Hida Viloria comes out as intersex and non-binary on 20/20

“There are thousands of others like her, and it is for their sake that she comes forward tonight. Lynn Sher with a woman determined to change the way people with ambiguous gender are treated.”
— Barbara Walters describing OII’s Hida Viloria on the U.S. television news program “20/20”. April 19, 2002.

Viloria speaks openly about being genderfluid, as well as intersex, which makes “ambiguous gender” apropos to their experience and identity. While some might argue that the use of “ambiguous gender”, rather than “ambiguous sex” to describe intersex people is inaccurate, we note that Walter’s was actually ahead of the curve, in terms of U.S. rhetoric, because the terms “gender” and “sex” are now used interchangeably in identification document laws for transgender people. In some states a person’s “gender”, not “sex”, is changed (ex. Links to Online forms for California Change of Name and/or Gender), and “gender identity” is now often described as “male” or “female”, although those terms traditionally signified biological “sex” traits, not gender as in gender identity. The experience of intersex women with CAIS has always revealed that “sex” is not always defined according to “male” or “female” biological traits, but about how ones social “gender” is perceived.

Full interview in two parts on YouTube.

Part 1 of 2

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xv1yk2Va9qc]
Part two features the amazingly revealing statement by Dr. Kenneth Glassberg, in support of IGM: “Society can’t accept people of different colors and now we’re supposed to accept somebody with genitalia that doesn’t match what their gender is? I do not believe this society is ready for it.”

Part 2 of 2

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHbBTEeayEU]