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We need to end surgery on intersex infants and children.
Intersex people comprise at least 1-2% of the human population and are born with sex characteristics (gonadal, chromosomal, and hormonal) that are atypical for males and females. Intersex variations can show up in infancy, adolescence, or adulthood. Because of how the medical establishment views intersex bodies, we are subject to medically unnecessary, cosmetic procedures that are meant to change the appearance or sexual function of our genitals. We are survivors of procedures such as clitoral reductions, castration, and vaginoplasties. Such surgeries should be delayed and only done with the full informed consent of the intersex patient.
Lurie Children's Hospital in Chicago, IL should become the first hospital in the United States to end genital normalizing surgeries on intersex children.
Intersex children deserve bodily autonomy.
The world is starting to wake up.
These surgeries have been condemned by the United Nations as human rights violations and three former U.S. surgeon generals have come out against these procedures. In 2018, California passed an intersex affirming resolution, SR110 that urges medical professionals to delay surgeries until a child is old enough to consent. Human Rights Watch in partnership with InterACT, a legal advocacy organization for intersex youth released a detailed report, "I Want to be like Nature Made Me" and the American Academy for Family Physicians (AAFP) published a new policy calling for an end to intersex surgery.
Intersex activists and allies have been fighting for bodily autonomy since the early 1990s and the medical establishment has yet to produce one shred of evidence to support their protocol of early surgical interventions on intersex kids' genitalia and reproductive organs. Together, we need to demand that Lurie Children's--a respected leader in its field--be brave and become the first to #EndIntersexSurgery!
