Logo for Gender Infinity. Logo is a purple circles in different hues overlapped on each other, darker in the center and lighter on the outside. At the top are the words “Gender Infinity” with the letter G transforming into a looping infinity symbol. In the center, is a large text that says “10 years”. Around the text is various outer space drawings of stars, constellations, planets, moons, and comets.
We are excited to present at Gender Infinity for their 10th anniversary!
The image is a purple square. At the top in a lighter purple rectangle in white text are the words “Session 1 9:05 AM – 10:05 AM”. Below are two circular images of the presenters. On the left is Koomah, a curvy mixed race femme person with tan skin standing with their hands on their hips. They are wearing a black t-shirt with black mesh at the shoulders, a gold necklace with black leather fringe, a black floppy hat and black rimmed glasses. Under Koomah’s image is the text “Koomah, any pronouns”. To the right is Mo, a Latinx man with light tan skin and very short brown hair. He is wearing a pink long sleeve button up shirt and black rimmed glasses. He is laughing. Under Mo’s image is the text “Mo, he/him”. Below the presenter images is the white text, “Intersex 101. Intersex 101 covers the basics of understanding what is Intersex. This session includes defining intersex terms, examples of intersex traits, and review of historical and current methods of medicalized treatments. A personal story from an intersex person will also be shared. Additionally, this session briefly covers intersectionality issues concerning intersex BIPOC as well as information about legislative efforts”
If you’re registered for the Gender Infinity digital conference, don’t miss our Intersex 101 session on Sunday11/14 at 9:05 AM in Moon Room!
Intersex 101 covers the basics of understanding what is Intersex. This session includes defining intersex terms, examples of intersex traits, and review of historical and current methods of medicalized treatments. A personal story from an intersex person will also be shared. Additionally, this session briefly covers intersectionality issues concerning intersex BIPOC as well as information about legislative efforts.
The Houston Intersex Society (THIS) is an educational, social, and
support organization for, by, and about intersex people in Houston,
Texas and beyond. THIS aims to empower and enrich the lives of intersex
people while working to end shame and create visibility through
education, community events, and the arts.
The image has a black background with yellow text that says “Intersex Day of Remembrance 11/08/2020” in the middle is a yellow circle with a purple ring in the center resembling the intersex flag. in the very center is another small black circle with a lit candle in it.
Intersex Day of Remembrance, also known as Intersex Day of Solidarity, takes place on November 8. The day marks the birthday of Herculine Barbin, a French intersex person whose memoirs were later published by the philosopher Michel Foucault.
We have uploaded a special candle lighting and presentation video for Intersex Day of Remembrance (Intersex Day of Solidarity) to our IGTV, YouTube, and Facebook.
In addition to the candle lighting, we discuss the importance of Intersex Day of Remembrance along with some clips from our previous Intersex Awareness Day variety show.
The Houston Intersex Society (THIS) is an educational, social, and
support organization for, by, and about intersex people in Houston,
Texas and beyond. THIS aims to empower and enrich the lives of intersex
people while working to end shame and create visibility through
education, community events, and the arts.
We have some awesome things happening this year for Intersex Awareness Day!
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ILLUMINATION OF HOUSTON CITY HALL
The illumination of Houston City Hall for Intersex Awareness Day. A multi-story City Hall building with a lit clock face at top is illuminated in purple and yellow lights. There are trees on both sides of the building. It is dusk and the sky is getting dark. The building is in front of a reflection pool and the reflection of the building can be seen at the bottom of the picture.
As usual, we will have our annual illumination of Houston City Hall.
What’s
different about this year is that both Houston City Hall and the 6
bridges over US-59 will be illuminated in Purple and Yellow on October
25th and October 26th.
A bit of history about Intersex Awareness Day in Houston:
In 2015, Houston City Hall was the first government building ever to be illuminated for Intersex Awareness Day.
In 2017, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner issued a proclamation declaring Oct 25th Intersex Awareness Day in Houston, to commemorate the date of the first Houston City Hall illumination.
*NOTE* – We will not be having an onsite meetup this year due to COVID. Instead, we encourage you to drive past Houston City Hall and the US-59 Bridges on your own time. We’d love for you to share photos with us on social media!
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GENDER UNBOUND
Text on the image says, “Intersex Awareness Day. Artist Spotlight. October 19th – November 2nd” The image is of artwork in a gallery. A small sculpture of a human form is in the bottom left corner. Behind that, a collage of medical records and bloody gauze.To the right of the collage, 4 pieces of paper with a poem on illegible tiny print. In the upper right corner an intersex flag hangs on the wall. The logo for Gender Unbound trans & intersex art festival is in the bottom right corner.
Gender Unbound in Austin held their annual arts festival digitally this year. The virtual showcase consisted of works by trans and intersex artists around the theme of “home”. The showcase consisted of an interactive 3D exhibition. We were honored to participate with a commissioned artpiece and accompanying poem titled “Home is a Children’s Hospital”.
If you missed it, you can check out all the works by the intersex artists in the virtual gallery for a special Intersex Awareness Day exhibition.
Title at the top of the image says “History of a happy hermaphrodite” Below the title is an image of a performer’s head and shoulders moving. Their movement makes their head and shoulders blurred across the picture. The image is a variation of black, pinks, and reds. The text at the bottom of the image says, “Monday at 9 pm CDT – 10 pm CDT. History of a Happy Hermaphrodite. Online Event.”
We are proud to present the TV premiere of the stage production ‘History of a Happy Hermaphrodite’.
About the show: Framed around a humorous therapy session with a pet cat; an unapologetic story of trauma, survival, and defiance is formed through a series of short performance vignettes utilizing movement, music, and video. Suggested for mature audiences*.
Featuring: Melelani Petersen as Jack the cat & Stephanie Saint Sanchez as Manba the cat.
Assisted by Mo Cortez, Berengaria Navarre, and Kealoha Petersen.
The first half of the show titled ‘history of a happy hermaphrodite: part 1’ was presented at the 2015 Houston Fringe Festival. This is the full stage performance with part 1 and part 2. This is not the film festival edit or an in-studio produced film version.
*History of a Happy Hermaphrodite contains references to drug use, human trafficking, PTSD, abuse, sex work, and other potentially upsetting subject matter.
A 3D cartoon snail with a yellow body and purple shell with yellow highlights smiles. Across the snail’s body are the words “SPECIAL EVENT!” in red letters. Text below the picture says, “Monday at 10pm CDT – 11pm CDT. Intersex Awareness Day TV special. Online Event.”
We are proud to present the first ever Intersex Awareness Day TV special!
It’s a variety show program with live performances by intersex people and a few of our endosex (non-intersex) pals with music, spoken word, dancing, and short films.
Hosted by Mo Cortez and Koomah.
Tune in to HMS TV in Houston: Comcast channel 17 ATT U-Verse channel 99 Suddenlink channel 99 Phonoscope channel 96
The Houston Intersex Society (THIS) is an educational, social, and support organization for, by, and about intersex people in Houston, Texas and beyond. THIS aims to empower and enrich the lives of intersex people while working to end shame and create visibility through education, community events, and the arts.
Wow, COVID has really challenged our original plans for 2020!
Apologies for the late update to this website, if you follow us on social media (links in the footer of this post) you may have seen promotions for these really great events that we participated in. If you missed them, some of them have recordings you can view and others have an encore chance to check them out.
During our last update we mentioned that we were cancelling our original Pride Parade plans and planned to do a different event. Since that post, we decided to merge Intersex Awareness Day and our Pride plans. Stay tuned for an update on that as well!
GENDER UNBOUND! September 1st – 30th Gender Unbound in Austin held their annual arts festival digitally. The virtual showcase consisted of works by trans and intersex artists around the theme of “home”. The showcase consisted of an interactive 3D exhibition. We were honored to participate with a commissioned artpiece and accompanying poem titled “Home is a Children’s Hospital”.
If you missed it, you can check out all the works by the intersex artists still up in the virtual gallery for a special Intersex Awareness Day showing. https://www.genderunbound.org/
BOSTON HEALTHCARE FOR THE HOMELESS September 15th Koomah and Sean Saifa Wall (Atlanta, GA) presented a training for the Boston Healthcare for the Homeless. Saifa presented an Intersex 101 training and Koomah spoke to their experiences as a homeless intersex youth and trainings on health and access considerations and solutions for intersex people currently experiencing homelessness.
This was a private training and not made available to the public.
LIBERATING ALL BODIES October 14th Koomah participated as part of a digital panel conversation between Intersex Justice and Disability Justice experts about collective liberation efforts. HRW’s Carlos Rios-Espinoza, Syrus Marcus Ware, and Sean Saifa Wall were the other panel speakers.
Closed Captioning was provided in English and Spanish. ASL Interpretation with Deaf interpreters. This event was recorded and will be made available to the public as soon as closed captions are transcribed and added.
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The Houston Intersex Society (THIS) is an educational, social, and support organization for, by, and about intersex people in Houston, Texas and beyond. THIS aims to empower and enrich the lives of intersex people while working to end shame and create visibility through education, community events, and the arts.
As Pride approaches we’ve had several conversations about how or if we should participate in the Pride Parade during the viral COVID-19 pandemic. Several intersex people are severely immuno-comprimised, including one of the co-founders of THIS.
We feel participation in Pride is important because one of the things
that unites the intersex community with the LGBT community is the desire
to live a life where others are not trying to forcibly ‘cure’ us. Sex
traits, gender orientation/ expression, and sexuality often intersect
and people who vary from societal norms are met with oppression and
violence. Intersex people frequently live with feelings of shame,
isolation, and stigma regarding their intersex traits. We believe it is
powerful to be visible and unashamed, Pride is a way to be publicly
celebrated for who we are.
However, we cannot risk our own
health nor can we be responsible for encouraging others in our community
to put their health at risk.
We have decided to utilize our resources and create interactive digital Pride programming.
More info to come, but some things to expect:
– Intersex 101 – Q&A – Intersex themed film screenings – Interviews – Intersex legislative policy updates – Live performances
…and more!
💛💜💛🎉🌈🐌🌈🎉💛💜💛
The Houston Intersex Society (THIS) is an
educational, social, and support organization for, by, and about
intersex people in Houston, Texas and beyond. THIS aims to empower and
enrich the lives of intersex people while working to end shame and
create visibility through education, community events, and the arts.
We have some great events coming up for Intersex Day of Solidarity.
Intersex Day of Solidarity, also known as Intersex Day of Remembrance, takes place on November 8. The day marks the birthday of Herculine Barbin, a French intersex person whose memoirs were later published by the philosopher Michel Foucault.
The Houston Intersex Society will be giving an Intersex 101 and Q&A at Rice University on November 7 at 7pm.
Check out our Facebook page on November 8th for our annual Intersex Day of Remembrance candle lighting, moment of silence, and performances shared via Facebook Live.
We are also excited to announce that on November 9th at dusk Houston City Hall will be illuminated purple and yellow in honor of Intersex Day of Solidarity!
Houston City Hall has been illuminated annually for Intersex Awareness Day on October 25th, this will be the first illumination for Intersex Day of Solidarity.
The Houston Intersex Society (THIS) is an
educational, social, and support organization for, by, and about
intersex people in Houston, Texas and beyond. THIS aims to empower and
enrich the lives of intersex people while working to end shame and
create visibility through education, community events, and the arts.
The Houston Intersex Society (THIS) is an
educational, social, and support organization for, by, and about
intersex people in Houston, Texas and beyond. THIS aims to empower and
enrich the lives of intersex people while working to end shame and
create visibility through education, community events, and the arts.
Welcome to the new webpage for The Houston Intersex Society. Thanks for your patience while we create this page.
The Houston Intersex Society (THIS) is an educational, social, and support organization for, by, and about intersex people in Houston, Texas and beyond. THIS aims to empower and enrich the lives of intersex people while working to end shame and create visibility through education, community events, and the arts.
