By Ginna B. & Geoffrey W., Co-Executive Directors
Three years ago, GSA Network partnered with interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth to create a resource on how to make your GSA club intersex friendly. The first tip on that resource is to “remember the I” in the LGBTQI+ acronym. As a broader movement, we could all use this reminder, especially at a time when our community is under attack.
With the leaked HHS memo that narrowly defines a person’s sex “as either male or female, unchangeable, and determined by the genitals a person is born with,” our trans, gender non conforming, and intersex siblings fear that their existence could be erased in the eyes of the federal government. As the dialogue has grown in the LGBTQI+ movement around how to resist both the definition and the Administration, the conversation has largely focused on trans and non binary folks without also talking about the impact on intersex folks. It has forgotten the “I.”
A discussion about refusing to be erased has inadvertently erased our intersex members from the conversation. We have a chance to remedy that by taking action today on Intersex Awareness Day. InterACT member Alicia Roth Weigel’s poignant OpEd in the New York Times highlights some of the impacts the HHS memo would have on intersex folks. InterACT’s website, and social media have resources and printable posters to help raise awareness about the intersex community. InterACT’s newest website, 4intersex.org, is a key resource designed for allies to show up #4intersex.