8th November, 2017
Intersex Day of Remembrance, also known as Intersex Solidarity Day
Intersex Day of Remembrance, also known as Intersex Solidarity Day, is an internationally observed civil awareness day designed to highlight issues faced by intersex people. It marks the birthday of Herculine Barbin,a French intersex person
The event appears to have begun on November 8, 2005, as Intersex Solidarity Day, following an invitation issued by Joëlle-Circé Laramée, then Canadian spokeswoman for Organisation Intersex International.This Organisation invited organisations and groups and individuals to show solidarity by marking: the life of Herculine Barbin or discussing intersex genital mutilation,the violence of the binary sex and gender system and/or the sexism implicit within the binary construct of sex and gender.
While Intersex Awareness Day on October 26 appears to be celebrated more in English-speaking countries, particularly in North America, Intersex Day of Remembrance has been marked mostly in Europe. Some countries, such as Australia and South Africa, mark both events and the days.
Intersex Day of Remembrance or Intersex Solidarity Day is celebrated internationally,on this day, November 8, as a civil awareness day to highlight human rights issues faced by intersex people.
It also marks the birthday of 19th century French Intersex person, Herculine Barbin, whose memoir was later published by Michel Foucault.
It is an international day of taking grass-root action to end shame, secrecy and unwanted genital cosmetic surgeries on intersex children.
What is intersex?
An intersex person is born with differences in their sexual characteristics — these differences can affect genes, chromosomes, genitalia, reproductive organs, hormones and also things like body hair and how much you sweat.
Differences between intersex and transgender:
The term Intersex is used to refer to a person who is born with ambiguous sexual anatomy that doesn’t allow a medical specialist to assign either male or female sex to the person. In simple words, it means that the reproductive organs, genitalia or sex chromosomes of such people are not exclusively male or female.
According to medical specialists, around 1 in 100 children are born with bodies that are different from standard male and female.
Transgender people are the ones who are born as male or female but are not satisfied with their assigned gender.
Some important facts about Intersex Awareness Day:
- The first public demonstration by intersex people in North America was held on October 26, 1996, outside the venue in Boston, where the American Academy of Pediatrics was holding its annual conference
- The commemoration day began in 2003 with the establishment of a central awareness raising site by Betsy Driver and Emi Koyama
- In the year 2015, Malta became the first country to outlaw surgery on intersex babies.
Intersex people in India face
human rights violations including infanticide and neglect, with significant gaps in protection from mutilation and non-consensual cosmetic medical interventions and protection from discrimination. Cases of infanticide have been reported involving infants with obvious intersex conditions at birth, along with a failure to thrive by infants assigned female.Medical reports suggest that parents in India prefer to assign infants with intersex conditions as male, with surgical interventions taking place when parents can afford them.
India does not have specific laws protecting intersex people from discrimination.
Multiple Indian athletes have been subjected to humiliation, discrimination and loss of work and medals following sex verification.[9] Middle-distance runner Santhi Soundarajan ,who won the silver medal in 800 meter at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha,Quater was stripped of her meda and later attempted suicide.Track athlete Pinki Pramanik was accused by a female roommate of rape and later charged, gender tested and declared male, though she and other medical experts dispute these claims.Such testing is controversial: Indian athlete Dutee Chand won a case against the IAAF in 2015, enabling women athletes with high testosterone levels to compete as women, on the basis that there is no clear evidence of performance benefits. In 2016, sports clinicians Genel, Simpson and de la Chapelle stated, “One of the fundamental recommendations published almost 25 years ago … that athletes born with a disorder of sex development and raised as females be allowed to compete as women remains appropriate”.
For people who need to change gender, the case of National Legal Service Authority vs Union Of India allows this by self determination.Actions in 2015 by gender rights organization Srishti Madurai seek to include intersex people in legislation on gender recognition for transgender people.
We from Turnstone Global has taken an initiative by creating a different wing called ‘Manabi’ to address the social , legal and economical issues of the transgender and Intersex population of WestBengal
