Intersex Asia celebrates its 3rd anniversary

10th February, 2021

Today, on February 10th, 2021, Intersex Asia (IA) has reached an exciting milestone as the organisation celebrates three years since its establishment. What began in 2013 as a small Facebook group of intersex activists has emerged as a continually growing regional network of member organisations and intersex voices from across the Asian region today. After our first gathering at the ILGA Asia Conference in 2015 in Taipei, the decision to formally start the regional network was taken at the First Asian Intersex Forum organised three years ago in Bangkok, supported by the Intersex Human Rights Fund from Astraea,.

Over the course of the last three years, founders of the network have worked tirelessly to create a concrete foundation for the organisation. Achieving this milestone was possible due to the selfless service of the founders and the gracious support of our donors and partners. Special thanks are due to our first board members: Esan Regmi, Gopi Shankar Madurai, Jeff B. Cagandahan and our first donors Astraea, MamaCash, RFSL, COC and OSF. We take this opportunity to thank all individuals and organisations who have stood with us and supported us, We would like to extend a special thanks to Ruth Baldacchino from Astraea, Vu from ILGA Asia, Ryan Joseph Figueiredo from Equal Asia Foundation, Ryan Silverio from ASC, Midnight Poonkasetwattana from APCOM and many more. Today, we are a far more resilient network and our reach is growing every day. Values of mutual love, respect and solidarity have been the guiding principles in our journey. These values have held us in good stead in the pursuit of our vision and mission of creating a world where being intersex is celebrated, and where intersex people are able to love themselves and grow together as a community.

We take pride in the fact that we have been able to stand with our community members in times of adversity and have been able to support them in their efforts towards community building and advocacy for intersex rights. Our role as a regional organisation is to empower and build capacity of intersex activists and communities, enhance intersex visibility, spread awareness about intersex issues witin and outside the intersex community and advocate for law and policy reforms in Asia. In a short span of three years, we have made significant strides towards our mission and have taken our message from grassroots communities to regional and international forums. In the past three years, the Asian intersex community has had many breakthroughs owing to the continuous efforts of intersex leaders from the region. Intersex Asia has been a crucial ally in supporting our community members in taking up such challenges.

Reflecting on the occasion, Hiker Chiu, Chair and Executive Director of Intersex Asia, said, “We have achieved this milestone through the hard work and dedication of our board members and our culture of mutual love and support that exists throughout the entire organization. No one could have predicted the dramatic events that unfolded in the past one year. In a moment of such global health crisis our journey as a regional network, alongside our member organisations and partners has been incredible. We’ve weathered troubling circumstances, unimaginable challenges, and a lethal pandemic. Thanks to our dedicated executive board and devoted staff, we’ve been able to support, grow and thrive. We are proud to report that we are now an International NGO registered in Taiwan and that we are looking forward to the times that lie ahead of us. Intersex Asia remains motivated: with the support of our new board, elected in December 2020, we will continue to pursue our vision to create an egalitarian world where the intersex community feels at home.”