Awareness
Every year on November 8th we recognize Intersex Day of Remembrance, also known as Intersex Solidarity Day. We use this time to recognize and bring awareness to the harm perpetuated towards the Intersex community, but also to acknowledge their strength and resilience. The Intersex community has long had a unique and wonderful bond with the broader 2SLGBTQIA+ community, yet their unique struggles for basic freedoms and rights are often dismissed. Intersex Day of Remembrance is a reminder for us outside of the Intersex community to listen, learn, and reaffirm our commitments to fighting for Intersex rights wherever we can.
The date of November 8th was chosen to commemorate the birthday of Herculine Barbin, a femme Intersex person who lived in 19th-century France. She was assigned female at birth, however, after she confessed to a priest that she had fallen in love with a woman, he requested her permission to have a doctor examine her. After it was subsequently discovered she was Intersex, a legal decision was declare her male. Barbin moved to Paris, where she began to write her memoirs while living in poverty. Her memoirs were later translated by Michael Foucault in 1980, bringing her feelings of having been ‘disinherited’ and forced under a ‘ridiculous inquisition’ to the attention of a broad audience. Her memoirs describe that Barbin considered herself an ‘exceptional woman’ but a woman nonetheless, regardless of what society thought. She would eventually end her own life eight years after the legal decision, but her memory would live on, not only through Intersex Day of Remembrance but also through references to her life in places such as Judith Butler’s renowned work Gender Trouble.
Intersex Awareness Day (which falls on October 26th) tends to be the more widely known day in North America, but Herculine Barbin’s story perfectly encapsulates exactly why Intersex Day of Remembrance is so critical of an occasion. Intersex people face violence on both an individual and systemic level that can be fatal, and so Intersex Day of Remembrance is an occasion for us to reflect on those affected by this cruelty and work towards ending it for good.
Prejudice against Intersex people (and thus, the focus the community’s activism often takes) manifests in a multitude of different forms. These can include ‘corrective’ and irreversible surgery performed on children far too young to give informed consent, a lack of legal recognition, equity, and protections from discrimination, and bigotry from individuals as well as the overall social system. Intersex activists have tirelessly fought against all of these issues and countless more for decades, and we also take time on Intersex Day of Remembrance to commemorate their incredible work.
Intersex people have existed since the dawn of humankind, living, loving, and finding joy just like any other person, and they’ve contributed immensely to the advancement of activism in all sorts of communities. Jim Sinclair, for instance, has done incredible work in the Neurodiversity movement. Xe was the first person to articulate the position of ‘Autism rights,’ and xyr anti-cure for Autism essay “Don’t Mourn for Us” is widely considered to be a foundational text in that movement. Xe was also the first documented Autistic person to reject the concept of ‘person-first language.’ Another pioneering Intersex activist is Gigi Raven Wilbur, who identifies as a bisexual ‘hermaphrodite,’ and was one of the three Bi+ folks who organized the very first Celebrate Bisexuality+ Day.
The fight for Intersex rights is by no means constrained to November 8th but must be continued tirelessly throughout the entire year to ensure progress continues to eclipse ignorance. Intersex people are now and forevermore a beautiful, diverse, and tenacious community, and we must make sure to listen to their voices as we work towards a brighter future.
