October the 26th - Intersex Awareness Day26 Oct 2017
1.7% - 2.0% of the population are born physically intersex - where sex chromosome composition, reproductive or sexual anatomy are neither all male nor all female. Which makes being physically intersex as common as having red hair (1%-2%.) (A. Fausto-Sterling, (2000))
Today, October the 26th is Intersex Awareness. It falls on this day each year as this marks the first public demonstration by Intersex people in North America in 1996.
They marched for the right to choose when to have a ‘normalising’ operation in their own time and to put a stop to doctors making a decision on what gender the intersex person should be. Intersex Awareness Day seeks to inform people that intersex people do not need to be ‘fixed’, to open the conversation around intersex to break the stigma for those who are intersex. It is an international day of grass-roots action to end shame, secrecy and unwanted genital cosmetic surgeries on intersex children. There is also Intersex Solidarity Day on November 8, the day is also known as Intersex Day of Remembrance, and this day is another internationally observed civil awareness day that seeks to highlight the issues faced by those who are intersex.
iCAAD’s Healing Trauma in the LGBTQ+ Community event will be exploring the statistics of people born as intersex and the historical attitudes towards intersex births, as well as some of the main associated traumas. We will also be discussing possible therapeutic solutions to best serve our clients from this community. This event is supported by Resort 12, and will take place at the Royal Garden Hotel on the 25th November.
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