What intersex activists are fighting for

Brut America

They were born intersex, with sexual anatomies that weren't distinctly male or female.  "Every Body," a documentary premiering at the Tribeca Festival, tells the story of three intersex activists fighting against non-consensual surgery ...

Transcript

00:00Intersex people's bodies don't need to be what is considered corrected or normalized.

00:05This whole door opens and you're like, whoa, like, it's possible to accept myself.

00:13My body proves that black and white is not a way to see the world.

00:31We don't fall neatly into that male-female box.

00:35I was born intersex, and although I was born with a vagina, I was also born with internal testes.

00:42I grew up thinking that I was inherently unlovable simply for existing in the world.

00:47No one should be raised to feel that way.

00:49That's something that the other letters within the LGBTQIA plus acronym, I'm sure can identify with.

01:00There's a widely quoted statistic that intersex is 2% of the population, but I think it's actually more.

01:13And we cannot quantify people's bodies and experiences.

01:17So I hope that with more awareness, more visibility, people will start to really question their own bodies and their own experiences

01:25and to really have acceptance around just how different and how beautiful we are on this human spectrum.

01:39I was raised in a household where I am intersex and no one even knew, even my brother.

01:45And shrouding someone's entire identity in secrecy implies that there's something wrong with that identity.

01:53So in my opinion, if there's nothing shameful about our existence, then why do we need to keep it a secret?

02:00Once I came out as intersex and once I started talking to other intersex people,

02:04just the relief of knowing that there's other people like myself and other people fighting for the human rights of people like me,

02:14it really can't be put into words.

02:24Often intersex people are corrected or fixed because of bias that exists in the medical community.

02:37Bias toward gender conformity or bias toward heterosexuality.

02:44If you want the truth, I don't feel regret about it because I did the best I could do based on what I knew.

02:50There are at least 30 to 40 intersex variations.

02:54And unless there's a variation like where there's the bladders outside of the body

03:03or there's the risk of salt wasting that prompts a medical emergency,

03:07intersex people's bodies don't need to be what is considered corrected or normalized.

03:13Unfortunately, many intersex people have undergone medical interventions that were never necessary in the first place.

03:21I was whole to begin with, and in trying to fix me, they in fact broke me and created problems that didn't exist in the first place.

03:29They told my mom, you have a child that we feel is abnormal.

03:43And this body was a problem that needed to be fixed.

03:46Fixed and that I should never tell anyone about it.

03:49It's therapeutically highly desirable to have them surgically corrected at an early age.

03:53I just remember like a lot of pain.

03:57I have a ton of hope for our community.

04:00We're finally seeing media representation, political representation,

04:04and we've already seen non-consensual and medically unnecessary surgeries banned fully in other countries around the world.

04:11So I think this is just the beginning.

04:14You're going to see a whole lot more of us.

04:15I think when people see the documentary, it becomes a no brainer.

04:19They're like, wow, that is really messed up what has happened to this community.

04:24For years, anyone with a pulse and a brain, because there are some without brains,

04:29will want to rally for our cause and want to fight for our justice and liberation.

04:37My hope is that with this documentary and then with increased activism and more people coming out and being visible,

04:45that people would realize that sex and gender are on a spectrum.

04:52We really need to really open our eyes and really get curious

04:56and really support people whose bodies and experiences are outside of the gender binary.

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