Intersex Day of Remembrance
Written by Marissa Adams (she/her), Program Coordinator at interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth
Today, November 8th, is Intersex Day of Remembrance, also known as Intersex Day of Solidarity. Intersex Day of Remembrance (and Solidarity) was started in 2005 and is the birthday of Herculine Barbin (1838-1868), a French intersex person whose memoirs were later published. Whereas Intersex Awareness Day (about two weeks earlier) highlights and recognizes the human rights of intersex people, Intersex Day of Remembrance emphasizes global solidarity among intersex individuals, allies, and organizations. Many people in the United States may be most (or only) familiar with intersex movements based in the US; however, it is essential to recognize that there are many intersex organizations all over the world that advocate for the human rights of intersex people and support intersex individuals and their families.
Why a day dedicated to highlighting global solidarity among intersex individuals and organizations? Intersex individuals have variations in sex characteristics, can have any gender identity, and are at least 1.7% of the population. Intersex individuals may not “fit” rigid understandings of sex and gender, nor should they have to. However, unfortunately, across the globe, intersex people are at risk of medical violence and discrimination. For example, intersex individuals often lose their bodily autonomy, especially early in life, and there is also a lack of competent healthcare for intersex adults. Additionally, people with intersex traits may be subjected to ‘sex verification testing,’ and face discrimination in healthcare settings and, notably, in religious institutions (e.g., Sally Gross).
Christians, clergy, and religious institutions have an opportunity to accept and affirm intersex individuals as a natural part of creation. However, they may be hesitant or resistant due to a belief that the Bible says there is only male and female. Notably, theologians have argued it does not. As Austen Hartke explains in Transforming: The Bible and the Lives of Transgender Christians, when the Bible says that God created male and female, “this verse does not discredit other sexes or genders, any more than the verse about the separation of day from night rejects the existence of dawn and dusk, or the separation of land from sea rejects the existence of marshes and estuaries. …Just as we call God the Alpha and the Omega, implying all things from first to last and in between, the author of Genesis 1 is using a poetic device to corral the infinite diversity of creation into categories we can easily understand.”
One theologian, my friend Stephanie Budwey, writes in Religion and Intersex: Perspectives from Science, Law, Culture, and Theology, “Tragically, those with intersex variations have faced a great deal of discrimination in the church due to a theological model that is steeped in sexual dimorphism.” She later writes, “If Christians truly believe that each human being is made in the image of God, it is important to not only embrace multiple images or meanings of bodies, but it is also important to have multiple images of God.” I could not agree more.
Much of what the public or others hear the most about the intersex community is the very real stigma, medical violence, and personal accounts of significant trauma. Fortunately, intersex individuals are more than our trauma, and there is even more to us than just our intersex variations. Intersex joy is also a thing. One of my early mentors, Pidgeon Pagonis says intersex joy for them is: “Being in relationship with others and actually trusting that you're worthy of their time and their love, and appreciation and friendship.”
Importantly, we must remember and be in solidarity with people with intersex variations who are not public about their intersex variation and/or who are not involved with advocacy or education. Just as intersex individuals, colleagues, and organizations work together in solidarity, everyone and organizations alike can also be in solidarity with intersex individuals regardless of the day.