One Big Step for Intersex Rights

In a watershed moment, the prestigious Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago suspended intersex surgeries last month. Activists hope other hospitals will follow suit.
 
The UN has condemned these surgeries, but they are legal in almost every country. (“Intersex is an umbrella term for people with variations in sex characteristics that don’t fit neatly in the binary of male or female,” writes Kate Sosin.)

For decades, it has been the norm to “correct” intersex variations through surgery and hormone therapies starting from infancy—well before a child can consent. Some were made to believe they had cancer.
 
The hospital’s decision follows a 3-year campaign by the co-founders of the Intersex Justice Project. 
 
The 19th