On a Third Sex

THE creation of a new category to be designated intersex poses several problems.

First of all, how do we define intersex? OII believes that there will be never a clear definition and at the same time, that it is not necessary to have a legal definition for intersex. We have no clear definitions for what a woman is or a man is. We only assume this to be the case.

The purpose of OII is to work in favour of human rights for  intersex by helping people to understand that there are not just two pre-existing sexes. There is an infinite combination of possibilities on the spectrum of sex and gender.

The creation of a specific category for  intersex risks even more marginalization of a group which is poorly understood. We base our legal arguments on the right of every person to determine her/his own identity in the binary system in the hope that eventually there would be no attempt to impose legal sex categories on anyone.