy paper is dated November 2015, and it contains two statements, one entitled…
Read more →
Big congratulations to Dutee Chand, and to Payoshni Mitra and Katrina Karkazis, for winning a case against the IAAF before the Court of Arbitration for Sport, Lausanne.
We invite you to consider signing this petition on the exclusion of women with high natural levels of testosterone from participating in competitive sport. OII Australia has previously reported how several elite women athletes have been subjected to “partial clitoridectomies” and sterilisation in order to compete, in a process that is clearly coercive. We urge…
Read more →
The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism this month contains a report on research by the International Association of Athletics Federations’ Medical and Anti-Doping Department and Commission, and others. It states that there is “no clear scientific evidence” for current policies excluding elite intersex women athletes from competitive sport on the basis of high androgen…
Read more →
We are disturbed by reports that Indian woman athlete Dutee Chand has been denied a position in the Indian Commonwealth Games team, on the basis of a test result showing elevated natural levels of blood testosterone. It also appears that Chand discovered the news via press reports, and not directly from sports or medical authorities….
Read more →
The British Medical Journal has today published an article on the current policies of the IOC, IAAF and FIFA, reporting that several women have recently been coerced into “partial clitoridectomies” and gonadectomies (removal of gonads) in order to compete. Partial clitoridectomies/clitorectomies are understood to be a form of Female Genital Mutilation. The authors note that…
Read more →
Joint statement by Transgender Victoria and OII Australia on the new Anti-Homphobia & Inclusion Framework for Australian Sports. We welcome Wednesday’s publication of the anti-homophobia policy, “Anti-Homophobia & Inclusion Framework For Australian Sports”. We welcome the intention to address issues facing trans and gender diverse people due to their gender identity, and intersex people due…
Read more →
You must be logged in to post a comment.