InterACT

interACT was founded in 2006 in Cotati, California.{{cite web|title = AIC's Mission|url = http://aiclegal.org/who-we-are/mission/|access-date = 22 May 2013|website = aiclegal.org}}{{Cite web|title = Resolve: Healing the Legacy of Intersex/DSD Treatment|url = https://www.changemakers.com/empower-patient/entries/resolve-healing-legacy-intersexdsd-treatment|website = Ashoka: Innovators for the Public|date = 2012|access-date = 2015-10-19|archive-date = 2016-03-04|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304053728/https://www.changemakers.com/empower-patient/entries/resolve-healing-legacy-intersexdsd-treatment|url-status = dead}} The organization is now based in Sudbury, Massachusetts. The board of directors includes Arlene Baratz, MD, Georgiann Davis, Emily Doskow, JD, Julie Greenberg, JD, Eric Lohman, Lynnell Stephani Long, Mani Mitchell, Karen Walsh, and Reid Williams.{{Cite web|url = http://interactadvocates.org/board/ |title = Our Board of Directors|access-date = February 6, 2016 |website = interACT }} Staff members include Kimberly Zieselman, JD,{{Cite web|url = http://aiclegal.org/aic-announces-e-d-transition-staff-changes/|title = AIC announces transition & staff changes|date = July 8, 2014|access-date = July 8, 2014|website = Advocates for Informed Choice Blog|publisher = Advocates for Informed Choice|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140913201521/http://aiclegal.org/aic-announces-e-d-transition-staff-changes/|archive-date = September 13, 2014|url-status = dead}} Executive Director, and Anne Tamar-Mattis, JD, Legal Director.

interACT is identified as the successor to the Intersex Society of North America (ISNA), charged with maintaining the ISNA website as a "historical archive"{{Cite web | title = Intersex Society of North America | url = http://isna.org/}}

interACT advocates for the legal and human rights of children born with intersex traits. Strategies include media work and the development of youth leadership, in addition to litigation. Issues of focus are informed consent, insurance, identity documents, school accommodation, discrimination, medical records retrieval, adoption, military service, medical privacy, refugee asylum, and wider international human rights.{{cite web|title=AIC: What we do|url=http://aiclegal.org/what-we-do/in-the-community|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130703163609/http://aiclegal.org/what-we-do/in-the-community|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 3, 2013|access-date=May 23, 2013}}{{cite press release |last=Tamar-Mattis |first=Anne |title=Report to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture: Medical Treatment of People with Intersex Conditions as Torture and Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment |date=December 10, 2012 |publisher=AIC |url=http://aiclegal.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/AIC-Testimony-to-the-United-Nations-Special-Rapporteur-on-Torture_December-2012.pdf |access-date=May 23, 2013 }}{{Cite web|title = Sterilization and Minors with Intersex Conditions in California Law|url = http://www.californialawreview.org/sterilization-and-minors-with-intersex-conditions-in-california-law/|website = California Law Review|date = April 19, 2012|last = Tamar-Mattis|first = Anne|access-date = October 19, 2015|archive-date = November 14, 2015|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151114123259/http://www.californialawreview.org/sterilization-and-minors-with-intersex-conditions-in-california-law/|url-status = dead}}

In 2014, following testimony by then staff member Pidgeon Pagonis, Anne Tamar-Mattis was published on medical interventions as torture in healthcare settings, in a book by the Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law at American University Washington College of Law.{{Cite book| publisher = Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law| pages = 91–104| editor1 = Center for Human Rights & Humanitarian Law| editor2 = Washington College of Law| editor3 = American University| last = Tamar-Mattis| first = Anne| title = Torture in Healthcare Settings: Reflections on the Special Rapporteur on Torture's 2013 Thematic Report| chapter = Medical Treatment of People with intersex conditions as Torture and cruel, inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment| location = Washington, D.C.| date = 2014| chapter-url = http://antitorture.org/torture-in-healthcare-publication/| access-date = May 20, 2016| archive-date = March 14, 2016| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160314165812/http://antitorture.org/torture-in-healthcare-publication/| url-status = dead}} In 2016, the United Nations Committee Against Torture asked the United States government to comment on reports of intersex medical interventions on infants and children, following submission of a report by interACT.{{Cite web| last = interACT| title = Recommendations from interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth regarding the List of Issues for the United States for the 59th Session of the Committee Against Torture| date = June 2016| url = http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/USA/INT_CAT_ICS_USA_24552_E.pdf| access-date = 2017-02-21| archive-date = 2019-04-12| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190412084407/https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/USA/INT_CAT_ICS_USA_24552_E.pdf| url-status = dead}}{{Cite web| last1 = United Nations| last2 = Committee against Torture| title = List of issues prior to submission of the sixth periodic report of the United States of America| date = December 2016| url = http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/treatybodyexternal/Download.aspx?symbolno=CAT%2fC%2fUSA%2fQPR%2f6&Lang=en}} As part of its submission, interACT stated that it is "unaware of any jurisdiction in the U.S. that enforces its own FGM laws in cases where the girl undergoing clitoral cutting has an intersex trait".{{Cite conference|last=interACT|title=Recommendations from interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth regarding the List of Issues for the United States for the 59th Session of the Committee Against Torture|date=June 2016|url=http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/USA/INT_CAT_ICS_USA_24552_E.pdf|access-date=2017-02-21|archive-date=2019-04-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190412084407/https://tbinternet.ohchr.org/Treaties/CAT/Shared%20Documents/USA/INT_CAT_ICS_USA_24552_E.pdf|url-status=dead}}

In July 2017, Human Rights Watch and interACT published a major report on medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children, "I Want to Be Like Nature Made Me", based on interviews with intersex persons, families and physicians. The report found that "Intersex people in the United States are subjected to medical practices that can inflict irreversible physical and psychological harm on them starting in infancy, harms that can last throughout their lives." The report calls for a ban on "surgical procedures that seek to alter the gonads, genitals, or internal sex organs of children with atypical sex characteristics too young to participate in the decision, when those procedures both carry a meaningful risk of harm and can be safely deferred."{{Cite web| last = Human Rights Watch| title = US: Harmful Surgery on Intersex Children| work = Human Rights Watch| access-date = July 25, 2017 | date = July 25, 2017 | url = https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/07/25/us-harmful-surgery-intersex-children}}{{Cite web| last = Stewart| first = Philippa| title = Interview: Intersex Babies Don't Need 'Fixing' | work = Human Rights Watch| access-date = July 25, 2017 | date = July 25, 2017 | url = https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/07/25/interview-intersex-babies-dont-need-fixing}}{{Cite book| isbn = 978-1-62313-502-7| last1 = Human Rights Watch| author1-link = Human Rights Watch | last2 = interACT | author2-link = Interact Advocates for Intersex Youth | title = I Want to Be Like Nature Made Me| date = July 2017| publisher = Human Rights Watch| url = https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/07/25/i-want-be-nature-made-me/medically-unnecessary-surgeries-intersex-children-us}}

On May 14, 2013, interACT, The Southern Poverty Law Center, and pro bono counsel for the private law firms of Janet, Jenner & Suggs and Steptoe & Johnson LLP filed a lawsuit against South Carolina Department of Social Services (SCDSS), Greenville Health System, Medical University of South Carolina and individual employees for performing an irreversible and medically unnecessary surgery on an infant who was in the state's care at the time of the surgery.{{cite web|title=AIC's Groundbreaking Lawsuit Accuses South Carolina, Doctors and Hospitals of Performing Unnecessary Surgery on Infant|url=http://aiclegal.org/programs/project-integrity/|publisher=Advocates for Informed Choice|access-date=22 May 2013}}{{cite news|title=Groundbreaking SPLC lawsuit accuses South Carolina, doctors and hospitals of unnecessary surgery on infant|url=http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/world-our-backyard/2013/may/18/adoptive-parents-sue-over-sons-sex-assignment-surg/|access-date=May 22, 2013|newspaper=Southern Poverty Law Center|date= May 14, 2013}}{{cite news|last=Sesana|first=Laura|title=Adoptive parents sue over son's sex-assignment surgery|url=http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/world-our-backyard/2013/may/18/adoptive-parents-sue-over-sons-sex-assignment-surg/|access-date=May 22, 2013|newspaper=The Washington Times|date= May 18, 2013}}{{cite web|url=https://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/5/17/1209792/-Sex-change-surgery-performed-on-16-month-old-South-Carolina-child-without-consent|title=Sex change surgery performed on 16-month-old South Carolina child without consent|website=Daily Kos}}{{cite web|url=http://www.advocate.com/society/youth/2013/05/14/lawsuit-filed-over-unnecessary-surgery-intersex-baby|title=Lawsuit Filed Over Unnecessary Surgery on Intersex Baby|date=14 May 2013|website=www.advocate.com}}[http://gawker.com/hospital-sued-for-performing-unneeded-sex-assignment-su-505780577 Hospital Sued For Performing Unneeded Sex-Assignment Surgery on Baby] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130606223129/http://gawker.com/hospital-sued-for-performing-unneeded-sex-assignment-su-505780577 |date=June 6, 2013 }}

The defendants sought to dismiss the case and seek a defense of qualified immunity, but these were denied by the District Court for the District of South Carolina. In January 2015, the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reversed this decision and dismissed the complaint, stating that, "it did not 'mean to diminish the severe harm that M.C. claims to have suffered' but that a reasonable official in 2006 did not have fair warning from then-existing precedent that performing sex assignment surgery on sixteen-month-old M.C. violated a clearly established constitutional right."{{cite web| url = http://blogs.harvard.edu/billofhealth/2015/03/05/m-c-v-aaronson-update/ | title = M.C. v. Aaronson | first = Emily | last = Largent | work = Petrie-Flom Center, Harvard Law | date = March 5, 2015}} The Court did not rule on whether or not the surgery violated M.C.'s constitutional rights.{{Cite web| last = interACT| author-link = Interact Advocates for Intersex Youth| title = Update on M.C.'s Case – The Road to Justice can be Long, but there is more than one path for M.C.| access-date = February 18, 2017| date = January 27, 2015| url = http://interactadvocates.org/update-on-the-m-c-case-the-road-to-justice-can-be-long/| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170219013202/http://interactadvocates.org/update-on-the-m-c-case-the-road-to-justice-can-be-long/| archive-date = February 19, 2017| url-status = dead}} State suits were subsequently filed. In July 2017, it was reported that the case had been settled out of court by the Medical University of South Carolina for $440,000, without admission of liability.{{Cite web| last = Ghorayshi| first = Azeen| title = A Landmark Lawsuit About An Intersex Baby's Genital Surgery Just Settled For $440,000| work = BuzzFeed| access-date = July 28, 2017 | date = July 27, 2017 | url = https://www.buzzfeed.com/azeenghorayshi/intersex-surgery-lawsuit-settles}}

interACT Youth{{Cite web|url = http://interactyouth.org/|archive-url = https://archive.today/20141026225243/http://interactyouth.org/|url-status = usurped|archive-date = October 26, 2014|title = interACT Youth }} is a program for intersex youth, run by intersex youth. All members between 14 and 25 years old, have intersex traits, and are in a place where they are ready to speak out about their experiences. interACT Youth works to provide tomorrow's scholars and activists a platform for their vital perspectives. A product of this work entitled "What We Wish Our Doctors Knew"http://aiclegal.files.wordpress.com/2012/10/interact_ms-updated.pdf {{Bare URL PDF|date=March 2022}} was the first of its kind: Intersex youth talking back to medical providers and caregivers. InterACT Youth is funded in part by Ms. Foundation and Liberty Hill Foundation.

In 2013, the then youth leadership coordinator,{{cite web|author1=Hilary Weaver|title=Meet Chicago's White-House-Honored Intersex Activist, Pidgeon Pagonis|url=http://www.papermag.com/meet-chicagos-white-house-honored-intersex-activist-pidgeon-pagonis-1967101092.html|website=Paper|access-date=January 8, 2017|date=August 10, 2016}} Pidgeon Pagonis, testified for interACT before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about the medical interventions they were subjected to as an intersex child,{{cite web|title=The Pursuit of Happiness in Our Original Beautiful Bodies: Pidgeon Pagonis' Recent Testimony before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights|url=http://interactadvocates.org/the-pursuit-of-happiness-in-our-original-beautiful-bodies-pidgeon-pagonis-recent-testimony-before-the-inter-american-commission-on-human-rights/|website=interACT|access-date=January 8, 2017|date=April 8, 2013}} alongside Latin Americans Mauro Cabral, Natasha Jiménez and Paula Machado.{{Citation|publisher=Inter-American Commission on Human Rights|last=Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos|title=Violencia contra Personas Lesbianas, Gays, Bisexuales, Trans e Intersex en América|date=November 2015|url=http://www.oas.org/es/cidh/informes/pdfs/ViolenciaPersonasLGBTI.pdf|author-link=Inter-American Commission on Human Rights}}

interACT has worked with MTV on the program Faking It, notable for providing the first intersex main character in a television show,{{Cite web|title= Meet television's groundbreaking intersex character |url=https://www.buzzfeed.com/louispeitzman/meet-televisions-groundbreaking-intersex-character|website=Buzzfeed |date=24 September 2014 }} and television's first intersex character played by an intersex actor.{{Cite web|url=http://www.newnownext.com/faking-it-intersex/04/2016/|title="Faking It" Breaks New Ground With First Intersex Actor To Play Intersex Character On TV|website=New Now Next|access-date= April 5, 2016}} In 2017, interACT began working with Belgian-born model Hanne Gaby Odiele to tackle social taboos and unnecessary surgeries.{{cite web | url = https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2017/01/23/model-hanne-gaby-odiele-reveals-she-intersex/96622908/ | title = Model Hanne Gaby Odiele reveals she is intersex | last = Miller | first = Susan | work = USA Today | date = January 23, 2017}}{{cite web | url = http://interactadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/PRESSRELEASE-HannesAnnouncement.pdf | title = International Fashion Model Hanne Gaby Odiele Reveals She is Intersex: Announces Partnership with interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth to Raise Awareness About the Importance of Human Rights Protections for Intersex People Worldwide | work = interACT | date = January 23, 2017}}

interACT published a media guide on covering intersex issues in January 2017.{{Citation| last = interACT| title = Media Guide, Covering the Intersex Community| date = January 2017| url = http://interactadvocates.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/INTERSEX-MEDIAGUIDE-interACT.pdf}}

Having historically used the current clinical terminology of disorders of sex development, interACT issued a strong statement favoring the term intersex in 2016, citing increasing acceptance and public awareness.{{Cite web| last = interACT| title = interACT Statement on Intersex Terminology| work = interACT| date = May 2016| url = http://interactadvocates.org/interact-statement-on-intersex-terminology/}}

InterACT has been an advocate for a variety of legislative movements related to intersexuality and those affected. One example of their advocacy is the organizations support and co-sponsorship of the proposed legislation of California Senate Bill 201.

Proposed by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) on January 28, 2019, and amended on March 25, 2019, the proposal has yet to be voted on. The Senate Bill would "ensure intersex individuals can provide informed consent before any medical treatments or interventions that could irreversibly affect their fertility or sexual function, as stated on the interACT website. The bill would not prohibit intervention in the instance of a medical emergency.

InterACT commented on the legislation, stating that "This long overdue measure will give individuals the opportunity to delay medically unnecessary, potentially harmful, irreparable procedures until they have the ability to make an informed decision for themselves."{{Cite web|url=https://interactadvocates.org/press-kit-interact-california-sb201/|title=California's SB 201 for Intersex Autonomy {{!}} interactadvocates|date=4 February 2019 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-04-19}}{{Cite web|url=http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201920200SB201|title=Senate Bill 201}}

The Interface Project is a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit operating under the fiscal sponsorship of interACT. Founded in 2012, and currently curated by Jim Ambrose, The Interface Project features stories of people born with intersex traits – or variations of sex anatomy – under the banner: No Body Is Shameful.{{Cite web|title = The Interface Project|url = http://www.interfaceproject.org/|website = The Interface Project|year = 2012}}

• Intersex human rights
• Intersex rights in the United States

{{Reflist}}

• {{official website|http://www.interactadvocates.org}}

Category:501(c)(3) organizations

Category:Non-profit organizations based in the San Francisco Bay Area

Category:Intersex rights organizations

Category:Legal advocacy organizations in the United States

Category:Bioethics

Category:Civil rights organizations in the United States

Category:2006 establishments in California

Category:Intersex medical and health organizations

Category:Intersex support groups

Category:Intersex rights in the United States