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Kitty Anderson (activist)

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Kitty Anderson
NationalityIcelandic
OccupationCommunity activist
Known forIntersex activist, co-chair of OII Europe

Kitty Anderson is an Icelandic intersex activist. She is a co-chair of European intersex organization OII Europe, a co-founder of Intersex Iceland, and chairman of the board of the Icelandic Human Rights Centre.[1] She has been described as a "leading voice of the intersex movement in Europe."[2]

Background

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Kitty Anderson was born with androgen insensitivity. She found out when she was 13, but only found out she was born with internal testes when she was aged 22.[3][4] Anderson has reported that her "mother was told to lie" to her until she was aged 13.[5][6]

Activism

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Anderson co-founded Intersex Iceland in 2014,[7] and currently serves as its chairperson.[3] She is co-chair and spokesperson[8] of OII Europe and chairperson of the board of the Icelandic Human Rights Centre.[1] She has also served on the board of Samtökin '78, Iceland's national queer organization, and the national Ministry of Welfare Queer Committee from 2014 to 2016.[3] Anderson has spoken against secrecy and shame associated with intersex:

When I found out I was 13 and I completely freaked out. There can be a lot of secrecy and stigma related to being intersex and it was something that had been kept from me. But when my cousin – who is also intersex – was born a couple of years later, my family didn’t keep it a secret and it was a healing process for all of us [4]

She also campaigns against intersex medical interventions.[9][10] In an interview with NIKK, Anderson has stated that "surgeries will continue until we get a law that prohibits them".[11]

Anderson has presented to the Council of Europe Committee on Bioethics,[12] and speaks at a range of conferences,[2][13] media,[14][15][16] and human rights institutions across Scandinavia and Europe.[17]

In 2015, Anderson campaigned to change terminology in the biology curriculum in Icelandic schools, and dictionaries, after finding out that the word intersex was being translated into Icelandic as "freak".[18][19] The publisher of the school text later apologized.[20]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Board and Partners". Icelandic Human Rights Centre. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Speakers – Nicosia 2016". ILGA-Europe. Archived from the original on November 24, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  3. ^ a b c "Kitty Anderson – Reykjavík, Iceland". Interface Project. October 2017. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
  4. ^ a b Amnesty International (October 25, 2016). "Understanding the 'i' in LGBTI". Retrieved November 22, 2018.
  5. ^ Demurtas, Alice (February 19, 2018). "Iceland Violates Human Rights By Performing Surgery On Intersex Children". The Reykjavik Grapevine. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  6. ^ Björg Guðbrandsdóttir, Kristjana (May 23, 2015). "Við vorum einar í heiminum". Visir. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  7. ^ "AIC Guest Blog Kitty Anderson, Intersex Iceland". Interact Advocates for Intersex Youth. October 27, 2014. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  8. ^ "IDAHO 2015: Montenegro's government contributes significantly to holding of 14th Roundtable of European Governmental LGBT Focal Points Network". Government of Montenegro. May 12, 2015. Archived from the original on July 3, 2015. Retrieved July 2, 2015.
  9. ^ "[VIDEO] Frontline Dispatches: Intersex Children And Medical Sex Assignment – Whose Right To Choose?". OII Europe. June 10, 2016. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  10. ^ "Puppets controlled by the system". Reykjavik Pride. July 16, 2015. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  11. ^ "Some bodies are obviously undesirable". NIKK. October 4, 2016. Archived from the original on November 24, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  12. ^ "Bioethics committee discussed the human rights of intersex and transgender children and young people". Council of Europe. June 1, 2016. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  13. ^ "Intersex Conference Vienna 2017". Archived from the original on March 14, 2019. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  14. ^ "Þarf að tryggja mannréttindi intersex fólks". mbl.is. February 16, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  15. ^ O'Donnell, Chris (June 2018), "Intersex Education", GCN, pp. 100–103
  16. ^ "A different biology". Cyprus Mail. November 11, 2016. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  17. ^ Guilbert, Kieran (April 14, 2018). "Portugal approves law to boost transgender rights, protect intersex infants". Reuters. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  18. ^ Þórlaug Óskarsdóttir, Halla (August 10, 2015). "We Should Not Be Teaching Prejudice in Our Schools". Gay Iceland. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  19. ^ J, Leslie (October 8, 2015). "We Should Not Be Teaching Prejudice". OII-UK. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  20. ^ Eyvindsson, Roald (August 10, 2015). "Publisher Apologizes for Poor Translation". Gay Iceland.
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