…n, president of OII Australia, welcomed Tony saying that, I warmly welcome Tony Briffa to OII Australia and in becoming a member of OII Australia to the broader international activities of OII. Tony is a well-known and long-time activist for intersex rights. Tony has also had much wider engagement on broader community issues in the role of Mayor of Hobson’s bay. Tony’s roles as both a respected activist and an administrator bring significant exper…
…e Commonwealth government to give further consideration to the evidence of Tony Briffa regarding intersex rights and intersex marriage and to how these issues can be addressed. We thank the Committee for these welcome statements. A dissenting report by Tasmanian Labor Senator Carol Brown also made reference to the same comments, indicating her support. A dissenting report by the Australian Greens recommended removal of “gender specficity” in the B…
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 happened, but I didn’t…
…rsex people and marriage equality as outstanding issues for our community. Tony Briffa: People that are intersex like me are a combination of male and female. We were just born that way. That’s what nature made us. And we should be able to be recognised as a combination of male and female if we want to. Monique Schafter: Councillor Tony Briffa, former Mayor of Hobsons Bay, Victoria, was born intersex. Doctors made the decision the family should ra…
…nternal testes. Rather than go through the process familiar to many gay and lesbian people of coming out to oneself and then others, Briffa had to be told about being intersex by someone else. Tony Briffa talks about disclosure in this interview by Benjamin Riley of the Star Observer newspaper. More information Read the interview at the Star Observer…
…y proud Malta is the first country to stand up and put a stop to it,” says Tony who was born with Partial Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome. Tony discusses the mental health impact of early surgical intervention, and the need to recognise all kinds of intersex gender identities – including both ‘M and F’ for Tony. More information Calleja, Claudia. “‘Healthy Hermaphrodite’ Is Both Man and Woman.” Times of Malta. 16 February 2015. OII Australia. We w…
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 wasn’t unt…
…, 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 comfortable having accepted my true self and that I’m not male or female, but both. I’ll continue to live as “Tony” but I’m now at a point in my life where I can celebrate being different. Thankfully my wife, my family…
…Tony, there was much doubt. More information The Age, 1 February 2005: Choosing the right gender The Age, 9 July 2010: Voices of the ‘other’ that need to be heard…
…INTERSEX person and recently elected mayor of Victorian municipality Hobsons Bay Tony Briffa was interviewed by Jon Faine of ABC Radio’s The Conversation Hour. Tony Briffa is the first local government leader publicly known to be intersex. The Conversation Hour with Jon Faine: Tony Briffa interviewed – click to go to the MP3 podcasts download page….
Tony Briffa is interviewed in The Age: Hobsons Bay deputy mayor Tony Briffa is thought to be the only person to describe his sex as “other” in the Victorian Local Governance Association survey of the numbers of males and females in local government. The Altona ward councillor was born with an intersex condition, which caused him to be incorrectly assigned as female as a child. Asked why he described himself as “other” when he fought so hard to be…
…t to make informed decisions. OII Australia fully supports the call made by Tony for these interventions to end. Indeed, this is a core goal of our organisation. More information Briffa, Tony. 2004. ‘Intersex Surgery Disregards Children’s Human Rights’. Nature 428 (April): 695. https://doi.org/10.1038/428695a….
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