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🏳️🌈💛💜 The right to choose can save lives. End intersex surgeries.☂️
☂️ Today, November 8, is Intersex Day of Remembrance, also known as Intersex Day of Solidarity. It is a day that encourages us to stand with intersex people and join forces to push back against the harmful practices that have been hurting them for decades!
📍 But why November 8? Because it’s the birthday of Herculine Barbin, an intersex person from early 19th century whose life became tragic after society refused to accept who she was. Her stories became well-known after the French philosopher Michel Foucault published her memoirs.
🥀 After Herculine was discovered as intersex, society turned against her intersex identity and did not tolerate who she was. She was pressured to leave her job, move town, and even changed name. At the age of 30, she took her own life, overwhelmed with the feeling of being “condemned” and “punished”.
📝 If there is anything to take away from her tragic life, it is perhaps how detrimental it can be to force someone to express themselves a certain way. Strict boundaries of genders serve no one, least of all intersex people.
#WeAreManushyan ♾️ Equal Human Beings
📣 Prejudice against intersex people is still widespread today in healthcare and the public sphere, with gender-normalizing surgeries and hormone therapies being common practice. Manushya Foundation calls upon professionals, lawmakers, and those involved to listen to intersex individuals and respect their autonomy. We urge that everyone stand in solidarity with the intersex community and fight the deeply embedded norms so their freedom can be restored!