About OII

The Organisation Intersex International (OII) is a global advocacy group for people born with bodies which have atypical sexual characteristics. It is the largest intersex support group in the world, with branches on six continents.

Founded in 2003 by Curtis Hinkle, OII is a decentralized network established to give voice to intersex people across the globe seeking equal rights and the acknowledgement of intersex people’s own distinct identities.  OII rejects the medicalized categories of disorder which stigmatize intersex variations, and the terminology of disorder (as in Disorders of Sex Development) currently used within the medical community and by some intersex groups. We are a diverse group of people with different intersex variations who identify as intersex males, intersex females, intersex, males, females, or sometimes also, transgender. Although intersex is not a sexual orientation, we are in alliance with people of diverse sexual orientations.

The OII objective is to bring about systemic change and resist the fear, shame, secrecy and stigma imposed upon intersex children and adults through both the practice of non-consensual genital surgeries and the arbitrary assignment of a particular sex without informed consultation with the individual concerned. The ethos of the group is that people will hold different views as appropriate to the individual and that these views should be respected. This may entail treating as optional socially and medically constructed categories such as binary genders, sexual identifications and specific and non-specific pathologisms.

About OII USA

Hida Viloria, Director and Human Rights Spokesperson

hida@oiiusa.org
Hida Viloria is the Human Rights Spokesperson for the Organisation Intersex International (or OII), the largest intersex organization in the world, with branches on six continents. She has a degree in Gender and Sexuality from the University of California at Berkeley, and has spoken extensively on the topic of intersex, including appearances in the documentary films Gendernauts and One in 2000, as well as ABC’s “20/20,” “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and, most recently, “The Tyra Banks Show.” She has also lectured extensively at universities including Standford, U.C. Berkeley, and N.Y.U., and written about intersex for CNN.com.

Last October, in the wake of the Caster Semenya controversy, she served, by invitation, as the intersex representative at the International Olympic Committee’s meeting of experts in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she argued against the pathologization of people with intersex variations, and for the inclusion of intersex female athletes in competitive sport.

Claudia Astorino, Associate Director

claudia@oiiusa.org
Claudia Astorino is an intersex activist living in NYC. She writes the blog Full-Frontal Activism: Intersex and Awesome and is the co-coordinator of the annual Intersex Awareness Day events in NYC, celebrating its 2nd year in 2011! She has raised awareness speaking at New York University, Bluestockings Activist Center (NYC), and Wooden Shoe Books (Philadelphia). She is available for speaking and workshops especially along the East Coast, covering topics including intersex basics, the relationship between body and identity, the medicalization of intersex, and more. Astorino is also an academic, pursuing her Ph.D. in physical anthropology, and spends a lot of time happily nerding out in a lab.