STEPH LUM: Intersex people are born with variations
in sex characteristics.
We have bodies that are different to typically
male or female bodies.
There are over 40 different intersex variations.
We have many different body types,
many different identities, and many different needs.
Intersex people constitute up to an estimated 1.7%
of the population, which makes being intersex about as common
as having red hair or green eyes.
My name is Steph Lum, and I'm a proud intersex person.
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I was 22 when I learned the word "intersex."
I already knew my body was different,
but hadn't cared to learn much more or connect with others.
But when I found out that the more common intersex experience
involved violations of human rights, even here in Australia,
I was devastated.
How could I have lived so many years of my life
and not know this?
How could I be an intersex person and not know this?
And why did so few people care?
Since then, I've dedicated myself
to learning about and speaking up for intersex people.
Intersex people have always existed throughout time.
Intersex variations may be externally visible,
or they may just be internal.
So it may have just only been noticeable to people
in the past if it was quite obvious externally.
Whereas with advances in medicine,
we can understand more about what's
happening inside people's bodies,
and so we've been able to discover that there are far
more intersex variations, and they might present themselves
quite differently.
When intersex people's differences are discovered,
many are pressured to or forced to have medical interventions
to change their bodies.
In some countries, intersex babies are abandoned or killed.
Some intersex variations can be identified prenatally
and screened out.
This happens here in Australia.
Historically, at least from the '60s,
it was really considered that if you had an intersex variation
that we'll just change your body,
and we won't necessarily even tell you
that this is what's happening.
So particularly for children or young people,
parents often felt pressured to consent to medical changes.
And so this idea that they would raise someone
as a boy or a girl, but also having
to change their sex characteristics
to match that is really, really quite shocking and damaging.
And particularly that lack of sharing information
about someone's history and someone's personal body
means that then they don't have the choices or the ability
to make decisions in the future as well.
Many people I know really like their intersex body.
It's the expectations from everyone around them
that makes it hard.
I want people to learn about intersex people,
celebrate our differences, and fight for our human rights
with us.
My advice to a parent of an intersex child
would be to slow down.
There is time, go and learn more information,
connect with other intersex people.
Learn all this so that you can tell your child
in an appropriate way when it's right
for them, to support them to make their own decision.
It shouldn't be an extreme statement
to say that we should be empowering people
to make their own choices over their own bodies and lives.
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