Intersex Awareness Day – 26 October 2022

26/10/2022

Intersex Awareness Day is an internationally observed day designed to highlight human rights issues faced by intersex people. Intersex is an umbrella term for natural differences in physical sex traits or reproductive anatomy that do not fit medical norms for female or male bodies.

A major human rights issue faced by intersex people is elective surgery designed to make the person appear more typically female or male. Most surgeries happen before the age of two. Performing surgery at this age removes the individual's choice. Very many intersex people suffer lifelong physical and emotional effects from such interventions. Intersex people also face body shaming and stigmatisation in education, healthcare, sport and work.

The right to determine what happens to their own bodies and living a life without stigma, discrimination, shame and secrecy remain daily struggles for many intersex people.

More information on intersex inclusion and how to be an Intersex Ally can be found here.