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Hida Viloria

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Hida Viloria
BornMay 1968 (age 56)
New York City, New York, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Author, Speaker, LGBTI Activist
Known forBorn Both: An Intersex Life; Pioneer in intersex and Non-binary activism

Hida Viloria (born May 29, 1968) is a Latinx American writer,[1] intersex and non-binary rights activist, author of the acclaimed, Born Both: An Intersex Life (Hatchette Book Group, March 2017), and Founding Director of the Intersex Campaign for Equality. Viloria uses the gender-neutral pronouns "s/he," "he/r," and "he/rs" to acknowledge he/r identity as an intersex, gender-fluid feminist of female upbringing.

Early Life and Education

Viloria was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York, to recently immigrated Colombian and Venezuelan parents. Her father, a physician, and mother, an ex-school teacher, chose to register and raise he/r as female without subjecting he/r to medically unnecessary cosmetic genital surgeries, also known as intersex genital mutilation (IGM), that were routinely recommended at the time for intersex children with genital variance like he/rs.[2]

Viloria attended twelve years of Catholic school in Queens before leaving New York for Wesleyan University. S/he later transferred to the University of California, Berkeley, where s/he graduated with high honors and high distinction with an Interdisciplinary Studies degree in Gender and Sexuality.[citation needed]

Career

Viloria is the author of the acclaimed, Born Both: An Intersex Life (Hatchette Book Group, March, 2017), and has been published extensively on intersectional intersex issues such Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM), its harms, heteronormative imperatives and similarities to FGM, discrimination against intersex women in sports, racism, sexuality, legal gender recognition, and gender identity, in venues such as The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, The Advocate, Ms., The New York Times, The American Journal of Bioethics, the Global Herald, CNN.com, and others, and in her blog ''Intersex and Out. In January, 2016, h/er essay, “What’s In a Name: Intersex and Identity”, was published in the college freshman curriculum textbook, Queer: A Reader for Writers, by Oxford University Press[3].

Viloria is also a recognized human rights activist who has educated extensively about intersex and non-binary gender issues as a frequent speaker (Stanford, Princeton, Vassar, NYU), consultant (United Nations OHCHR, United Nations Free & Equal Campaign, Lambda Legal, Human Rights Watch, Williams Institute, IOC...), television and radio guest (The Oprah Winfrey Show, HuffPost Live, 20/20, Aljazeera, BBC Radio, KPFA) and in film (Gendernauts, One in 2000, Intersexion), and s/he continues to advocate for equality and human rights for intersex and non-binary people as Chairperson of the Organisation Intersex International (OII), the world's first international intersex advocacy organization, and Founding Director of its American Affiliate OII-USA, a.k.a. the Intersex Campaign for Equality.

Early Intersex Activism

In 1996, Viloria participated in the first international intersex retreat. S/he reports that, eager to meet people like he/rself, instead s/he “met people who’d been traumatized and physically damaged by cosmetic genital surgeries and hormone treatments they’d been subjected to in infancy and childhood, and it moved me to become an intersex activist.”[4][5] In 1997, Viloria appeared in the first U.S. documentary about intersex people, Hermaphrodites Speak!,[6].

In 2004, Hida testified at the first government hearing on intersex human rights, before the San Francisco Human Rights Commission in 2004, on the need to ban medically unnecessary cosmetic genital surgeries on intersex infants and children.[7]

Opposing Nonconsensual Medically Unnecessary Surgeries, aka Intersex Genital Mutilation

Viloria has been advocating publicly against the use of medically unnecessary cosmetic surgeries and hormone therapy on intersex infants and minors, aka Intersex Genital Mutilation, since 1997[8], reaching audiences of over forty million, most notably on ABC's 20/20[9], ''The Oprah Winfrey Show''[10], in Spanish on the Emmy nominated Spanish language show ''Caso Cerrado''[11], and at the UN Headquarters in New York City for Human Rights Day 2013.

In early 2015, s/he was featured in the web-based project Gender Talents, by gay artist Carlos Motta, in which s/he discusses the many harms produced by, and erroneous presumptions about, Intersex Genital Mutilation[12]. In September 2015, the UN's Free & Equal Campaign for Equality produced a video of Hida[13] in conjunction with the release of their groundbreaking resource the Intersex Fact Sheet[14], and in 2016 Hida was one of the "Intersex Voices" featured in the Free and Equal Campaign for Equality's Intersex Awareness Campaign[15]. In addition, she has also advocated against Intersex Genital Mutilation via he/r many published essays[16][17][18], and in he/r memoir Born Both: An Intersex LIfe[19].

Opposing "Disorders of Sex Development"

In 2006, the international medical establishment replaced the terms "hermaphrodite" and "intersex" with the term "disorders of sex development," at the bequest of several advocates for intersex people including Alice Dreger, Cheryl Chase and Intersex Society of North America, and mos Ameican intersex advocacy organizations and activists adopted the label. Viloria is among a handful of American intersex activists who opposed the use of the term "Disorders of Sex Development" since it's introduction. In 2007, s/he publicly critiqued the label and the homophobic and transphobic reasoning behind the replacement of 'intersex' with DSD. S/he also argued that being raised to define oneself as disordered is psychologically harmful to intersex youth: 

 "While some doctors and parents are, according to supporters of the term like Chase (co-author of the DSD Guidelines and founder and director of ISNA), more comfortable referring to us as having "disorders" than associating with a label supported by homosexuals and transsexuals, I do not believe adopting a pathologizing label to distance ourselves from these groups is a solution, to say the least....  I know that it would have harmed my self-esteem to be raised under a term which named my difference a 'disorder.' Even complete ignorance about what to call myself was preferable as I was able to form positive beliefs about my unique qualities."|Hida Viloria[20]

In 2010, Viloria lobbied against the use of the term "disorders of sex development" at the International Olympic Committee’s October 2010 meeting of experts on intersex women in sports, in Lausanne, Switzerland, arguing that it is both stigmatizing and inaccurate, as not all intersex women, only those with high levels of naturally occurring testosterone (aka Hyperandrogenism), were targets of the proposed sporting regulations. As a result of Viloria's advocacy, the IOC and IAAF discontinued its use of "disorders of sex development" to describe the athletes in question, and replaced it with "women with hyperandrogenism"[21]

In 2013, Viloria authored and published, Your Beautiful Child: Information for Parents,[22], the first resource for parents of intersex newborns to use non-stigmatizing, pathology-free language and provide tips on how to delay the "sex announcement," and information such as links to studies regarding the harms caused by Intersex Genital Mutilation (IGM).

In 2015, Viloria encouraged doctors to abandon the term "disorders of sex development" (DSD) as well as the practice of IGM, in he/r essay, “Promoting Health and Social Progress by Accepting and Depathologizing Benign Intersex Traits," published in the medical journal Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics[23]. In 2016, he/r essay "What's In a Name: Intersex and Identity" (originally published in 2014 in ''The Advocate''), in which s/he argues that the use of "Disorders of Sex Development" and other medicalized language to describe intersex people in stigmatizing, dehumanizing and an obstacle to ending intersex oppression such as IGM, was published in the freshman year college curriculum textbook Queer: A Reader for Writers, by Oxford University Press[24].

Addressing Discrimination Against Intersex Women in Sports

In 2009, in response to the treatment of black South African track star Caster Semenya, who was rumored to be intersex, Hida lobbied as an independent intersex activist for equal rights for intersex female athletes on television [25] and in print on CNN.com[26]. In February 2010, as Human Rights Spokesperson of the Organisation Intersex International (OII), s/he authored a petition to the International Olympic Committee demanding that intersex women athletes to be allowed to compete as is, and be de-pathologized,[27]. The action resulted in Viloria being invited to participate in the International Olympic Committee’s October 2010 meeting of experts on intersex women in sports, in Lausanne, Switzerland, where s/he lobbied against adopting regulations which require intersex female athletes to undergo medically unnecessary medical procedures in order to compete as women, and against athletes being referred to as individuals with "disorders of sex development".[28]

Viloria has argued since 2009 that Olympic sex testing is applied in a way that targets 'butch,' or masculine-looking, women.[29][30]. In 2012, Viloria co-authored an article in the American Journal of Bioethics, with intersex Spanish hurdler Maria José Martínez-Patiño, the athlete responsible for overturning the IOC's long-standing mandatory chromosome testing policies, which critiqued the IOC's proposed regulations for women with high levels of naturally occurring testosterone (aka hyperandrogenism)[31]. Upon the release of the I.O.C.'s final regulations for intersex women with hyperandrogenism in 2012, s/he collaborated on an opinion piece with scholar Georgiann Davis[32] and also told The New York Times that the issues for intersex athletes remain unresolved: "Many athletes have medical differences that give them a competitive edge but are not asked to have medical interventions to 'remove' the advantage.... The real issue is not fairness, but that certain athletes are not accepted as real women because of their appearance."[33]

In 2014, Viloria once again advocated against the IOC and IAAF's regulations for women with hyperandrogenism on a panel on the Aljazeera television show The Stream[34]. S/he also wrote about the interphobia and common misunderstandings around naturally occurring testosterone which drive sporting regulations for intersex women, in The Advocate[35].

Non-binary Activism and Media

Hida spoke about being non-binary , also known as genderqueer, in the groundbreaking, award winning 1999 documentary Gendernauts[36].

In 2007, on The Oprah Winfrey Show, s/he likened society's lack of understanding of non-binary people, and the pressure non-binary people experience to identify as men or women, to what people of mixed African-American and caucasian race sometimes experience, saying, "Society pressures you to choose sides, just like they pressure mixed race people to decide, you know... 'Are you really black? Are you really white?'" S/he went on to say "I have both [sides]."[37].

In 2015, Viloria worked closely with Dana Zzyym, the Associate Director of the Intersex Campaign for Equality, aka OII-USA, the non-profit Viloria founded and directs,, and with Zzyym's legal representatives, Lambda Legal, in filing the first American lawsuit for a passport with a non-binary gender designation[38]. The case is still ongoing.

In January 2017, Kirkus reviewed Viloria's memoir Born Both: An Intersex LIfe, which chronicles he/r journey as a non-binry person, and the fight for non-binary legal gender recognition, saying: "Intelligent and courageous, [Born Both] chronicles one intersex person's path to wholeness, but it also affirms the right of all intersex and non-binary people to receive dignity and respect"[39].

In April, 2017, Viloria became the second American recipient of an intersex birth certificate, issued by the city of New York[40]. In May 2017, 'The New York Times' reviewed Born Both, saying: “Viloria does us the even greater service (it’s more of a gift, really) of showing us what it means to live not just as both a man and a woman but also as a third gender that eventually emerges as the right one.”[41].

Birth Registrations

With the advent of a new German law assigning visibly intersex infants to an 'indeterminate' gender, Viloria has argued that this approach to birth registrations fails to provide adequate human rights for intersex people, and fails to address the most critical need: for an end to normalizing surgical and hormonal interventions on infants and children.[42][43][44].

National and global affiliations and activism

In spring 2010, Viloria joined the Organisation Intersex International, or OII, the first international intersex organization, was appointed Human Rights Spokesperson, and began lobbying against discriminatory regulations for intersex women athletes. In Spring 2011, Viloria was voted Chairperson of OII, upon founder Curtis Hinkle's retirement.

In the fall of 2011, Hida founded the American affiliate of OII, OII-USA, aka The Intersex Campaign for Equality, to work for equality and human rights for intersex Americans. He/r first action, in December, 2011, was contacting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to request inclusion of intersex people in human rights protocols and protections. In early 2012 s/he received a response from the U.S. Department of State in early 2012 affirming the importance of including the intersex community in human rights work[45]

In 2012, Viloria spearheaded the first unified, global call for human rights by and for intersex people, in a letter signed by thirty leading intersex advocacy organizations, to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights .[46].

In 2013, Viloria served as one of three intersex co-organizers of the Third International Intersex Forum in November 2013, in Malta, which led to the creation of the Malta declaration, the most widely agreed upon statement of human rights' demands by the international intersex advocacy community.[47].

In 2016, Viloria became a board member of Genital Autonomy America (GA America), an advocacy organization working with groups worldwide who are seeking to end non-therapeutic genital cutting of all female, male, and intersex infants and children.

Honors and Awards

In April, 2013, Viloria's intersex advocacy organization OII-USA was selected as a finalist for the Kalamazoo College Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice, administered by Kalamazoo College's Arcus Center for Social Justice Leadership.

In 2013, Viloria was selected by the management of ILGA-Europe to be one of three intersex organizers, the only American, of the Third International Intersex Forum, held in Malta.

On Human Rights Day, 2013, Viloria's pioneering human rights activism was acknowledged by the United Nations OHCHR, when s/he became the first openly intersex person to speak at the U.N., by invitation, at the event "Sport Comes Out Against Homophobia", along with fellow "out" pioneers, tennis legend Martina Navratilova, and NBA player Jason Collins.[48][49]

Viloria's memoir Born Both: An Intersex Life was selected by Bustle (magazine) as one of "The 20 Best Non-fiction Books Coming in March 2017"[50], and as one of six books in People magazine's "The Best New Books" list in April, 2017[51].

Books

2017: Born Both: An Intersex Life

  • 2016: The essay, "What's In A Name: Intersex and Identity," by Hida Viloria is featured in the book, Queer: A Reader for Writers, edited by Jason Shneiderman
  • 2015: Interview with Hida Viloria are featured in the books, The Human Agenda: Conversations about Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity,[52], edited by Joe Wenke, and Lichen[53] a sound and photographic work on the theme of body and gender by French artist Pierre Redon.

References

  1. ^ http://hidaviloria.com/wp-content/uploads/Bibliography-Hida-Viloria.pdf Hida Viloria Bbliography
  2. ^ Viloria, Hida (September 27, 2011). Dispelling The Myths: My Experience Growing Up Intersex and Au Naturel. http://www.bodieslikeours.org/index.php/our-lives/22-hida-new-story Bodies Like Ours. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  3. ^ https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/queer-9780190277109?cc=us&lang=en&/ Queer: A Reader for Writers, editor Jason Schneiderman, editor, Oxford University Press, January, 2016
  4. ^ Intersexion, Ponsonby Productions Limited, 2002
  5. ^ Viloria, Hida (April 11, 2010). Gender Rules in Sport – Leveling The Playing Field, Or Reversed Doping? (April 11, 2010). The Global Herald. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-05-14. Retrieved 2013-12-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link). Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  6. ^ Hermaphrodites Speak! (1997) Intersex Society of North America. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwSOngdR7kM. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  7. ^ Patel, Sunil (November 25, 2005). San Francisco Human Rights Commission on Intersex (pdf). Gay and Lesbian Health Victoria. http://www.glhv.org.au/report/san-francisco-human-rights-commission-intersex-pdf. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  8. ^ http://www.isna.org/node/14/ "Caught in the Middle," Inside Edition, September 11, 1997
  9. ^ http://abcnews.go.com/2020/story?id=123917&page=1 Controversy Over Operating to Change Ambiguous Genitalia, ABC 20/20, April 19, 2002
  10. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8LyyNvY6e4 Growing Up Intersex, The Oprah Winfrey Show, September 19, 2007
  11. ^ Cosmetic Genital Surgery/Sex Re-assignment of Intersex Babies is wrong: Case Closed, Hida Viloria, September 2013
  12. ^ http://gendertalents.info/portrait/hida-viloria-organization-intersex-international-oii-los-angeles/
  13. ^ [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgFlf_jQZhc/ What Does It Mean To Be Intersex? United Nations Free & Equal, September 4, 2015
  14. ^ http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Discrimination/LGBT/FactSheets/UNFE_FactSheet_Intersex_EN.pdf/ Intersex Fact Sheet, United Nations Free & Equal, September 4, 2015
  15. ^ https://www.unfe.org/intersex-awareness/ Intersex Awareness Mini-Campaign, United Nations Free & Equal, October 26, 2016
  16. ^ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sex-positive-intersex-positive_us_58e6d8d7e4b0acd784ca56cd/ Remember: Sex Positive = Intersex Positive, Huffington Post, April 7, 2017
  17. ^ http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2013/09/27/op-ed-why-we-must-protect-intersex-babies/ Why We Must Protect Intersex Babies, The Advocate, September 27, 2013
  18. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/18/hida.viloria.intersex.athlete/ My LIfe as Mighty Hermaphrodite, CNN.com, September 18, 2009
  19. ^ http://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/hida-viloria/born-both/9780316347846/ Born Both: An Intersex LIfe, Hachette Books, March 14, 2017
  20. ^ Viloria, Hida. "Hida Viloria Tells Us What She Really Thinks". sfweekly.com. SF Weekly. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
  21. ^ Viloria, Hida (April 11, 2010). Gender Rules in Sport – Leveling The Playing Field, Or Reversed Doping? (April 11, 2010). The Global Herald. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-05-14. Retrieved 2013-12-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  22. ^ Your Beautiful Child: Information for Parents OII-USA, May 16, 2013
  23. ^ http://www.nibjournal.org/news/documents/Voices_2016_OA_FINAL-withOLOS_version_001.pdf Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, Volume 5, Number 2, Summer, 2015. Reprinted in Voices, Personal Stories from the Pages of NIB, Normalizing Intersex Issue, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2016, 29- 32
  24. ^ https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/queer-9780190277109?cc=us&lang=en&/ Queer: A Reader for Writers, editor Jason Schneiderman, editor, Oxford University Press, January, 2016
  25. ^ Inside Edition. "Hermaphrodite Runner" (September 16, 2009). https://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=9HwLfvKPAZY&video_referrer=watch&ns=1. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
  26. ^ http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/18/hida.viloria.intersex.athlete/ My LIfe as Mighty Hermaphrodite, CNN.com, September 18, 2009
  27. ^ OII’s Petition to the IOC: Depathologization & Fair Policies for Intersex Athletes (February 25, 2010). http://oii-usa.org/3062/oiis-petition-to-the-international-olympic-committee-ioc/
  28. ^ Viloria, Hida (April 11, 2010). Gender Rules in Sport – Leveling The Playing Field, Or Reversed Doping? (April 11, 2010). The Global Herald. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-05-14. Retrieved 2013-12-10. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  29. ^ Well, Is She Or Isn't She?, SI, September 7, 2009
  30. ^ Is sex testing in the Olympics a fool's errand? Jon Bardin in Los Angeles Times, July 30, 2012
  31. ^ Reexamining Rationales of “Fairness”: An Athlete and Insider's Perspective on the New Policies on Hyperandrogenism in Elite Female Athletes, The American Journal of Bioethics, Volume 12, Issue 7, 2012
  32. ^ Olympics’ New Hormone Regulations: Judged By How You Look, Hida Viloria and Georgiann Davis in Ms. Magazine, July 30, 2012
  33. ^ Viloria, Hida. Letters to the Editor. The New York Times (June 23, 2012).
  34. ^ http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201409031709-0024124/ No Games for Women with Too Much Testosterone, Aljazeera, The Stream, September 3, 2014
  35. ^ Stop Freaking Out About Intersex Athletes, The Advocate, September 18, 2014
  36. ^ E.D. Hida Viloria in the Groundbreaking GENDERNAUTS April 23, 2013, Retrieved 23 June 2106
  37. ^ Oprah, "Growing Up Intersex," Oprah, 2007
  38. ^ https://www.lambdalegal.org/news/us_20151026_zzyym-intersex-denied-passport/ Lambda Legal Sues U.S. State Department on Behalf of Intersex Citizen Denied Passport, Lambda Legal, October 26, 2015
  39. ^ https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/hida-viloria/born-both/ Kirkus Review, Born Both, January 4, 2017
  40. ^ http://oii-usa.org/4301/nyc-issues-second-intersex-birth-certificate/ NYC Issues Second Intersex Birth Certificate! Intersex Campaign for Equality, June 21, 2017
  41. ^ https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/books/review/memoir-human-body.html/ New in Memoir: The Intersex Body, the Dead Body, the Body in Grief, Meghan Daum, The New York Times, May 24, 2017
  42. ^ Germany’s Third Gender Law Fails on Equality, The Advocate, November 2013
  43. ^ Germany’s Third Gender Law: Not What Intersex People Most Need, The Global Herald, November 2013
  44. ^ World Have Your Say
  45. ^ OII receives reply from US Department of State to OII Chairperson Hida Viloria's letter asking for intersex inclusion in LGBTI - not LGBT-only - global human rights efforts OII-USA, February 23, 2012
  46. ^ http://oii-usa.org/1040/oii-usa-director-hida-vilorias-call-inclusion-intersex-human-rights-today-united-nations-high-commissioner-human-rights-navi-pillay//
  47. ^ 3rd International Intersex Forum in Malta, ILGA-Europe, 22 July 2013
  48. ^ Sport Comes Out Against Homophobia, UN Live United Nations TV, December 10, 2013
  49. ^ At UN human rights event, Navratilova and Collins decry homophobic violence, United Nations UN News Centre, December 10, 2013
  50. ^ https://www.bustle.com/p/the-20-best-nonfiction-books-coming-in-march-2017-41528/ The 20 Best Non-fiction Books Coming in March 2017, Bustle, March 1, 2017
  51. ^ http://hidaviloria.com/born-both-selected-as-one-of-peoples-best-new-books/ The Best New Books, People, April 3, 2017
  52. ^ http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24913580-the-human-agenda/ The Human Agenda: Conversations about Sexual Orientation & Gender Identity, editor Joe Wenke, Trans Uber, 2015
  53. ^ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lichen-Pierre-Redon/dp/2915794650/ Lichen, Pierre Redon, MF éditions, June 4, 2015
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