Intersex Awareness Day on October 26

by Rex Apps

The annual Intersex Awareness Day will be celebrated on Wednesday, October 26. This is the date back in 1996 when the first public demonstration of intersex people took place in Boston, MA at the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

At that time, the now defunct Intersex Society of North America and their allies demonstrated and shared their pains denouncing non-consensual infant genital surgery, and demanding the medical industries to take notice. Sadly, doctors dismissed the activities as a vocal minority in a New York Times article the following year.

Intersex Awareness Day highlights the fact that intersex people face violence, discrimination, stigma, harassment and persecution on account of their characteristics, which do not fit the binary notion of typical male or female bodies. Further, we are reminded that all people everywhere are created equal and should be afforded equal dignity and respect regardless of their sex characteristics.

For more information, you can check out intersexday.org.