IAD General List release

[Betsy]

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April 5, 2004

Please redistribute widely
Contacts:
Betsy Driver at Bodies Like Ours
610-258-7466
via email: betsydriver@bodieslikeours.org

Emi Koyama at Intersex Initiative
via email: info@intersexinitiative.org

First Annual Intersex Awareness Day Set For October 26.

Activists and allies have set the date for the first annual Intersex Day of Awareness. Based upon participant voting at our central planning hub http://www.intersex-awareness-day.org, the historic event will occur on October 26, 2004. This date commemorates the action that took place outside of the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics in Boston on October 26, 1996. On that day, ISNA supporters holding the banner “Hermaphrodites With Attitude” and our allies with the Transexual Menace brought attention to the travesty of intersex genital mutilation. The ensuing media coverage made it difficult for the medical establishment to ignore the growing intersex movement.

Intersex Awareness Day is being planned under the umbrella of the Intersex Awareness Day Consortium. It is endorsed and supported by Bodies Like Ours, and Intersex Initiative. A central clearinghouse website for planning purposes has been set up at http://www.intersex-awareness-day.org. At that site, you can see what is happening in your area and sign up for our listserv to help plan this important day. Some events are also happening beyond October 26 to make this a month long celebration of our diversity.

You can help make this historic event a success by sponsoring events within your local organization or community and by signing on your organization to be a co-sponsor without cost. If you are interested in being a financial sponsor, please contact one of the endorsing organizations.

Some ideas suggested at http://www.intersex-awareness-day.org are rallies, film screenings, and non-violent demonstrations outside of hospitals that do cosmetic genital surgeries on intersex children.

For general information about intersex, please visit http://www.bodieslikeours.org http://www.intersexinitiative.org and http://www.isna.org

[Betsy]

(conveniently written for easy cut and paste insertion into local pubs)

Historic Intersex Awareness Day to Happen October 26, 2004


April 5, 2005
For Immediate Release
Contact: Betsy Driver, Bodies Like Ours
Easton, PA
610-258-7466 or 908-447-6671 cell
betsydriver@bodieslikeours.org

Emi Koyama, Intersex Initiative
Portland, OR
info@intersexinitiative.org

Historic Intersex Awareness Day to Happen October 26, 2004

Intersex activists and their allies are planning an historic day to raise awareness about intersex issues. After months of planning, activists from the United States, Canada, and elsewhere have chosen October 26 to hold the first annual Intersex Awareness Day. Intersex Awareness Day is a project of the Intersex Awareness Day Consortium. IADC is endorsed and supported by two of the major intersex organizations in the US—Bodies Like Ours and Intersex Initiative.

The goal of the day is to raise social consciousness over the social and medical treatment of children born with intersex conditions and to help end the shame, secrecy and isolation imposed on these individuals. It is conservatively estimated that one in every 2000 children (or five newborns per day) is born with an intersex condition, and many of them live with physical, emotional and sexual wounds caused by involuntary cosmetic genital surgeries and the secrecy surrounding their lives.

The date was chosen as a way to commemorate the October 26, 1996 action outside of the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics by members of ISNA (Intersex Society of North America) carrying the banner “Hermaphrodites With Attitude” along with members of the Transexual Menace. That action and the ensuing media coverage made it difficult for the medical establishment to ignore the growing intersex movement and the outrage over cosmetic genital surgeries by survivors of this brutal medical “treatment”.

Intersex people and their allies are planning events to mark the day with rallies, film screenings, and non-violent actions outside of hospitals where intersex genital mutilations take place. Most events will take place on October 26, but some local organizers are branching out and are sponsoring events throughout October.

For more information and to become involved, the Intersex Awareness Day Consortium has set up a website at http://www.intersex-awareness-day.org

For general information about intersex issues, visit http://www.bodieslikeours.org http://www.intersexinitiative.org and http://www.isna.org