Intersex topics
Human rights andlegal issues Compulsory sterilization Discrimination Human rights reports Legal recognition Malta declaration Medical interventions Sex assignment Sex characteristics (legal term) Yogyakarta Principles
Healthcare and biology Disorders of sex development Genetic diagnosis Definitions Healthcare Medical interventions history Orchidometer Phall-O-Meter Prader scale Quigley scale Sexual differentiation more...
Society and culture Endosex (antonym) Civil society organizations Fictional characters‎ Films Flag Intersex and LGBT Literature People Religion Military US Researchers Sex verification in sports at the Olympic Games Television
History and events History of surgery timeline Intersex Awareness Day Intersex Day of Remembrance International Intersex Forum
Rights by country Argentina Australia Canada Chile China Colombia France Germany Kenya Malta Mexico Nepal New Zealand South Africa Spain Switzerland Taiwan Uganda United Kingdom United States
See also Hermaphrodite Children's rights Genital modification and mutilation Disability rights Gender LGBT Androgyny Anti-gender movement Non-binary Non-binary recognition Queer theory Third gender Transgender Medical ethics Rights Sex Sex differences
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The following is atimeline ofintersex history.

• Sumerian creation myths, 4000 years ago, include the fashioning of a body with atypical sex characteristics.^[1]

• Hippocrates andGalen view sex as a spectrum between men and women, with "many shades in between, including hermaphrodites, a perfect balance of male and female".^[2]
• Aristotle view hermaphrodites as having "doubled or superfluous genitals".^[2]

• Callon of Epidaurus undergoes surgery on ambiguous genitalia, described by Diodorus Siculus.^[3]
• Diophantus of Abae socially transitions and joins the army of Alexander Balas.^[4]

• Diodorus Siculus describes the godHermaphroditus, "born of Hermes and Aphrodite", as having "a physical body which is a combination of that of a man and that of a woman"; he also reports that such children born with such traits are seen as prodigies, able to foretell future events.^[5]

• Ovid describes the birth ofHermaphroditus.^[6]

• Pliny the Elder describes "those who are born of both sex, whom we call hermaphrodites, at one timeandrogyni" (andr-, "man", andgyn-, "woman", from the Greek).^[7]

• Sophist philosopherFavorinus of Arelate is described as being aeunuch (εὐνοῦχος) by birth.^[8][9] Mason and others describe Favorinus as having anintersex trait.^[10]

• Augustine writes inThe Literal Meaning of Genesis that humans were created in two sexes, despite "as happens in some births, in the case of what we call androgynes".^[2]

• Hywel the Good's laws include a definition on the rights of hermaphrodites.^[11]

• According to thecanon lawDecretum Gratiani, "Whether an hermaphrodite may witness a testament, depends on which sex prevails" (Hermafroditus an ad testamentum adhiberi possit, qualitas sexus incalescentis ostendit).^[12][13]
• Peter Cantor, a French Roman Catholic theologian, when writing about sodomy in theDe vitio sodomitico writes "the church allows the hermaphrodite to use the organ by which s/he is most aroused. But should s/he fail with one organ the use of the other can never be permitted and s/he must remain perpetually celibate to avoid any similarity to the role inversion of sodomy, which is detested by God."^[14]

• In hisChronicle, or History of the Two Cities,Otto of Friesing described hermaphrodites as "a mistake of nature", "grouped together with other supposed defects of the body, such as short stature, dark 'Ethiopian' skin, and lameness".^[2]

• Gerald of Wales inTopography of Ireland states "Also, within our time, a woman was seen attending the court in Connaught, who partook of the nature of both sexes, and was a hermaphrodite."^[11]

• Canon lawyerHenry of Segusio argues that a "perfect hermaphrodite" where no sex prevailed should choose their legal gender under oath.^[15][16]
• Henry de Bracton'sDe Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae ("On the Laws and Customs of England", c. 1235)^[17] classifies mankind as "male, female, or hermaphrodite",^[18] and a "hermaphrodite is classed with male or female according to the predominance of the sexual organs".^[19]
• TheHereford Mappa Mundi (c. 1300) includes a hermaphrodite, outside the borders of the world known to its makers.^[20][21]

• English jurist and judgeEdward Coke (Lord Coke) writes in hisInstitutes of the Lawes of England (1628–1644) on laws of succession: "Every heire is either a male, a female, or an hermaphrodite, that is both male and female. And an hermaphrodite (which is also calledAndrogynus) shall be heire, either as male or female, according to that kind of sexe which doth prevaile."^[22][23] TheInstitutes are widely held to be a foundation ofcommon law.
• 17th-century historical accounts includeEleno de Céspedes, in Spain.
• Thomas(ine) Hall (born c. 1603) in the United States, is ruled to have a "dual-nature" gender by colonial Virginia governorJohn Pott.

• Spanish nunFernanda Fernández is found to have an intersex trait and subsequently reclassified male.

• Vietnamese generalLê Văn Duyệt helps to unify Vietnam.

• 17-year-old Rosa Mifsud appears before aMaltese court after petitioning for a change in sex classification from female.^[24][25] Two clinicians perform an examination and found that "the male sex is the dominant one".^[25] The petition is appealed and granted.^[24]

• Anglo-Welsh philologistWilliam Jones publishes an English translation ofAl Sirájiyyah: The Mohammedan Law of Inheritance which details inheritance rights for hermaphrodites in Islam.^[26]

• TheGeneral State Laws for the Prussian States (Allgemeines Landrecht für die Preußischen Staaten) grants hermaphrodites the right to choose their sex at the age of 18, if the sex of rearing proves to be wrong.^[27] It remains in force until 1900 when theBürgerliches Gesetzbuch becomes effective across the German Empire.

• German intersex manGottlieb Göttlich becomes famous as a travelling medical case.

• Levi Suydam is an intersex person in Connecticut whose capacity to vote in male-only elections is questioned in 1843.^[28]

• Herculine Barbin writes memoirs that are later published byMichel Foucault. Barbin was reassigned male against her wishes after clinical and legal examination.^[29] Her birthday is marked inIntersex Day of Remembrance on 8 November.

• The Welshman newspaper publishes an account of an intersex child on 7 November.^[30]
• During theVictorian era, medical authors introduce the terms "true hermaphrodite" for an individual who has both ovarian and testicular tissue, verified under a microscope; "male pseudo-hermaphrodite" for a person with testicular tissue, but either female or ambiguous sexual anatomy; and "female pseudo-hermaphrodite" for a person with ovarian tissue, but either male or ambiguous sexual anatomy.

• The Cambrian newspaper in Wales publishes an article on the death in Cardiff of an intersex child who, at post-mortem examination, was determined to be a girl.^[31]

• Polish gynecologist Franciszek Ludwik Neugebauer publishes acompendium with more than 750 pages ofcase studies, often with photos, covering the preceding 20 years.^[32] This includes surgery performed at the beginning of the 20th century byEmil Zuckerkandl inVienna.

• The terms 'intersex' for the individual and 'intersexuality' for the phenomenon are coined in theGerman language by endocrinologistRichard Goldschmidt^[33] after studies ongypsy moths. One year later, Goldschmidt uses the term to describepseudohermaphroditism in humans.^[34][35]

• The term 'intersex' is introduced as the (contested) medical diagnosisWeib intersexuellen Typus ("intersex type woman") by Austrian gynecologist and obstetrician Paul Mathes^[36] His book is published after his death, in 1924.^[37]

• By 1930, the term 'intersex' had already been widely used in medicine inGermany as a new term forScheinzwitter (pseudohermaphrodite), and doctors reported numerous different procedures of intersex surgery.^[38]

• The German gynecologist and obstetrician Hans Naujoks performs what is described as the first complete and comprehensiveintersex surgery and hormone treatment on a patient with bothovarian andtesticular tissue, at theUniversity of Marburg. The female patient is described as fully functional after surgery and, starting in 1934, spontaneouslymenstruates.^[39]

• The geneticist and leading Germanrace theoristFritz Lenz calls for more intersex research, especially ontwins.^[40]

• Hugo Höllenreiner, an ethnicSinti detainee inAuschwitz concentration camp, is genitally injured at the age of 9 during medical experiments carried out byJosef Mengele, acts which constitutewar crimes. Höllenreiner testifies^[when?] that he was one of Mengele's many candidates for forcedsex change but did not receive full surgery.^[41]
• The first suggestion to replace the term 'hermaphrodite' with 'intersex', in medicine, comes from British physician A. P. Cawadias in 1943.^[42] This is taken up by other physicians in theUnited Kingdom during the 1960s.^[43][44]

• The first intersex surgery of a child is performed at the Children's Hospital of theUniversity of Zurich (Kinderspital Zürich). The girl, suffering fromcongenital adrenal hyperplasia, has herclitoris amputated at the age of seven. She receiveshormones in 1951. Between 1944 and 1947, three girls have their clitorises amputated.^[45]

• In July, the first mandatorysex verification tests in sports are issued by theInternational Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for woman athletes. All athletes are tested in their own countries.^[46]

• John Money is awarded a PhD byHarvard University, entitledHermaphroditism: An Inquiry into the Nature of a Human Paradox.

• The botched circumcision ofDavid Reimer is followed bysex reassignment surgery in line with theories on optimal gender andgender identity formation byJohn Money. The case of David Reimer became known as the "John/Joan case" and it does not support early interventions on the bodies of infants who cannot consent.

• Chromosomalsex verification testing in sport is introduced by theInternational Olympic Committee at the Mexico City Olympics.^[47]

• TheFamily Court of Australia annulls the marriage of an intersex man who was "born a male and had been reared as a male" and subjected to "normalizing" medical interventions, on the basis that he is an hermaphrodite.^[48]

• Former Polish Olympic track athleteStanisława Walasiewicz (Stella Walsh) is killed during an armed robbery in a parking lot in Cleveland, Ohio, on 4 December 1980.^[49][50] She is found to have intersex traits.^[51]

• TheAndrogen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group Australia (AISSGA) is founded, thought to be the firstintersex civil society organization.^[52][53]

• Spanish hurdlerMaria José Martínez-Patiño is dismissed from competing after she fails a chromosomal test.^[54]

• TheIAAF ceases sex screening for all athletes,^[55] but retains the option of assessing the sex of participants.

• TheIntersex Society of North America (ISNA) is founded byCheryl Chase and others. Chase announces the organization in a letter toThe Sciences.^[56] ISNA remains active until 2008.

• The first public demonstration by intersex people, in Boston on October 26.Morgan Holmes,Max Beck and members of the direct action groups Hermaphrodites With Attitude! and The Transexual Menace [sic] demonstrate outside the hotel complex in Boston where theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics is holding its annual conference.^[57][58] The event is now commemorated byIntersex Awareness Day.^[59]

• Milton Diamond and Keith Sigmundson publish a paper discrediting John Money and his optimal gender model, after tracking down David Reimer.^[60][61]

• In Sentencia SU-337/99 and then Sentencia T-551/99, the Constitutional Court ofColombia restricts medical interventions on intersex children aged over five years.^[62]
• The termendosex is coined as an opposite orantonym to the term intersex, by Heike Bödeker in Germany.^[63]

• Indian athlete and swimmer Pratima Gaonkar commits suicide after disclosure and public commentary on a failedsex verification test.^[64][65][66]

• AustralianAlex MacFarlane is believed to be the first person in Australia to obtain a birth certificate recording sex as indeterminate, and the first Australian passport with an 'X' sex marker.^[67][68]

• Intersex Awareness Day is first marked on 26 October.^[59]

• InSouth Africa, theJudicial Matters Amendment Act, 2005 (Act 22 of 2005) amends thePromotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act, 2000 (Act 4 of 2000) to include intersex within its definition of sex, due in part to the work ofSally Gross.^[69]
• TheHuman Rights Commission of the City and County of San Francisco publishes the first report on the treatment of intersex people by a human rights institution, entitledA Human Rights Investigation into the Medical "Normalization" of Intersex People.^[70]

• Publication of theYogyakarta Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity includes Principle 18 onProtection from Medical Abuses, including "all necessary legislative, administrative and other measures to ensure that no child's body is irreversibly altered by medical procedures in an attempt to impose a gender identity without the full, free and informed consent of the child". Intersex and transgender activistMauro Cabral is the only intersex signatory to the Principles.
• The medical "Consensus statement on management of intersex disorders" is published, changing clinical language from "intersex" to "disorders of sex development".^[71]
• Indian middle-distance runnerSanthi Soundarajan wins the silver medal in800 m at the2006 Asian Games inDoha,Qatar, then fails a sex verification test and is stripped of her medal.

• South African middle-distance runnerCaster Semenya wins the 800 meters at the2009 World Championships in Athletics inBerlin. After her victory at the 2009 World Championships, it is announced that she has been subjected to sex verification testing, bringing intersex issues to the public eye. On 6 July 2010, the IAAF confirmed that Semenya is cleared to continue competing. The results of the testing are never officially released for privacy reasons and her personal status is unknown.^[72]

• In theKenyan High Court case ofRichard Muasya v. the Hon. Attorney General, Muasya is convicted of robbery with violence. The case examines whether or not he has suffered discrimination as a result of being born intersex. He is found to have been subjected toinhuman and degrading treatment while in prison. The Court also determines that he has not suffered from lack of identification documents, but is responsible for registering his own birth, following a failure to do so at the time of his birth.^[73]

• Christiane Völling becomes the first intersex person known to have successfully sued for damages in a case brought for non-consensual surgical intervention.^[74]
• Tony Briffa, believed to be the world's first intersex mayor, is elected in the City of Hobsons Bay in the suburbs of Melbourne,Australia, at the end of November.^[75]
• The firstInternational Intersex Forum is held, in Brussels.

• TheSwiss National Advisory Commission Biomedical Ethics publishes a report on the management of differences of sex development.^[76]
• On 14 November 2012, theSupreme Court of Chile orders Maule Health Service to pay compensation of 100 million pesos for moral and psychological damages caused to a child, Benjamín, and another 5 million for each of his parents. Born with ambiguous genitalia, doctors surgically removed his testicles without his parents' informed consent, following which he was raised initially as a girl until the age of 10 when tests revealed that he was male.^[77][78] (See alsoIntersex rights in Chile.)

• On 1 February,Juan E. Méndez, the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, issues a statement condemning non-consensual surgical intervention on intersex people.^[79][80]
• Patrick Fénichel, Stéphane Bermon and other clinicians disclose that four elite female athletes from developing countries were subjected to partial clitoridectomies and gonadectomies (sterilization) after testosterone testing revealed that they had the intersex condition5-alpha-reductase deficiency.^[81][82]
• In June,Australia passes legislation protecting intersex people from discrimination on grounds of "intersex status".^[83]
• In October, theCouncil of Europe adopts resolution 1952,Children's right to physical integrity.^[84]
• Also in October, theAustralian Senate becomes the first parliamentary body to publish an inquiry into the involuntary or coerced sterilization of intersex people, entitledInvoluntary or coerced sterilisation of intersex people in Australia.^[83]
• Intersex activists testify for the first time before theInter-American Commission on Human Rights.^[53]
• Germany passes a law requiring intersex infants who may not be classed as male or female to be assigned as "indeterminate". The move is criticized by civil society organizations and human rights institutions as not based around principles of self-determination.^[85]
• In December, participants at the ThirdInternational Intersex Forum publish theMalta declaration.^{[86][87][88][89][90][91][92]}

• The High Court ofKenya orders the Kenyan government to issue a birth certificate to a five-year-old child born in 2009 with ambiguous genitalia.^[93]
• The World Health Organization and other UN agencies publish a joint statement against coercive sterilization.^[94]

• Malta becomes the first country to outlaw non-consensual medical interventions to modify sex anatomy, including that of intersex people. In the same law, it also becomes the first jurisdiction to protect intersex and other people from discrimination on grounds of "sex characteristics".^[95][96]
• TheCommissioner for Human Rights of theCouncil of Europe calls for recognition of a right to not undergo sex affirmation interventions.^[97]
• In July, policies on sex verification in sport excluding women with hyperandrogenism are suspended following the case ofDutee Chand v. Athletics Federation of India (AFI) & The International Association of Athletics Federations, in theCourt of Arbitration for Sport.^[98]
• Michaela Raab successfully sues doctors in Nuremberg, Germany who failed to properly advise her. Doctors stated that they "were only acting according to the norms of the time".^[99] On 17 December 2015, the Nuremberg State Court rules that theUniversity of Erlangen-Nuremberg Clinic must pay damages and compensation.^[100]
• TheAstraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice establishes the first Intersex Human Rights Fund, in an attempt to address resourcing issues.^[101][102]
• TheUgandan Registration of Persons Act 2015 allows for the birth registration of a child born a "hermaphrodite", and for children's change of name and change of sex classification.^[103][104] Many adult intersex persons are understood to be stateless due to historical difficulties in obtaining identification documents.^{[104][not specific enough to verify]}

• In January, theMinistry of Health ofChile orders the suspension of unnecessary normalization treatments for intersex children, including irreversible surgery, until they reach an age when they can make decisions on their own.^[105][106] This is overturned in August 2016.
• In October, the United Nations,African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights,Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Council of EuropeCommissioner for Human Rights, and other global experts on human rights and child rights call for an urgent end to violence and harmful practices on intersex children and adults.^[107]
• In October, the United NationsOffice of the High Commissioner for Human Rights launches a website onintersex human rights entitledUnited Nations for Intersex Awareness.^[108]
• Research suggests that there has been no reduction in the number ofintersex medical interventions in Germany over the period since 2005.^[109]
• Gopi Shankar Madurai becomes the first openly intersex andgenderqueer person to contest in anIndian state assembly election for the state ofTamil Nadu. Later, ze became the first openly intersex statutory authority^[vague] in India.

• TheFrench Senate publishes a second parliamentary inquiry into the wellbeing and rights of intersex people.^[110] On 17 March 2017, the president of the Republic, François Hollande, describes medical interventions to make the bodies of intersex children more typically male or female as increasingly considered to be mutilations.^[111]
• In March 2017, representatives ofAndrogen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group Australia,Intersex Trust Aotearoa New Zealand, andOrganisation Intersex International Australia publish an Australian and Aotearoa/New Zealand consensus "Darlington Statement",^[112] calling for legal reform, including the criminalization of deferrableintersex medical interventions on children, an end to legal classification of sex, and improved access to peer support.^{[112][113][114][115][116]}
• Following a European conference in March, the Vienna Statement is published. It calls for an end to human rights violations, and recognition of rights to bodily integrity, physical autonomy and self-determination.^[117]
• In April, the fourthInternational Intersex Forum is held in the Netherlands.
• In May,Amnesty International publishes a report condemning "non-emergency, invasive and irreversible medical treatment with harmful effects" on children born with variations of sex characteristics in Germany and Denmark.^[118][119]
• In June,Joycelyn Elders,David Satcher, andRichard Carmona, three formerSurgeons General of the United States, publish a paper calling for a rethink of early genital surgeries on children with intersex traits, stating "Those whose oath or conscience says 'do no harm' should heed the simple fact that, to date, research does not support the practice of cosmetic infant genitoplasty."^{[120][121][122]}
• In July,Human Rights Watch andinterACT publish a report on medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children in the U.S., "I Want to Be Like Nature Made Me", based on interviews with intersex persons, families and physicians.^[123]
• The U.S. legal caseM. C. v. Aaronson is settled out of court.
• TheYogyakarta Principles plus 10 are published, applying international human rights law in relation tosex characteristics, in addition to sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression. Intersex signatories includeMauro Cabral Grinspan,Morgan Carpenter andKimberly Zieselman.
• In November, Betsy Driver becomes the first intersex person openly elected to public office in the United States.^[124]
• In December, African intersex activists publish a statement setting out local demands.^[125]

• In February, Asian intersex activists publish the Statement of Intersex Asia and the Asian Intersex Forum, setting out local demands.^[126]
• In April, Latin American and Caribbean intersex activists publish the San José de Costa Rica statement, defining local demands.^[127]
• On 15 August, theGerman cabinet announce a law to create a new sex designation "diverse" invital records for intersex people who cannot be clearlyassigned either male or female at birth.^[128] This complies with anOrder of theFederal Constitutional Court.^[129] LGBT activists say that the law would be failing to make this category available to non-intersex people, and failing to address concerns about medical interventions.^[130]
• On 28 August, California becomes the first U.S. state to condemn nonconsensual surgeries on intersex children, in Resolution SCR-110.^[131][132]

• On 1 May, theCourt of Arbitration for Sport rejects a challenge byCaster Semenya toIAAF rules requiring the medicalization of women with particular "differences of sex development", high testosterone and androgen sensitivity in sport, paving the way for the new rules to come into effect on 8 May 2019.^[133] During the legal challenge by Semenya, the IAAF changes the regulations to exclude from the regulations high testosterone associated with XX sex chromosomes.^[134] Semenya appeals the decision to theFederal Supreme Court of Switzerland.^[135]
• In May 2019, more than 50 intersex-led organizations sign a multilingual joint statement condemning the introduction of "disorders of sex development" language into theInternational Classification of Diseases, stating that this causes "harm" and facilitates human rights violations, calling on theWorld Health Organization to publish clear policy to ensure thatintersex medical interventions are "fully compatible with human rights norms".^{[136][137][138][139][140]}
• In June 2019, a widely signed statement^[141] from intersex groups and their allies condemns the positions on intersex issues of the text"'Male and Female He Created Them': Towards a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education"^[142] by theCongregation for Catholic Education.
• On 22 April 2019, theMadras High Court (Madurai Bench) hands down a landmark judgment^[143] and issues a direction to ban sex-selective surgeries on intersex infants based on the works ofGopi Shankar Madurai. On 13 August theGovernment of Tamil Nadu issues an order to ban sex reassignment surgery on babies and children in the state except in life-threatening situations.^{[144][145][146]}

• In July 2020, Lurie Children's Hospital becomes the first hospital in the United States to stop performing medically unnecessary cosmetic surgeries in intersex infants and publicly apologizes to those harmed by past surgeries.^[147]
• In October 2020, Boston Children's Hospital announces that they will stop performing clitorplasties and vaginoplasties in intersex infants and will wait until the patient can meaningfully participate in conversations about risks and benefits of the procedure and give consent.^[148]

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