From the July-August 2017 issue of News & Letters

by Elise

Regretfully the Organisation Intersex International Australia announced that the government of South Australia rejected the Darlington Statement that 20 Intersex organizations of New Zealand and Australia had agreed on in April. The Statement provided guidance for officially recognizing Intersex people on their birth certificates and for prohibiting “normalization” surgery on infants before the age of informed consent. It says “the word ‘intersex,’ and the intersex human rights movement, belong equally to all people born with variations of sex characteristics, irrespective of our gender identities, genders, legal sex classifications and sexual orientations.” The government now mischaracterizes Intersex people as Transgender or gender diverse.

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On May 17, Beirut, Lebanon, held its first Pride celebration and recognized the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. A judge’s ruling that denying intimate relations to homosexual persons “would amount to discrimination, and was therefore contrary to the law.” The the work of Lebanese LGBT rights groups Helem and Legal Agenda, made the celebration possible.

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In June, dozens of U.S. cities marked one year since the Pulse Nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, Fla. U.S. flags were flown at half mast, giant rainbow lights were displayed on buildings, vigils were held, candles were lit and church bells were rung—one candle and one ring for each of the 49 people who were killed. Most of those killed were Latinx, many of them from Puerto Rico.