History

Timeline of Intersex Movement in Asia

• 1995 An Osaka-based support group for intersex individuals and their families PESFIS (Peer Support for InterSexuals) established and started its mandate in Japan. 
• 2003  “Intersex Initiative Japan” website was launched by a special project team making up of five Japanese scholars and activists, as well as the Intersex Initiative director, who lived in Portland, Oregon. Intersex Initiative Japan is the first Japanese website providing general information about intersexuality written from the patient-centered perspective and mainly targeted on the lay audience.
• 2003 Jeff B. Cagandahan, a Filipino intersex person, filed a Petition for Correction of Entries in Birth Certificate before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) to change his name and his sex (from female to male). 
• 2008 Hiker Chiu founded OII Chinese in Taiwan by the invitation from OII founder Curtis Hinkle, OII Chinese is the first and only one website and organization led by an intersex person for Chinese-speaking intersex community. 
• 2008 Jeff B. Cagandahan successfully changed his name and gender on his birth certificate became the first person to achieve it in the Philippines.
• 2010 OII-Chinese founder Hiker Chiu came out publicly and initiated the Global Free Hugs with Intersex campaign at the 8th Taipei’s LGBT Pride Parade in Taiwan.
• 2010  Esan Regmi, the first intersex activist from Nepal interviewed by local newspapers “Daily of  Bajura” in Nepal.
• 2011 Srishti Madurai India, an intersex organization, was founded by Indian intersex activist, Gopi Shankar Madurai.
• 2011 Hiker Chiu attended the First International Intersex Forum in Belgium as the only delegate from Asia.
• 2012 Beyond the Boundary-Knowing and Concerns Intersex Hong Kong was founded by local intersex activist, Small Luk.
• 2012 2nd International Intersex Forum in Sweden, Hiker Chiu was still the only one representing Asian intersex activists.
• 2013 OII-Chinese founder Hiker Chiu participated in the 5th ILGA Asia Conference in Bangkok and introduced the intersex issue to the LGBT community for the first time at the regional level in Asia
• 2013 Intersex Asia Facebook group was established by Hiker Chiu
• 2013 At the 3rd International Intersex Forum in Malta, Small Luk, the intersex activist from Hong Kong (China) was proposed by Hiker Chiu to participate in the forum as the Asian delegate.  
• 2014 OII-Chinese founder Hiker Chiu submitted a shadow report on intersex human rights issues to the UN CEDAW (The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women) experts invited by the Taiwan government to monitor the human rights violations of women’s rights.
• 2014 OII Intersex Philippines was established, the founder Jonaylyn came out and her story was produced as a drama to be screen on mainstream TV and the internet.
• 2015 Hong Kong intersex activist Small Luk came out publicly
• 2015 Indian intersex activist Gopi Shankar Madurai came out publicly
• 2015 Astraea started the world’s first intersex human rights fund. Hiker Chiu was invited to be the advisor for the Asian region of the fund. Intersex activists and their organizations in Asia started to receive the funds for their activism and work.
• 2015 Hiker Chiu was invited to represent Asia to join an Expert meeting on the Human Rights of Intersex People organized by OHCHR at the UN office in Geneva. 
• 2015 UN OHCHR started to wage a campaign for free and equal rights for intersex people, as part of the Free & Equal campaign. A factsheet on intersex was published by the UN Free & Equal initiative. The Chinese version of the factsheet was brought to and shared in Asia during the ILGA Asia Taipei conference in Taiwan.
• 2015 At the ILGA Asia conference, Hiker Chiu organized the first Asian intersex activists gathering in Asia and was selected as the co-chair of ILGA Asia. It helped to raise awareness in LGBT communities in Asia of intersex issues. 
• 2015 Hiker Chiu brought together other Asian intersex activists and joined the largest LGBT pride parade in Taipei, Taiwan. They collectively came out in front of 80,000 people during Taipei’s pride event.
• 2015 Small Luk self-funded herself to Geneva and submitted an intersex shadow report on behalf of Hong Kong CSO to the UN CAT Committee (The United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment). The Committee issued Concluding Observations for Hong Kong, criticizing IGM practices as “an inhuman treatment” and that in breach of the Convention against Torture. 
• 2016 A first national intersex meeting was organized in Nepal, and Esan Regmi, the Nepali intersex activist published the first collective intersex storybook Stories of Intersex People from Nepal in Asia, with the support of UNDP’s Being LGBTI in Asia programme. 
• 2016  Esan Regmi submitted a shadow report to the UN CRC Committee (Convention on the Rights of the Child) to call for Nepal to stop IGM (Intersex Genital Mutilation). CRC committee included the intersex issues in their concluding observation and that were adopted by the government of Nepal.
• 2017 Six Asian intersex activists attended the 4th International Intersex Forum which was held in Amsterdam. For the first time, there is more than one single intersex activist from Asia in this international arena. 
• 2017 Campaign for Change (CFC) the first and only registered intersex organization was founded in Nepal by Esan Regmi. The name of the organization does not include the term “intersex” due to the stigmatization.
• 2018 The First Asian Intersex Forum was held in Bangkok and the activists in the forum published the first Asian Intersex Statement. 
• 2018  An intersex regional network organization, Intersex Asia, was formally established. Hiker Chiu and Esan Regmi were selected as the co-chairs of Intersex Asia. 
• 2018 Esan Regmi submitted a shadow report to the UN CEDAW Committee (Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) on intersex issues. CEDAW committee included the intersex issues in their concluding observation and that were adopted by the government of Nepal.
• 2018 The Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan issued a notice of the “Recommended principles for medical corrective surgery of underaged intersex people”  to avoid resulting in unnecessary harm from early non-emergency and irreversible gender surgery of intersex babies and children with unidentified sex or gender. 
• 2019 In India, the Madras High Court Madurai Bench issued a historic verdict that banned intersex sex-selective surgeries in the Tamil Nadu State of India.
• 2019 With the support of Intersex Asia, a first-ever State Policy Briefing Meeting on Intersex Human Rights Issues with the Government of Tamil Nadu, India, was co-organized by Srishti Madurai, advocating the relevant stakeholders to enforce and implement the court’s decision to ban the sex-selective surgeries on intersex infants and children. 
• 2019  Intersex Philippines was legally registered as an NGO in the Philippines.
• 2019 The Second Asian Intersex Forum was held in Seoul, Korea. 
• 2019 Seven intersex activists attended the 8th ILGA Asia Conference in Seoul, and they organized a whole-day pre-conference and two workshop sessions to raise the awareness of intersex issues in the LGBT community in the region of Asia during the conference. 
• 2019 At the 8th ILGA Asia Conference, co-chairs of Intersex Asia, Hiker Chiu, and Esan Regmi, as well as the board member Jeff B. Cagandahan,  had an interactive dialogue with the UN SOGI Independent Expert Victor Madrigal-Borloz. As intersex activists from the Asian region, they introduced the human rights issues of Intersex people on the ground and shared their perspectives of how the mandate can support Intersex rights advancement at the national, regional and international level.
• 2019 A Government Order was issued by the government of Tamil Nadu, India, banning unnecessary sex reassignment surgeries on intersex infants and children.
• 2019 Srishti Madurai, in collaboration with NNID Netherlands, submits a joint submission titled-‘Rights of Intersex Children in India’ before the UN Committee on Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD). In its concluding observations, the Committee recommends that the Indian government institute a ban on intersex infanticide and unnecessary surgeries on intersex children.
• 2020 The Indian Parliament enacted a law called Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act. The law aims to provide legal protection for transgender people and intersex people. There are several flaws in the law as it fails to distinguish between transgender persons and intersex persons.
• 2020 Gopi Shankar Madurai- senior Intersex activist from India is appointed as a member of National Council for Transgender Persons. The Council is a statutory body which has been given a wide mandate under the Transgender Persons Act, 2019 to advice the government in designing laws, policies, welfare schemes and grievance redressal mechanisms for transgender and intersex people in India.
• 2020 Intersex Asia launched a year-long fellowship program to support the capacity development of seven intersex fellows from five different Asian countries- Bangladesh, India, Mongolia, Pakistan and the Philippines.
• 2020 Bangladesh Intersex Forum (BIF)- Bangladesh’s first intersex-led group organises a historic first meeting of intersex people in Dhaka in December 2020 with the support of Intersex Asia and COC.
• 2021 On 12th January, the Delhi Commission for Protection for Child Rights (DCPCR) recommended that the Government of Delhi institute a ban on the practice of medically unnecessary sex selective surgeries on intersex infants. It is pertinent to mention here that in 2019, the state of Tamil Nadu became the first state in India to mandate legal protection for intersex children.

Global Intersex Movement & Achievements

• 1985 AISSG (Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group) was the first intersex support group founded in Australia.
• 1993 ISNA (Intersex Society of North America) was founded by Cheryl Chase in the United States.
• 2003 OII (Organization Intersex International) was founded as a response to the needs of people with intersex traits by providing intersex-related information in various languages.
• 2008 ILGA World includes “intersex” in its name and mandate.
• 2011 The First International Intersex Forum in Brussels, Belgium.
• 2012 The Second International Intersex Forum in Stockholm.
• 2013 The Third International Intersex Forum in Malta.
• 2013 During the ILGA Asia Conference in Bangkok. Taiwanese intersex activist Hiker Chiu decided to build up the Facebook community “Intersex Asia” to reach out to more intersex activists from Asia.  
• 2015 Malta bans surgeries on intersex infants without consent.
• 2017 The Fourth International Intersex Forum in Amsterdam (This forum had much larger Asian visibility and representation with 6 participants from the region of Asia).
• 2017 The First African Intersex Meeting in Johannesburg, South Africa.
• 2018 The First Asian Intersex Forum was held in Bangkok, Thailand.
• 2018 The First Latin American Regional Conference of Intersex Persons in San José, Costa Rica.
• 2018 In Taiwan, the Ministry of Health and Welfare issued a notice of the “Recommended principles for medical corrective surgery of underaged intersex people”  which is a medical paradigm shift for the treatment of intersex children in Taiwan.
• 2019 In India, the Madras High Court Madurai Bench issued a historic verdict that banned intersex sex-selective surgeries in the Tamil Nadu State of India. A few months later, the Tamil Nadu government issued a G.O. banning the sex reassignment surgeries on intersex infants and children.
• 2019 The Second Asian Intersex Forum in Seoul, Korea.
• 2019 In Netherlands, the Equal Treatment Act was amended, introducing sex characteristics as prohibited grounds of discrimination in its Article 1(2).
• 2021 The German Parliament enacted a law to ban unnecessary surgeries on intersex infants and children.