Books and selected journal articles on intersex issues, including fiction, peer-reviewed papers, and biographies.
A study published in the peer reviewed medical press this month describes the birth of an intersex child as a “challenging clinical emergency”, and finds that the incidence of post traumatic stress symptoms in parents is comparable to that amongst parents of children diagnosed with cancer. OII Australia believes that the framing of the birth…
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Alice Dreger, professor of clinical medical humanities and bioethics at the Northwestern University, USA, writes on hypospadias in Pacific Standard, The Science of Society: the simple idea that a real man has to pee standing up “has put a surprising number of babies under the knife”. Hypospadias is likely more common than widely understood: In…
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Update: We welcome the High Court judgement to recognise Norrie as having “non-specific” gender. We take no pleasure in having to comment on this case, currently before the High Court, Australia’s highest court, which has a hearing likely to be heard on 4 March 2014. However, the case raises the stakes for intersex people in…
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We welcome the publication of guidelines for general practitioners by the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. With our input, it includes a good statement about what constitutes discrimination by family doctors towards intersex people. The statement reads: Intersex people are a distinct group from transgender people and may experience different forms of discrimination….
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In November 2013, Dr Dan Christian Ghattas of OII Germany, together with the Heinrich Böll Foundation, published a preliminary study on the human rights of intersex people in 12 countries around the world, including Australia, along with Belgium, France, Germany, New Zealand, Serbia, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, and Uruguay. While a preliminary study,…
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In the second half of 2013, OII Australia participated in a ground-breaking study by GATE and American Jewish World Service (AJWS) on funding for trans* and intersex community and human rights work. The study, The State of Trans* and Intersex Organizing, was published in December 2013 and the results are somewhat challenging, particularly for intersex…
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We’ve recently seen a book by Alyssa Brugman, entitled “Alex as Well”. We believe that the author has confused intersex with non-binary identities, like genderqueer or bigender. This is often a sign of poor research, or the use of intersex as a mere plot device. Additionally, the depiction of cultural and linguistic minorities is a…
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There are no firm population figures for people with intersex variations, due to stigma, misconceptions, lack of accurate recording of data, arbitrary definitions, and ideological values.
I loved this book. It vividly captures the effects of secrecy and shame on an intersex adolescent, and a family in crisis. It’s compassionately and beautifully written, from the perspective of six key characters: Max the protagonist, his brother, parents, doctor and friend. Unlike Jeffrey Eugenides’s Middlesex, which manages to convey the impression that intersex…
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Our response to a new Victorian Health Department publication on medical decision-making for the treatment of intersex infants, children and adolescents.
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture issued a statement on 1 February 2013 in Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez recognising that intersex people have been subject to non-consensual medical normalisation treatment, and calling for an end to forced sterilisation, forced hormone…
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This paper was updated in September 2013, with a new final “impact” section that reflects the discontinuation of “SGD” and “DSG” terminology by the National LGBTI Health Alliance and many other organisations. We recommend browsing the Videos, Audio and Personal Stories sections of this website to gain familiarity with the diversity of intersex identities, genders,…
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