October 26 is Intersex Awareness Day, a day to learn about the human rights issues faced by intersex people, and promote genuine inclusion for people with intersex variations.
InterAction for Health and Human Rights and Intersex Peer Support Australia provide a range resources aimed at changing current practices and promoting genuine inclusive practice.
Raising The Bar and the Inclusive Practice guide, delivered with the National LGBTI Health Alliance, provide tips and checklists that can assist organisations and individuals in respecting diversity within the intersex population, using appropriate language, helpful terminology, measures of inclusion and much more.
Intersex people have innate variations of sex characteristics that differ from medical and social norms for female or male bodies. Intersex is an umbrella term for a diverse range of different traits that can be determined prenatally, at birth, during puberty and at other times. People with intersex variations grow up to express diverse identities, including LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ identities.
Raising the Bar invites individuals and organisations to understand some of the more common intersex variations, such as androgen insensitivity, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, 47 XXY, and 5α reductase deficiency.
In February this year, Victoria introduced laws protecting children from unnecessary medical intervention, which were resoundingly welcomed by intersex advocates and people with lived experience.
The reforms follow decades of advocacy by intersex people and community organisations, and build on similar protections introduced in the ACT in 2023. Victoria remains the only state to introduce such protections.
You can find more information about intersex people, lives and advocacy at interaction.org.au
