On this day in 1913 author E.M. Forster finished work on the first draft of his novel Maurice.

The book tells the tale of Maurice Hall a young man who develops a romantic relationship with his university friend Clive Durham. His heart is broken when Clive marries, leading Maurice to explore various avenues to cure himself of homosexuality. He later falls in love with Alec Scudder, one of the workers on Durham’s estate. The novel explores class difference and attitudes towards homosexuality, while at its core being a same-sex love story.

Forster showed the novel to only a few close confidants and it was not published until 1971 after his death. He revised the work several times, first in 1932 and then again in 1959 – 60.

The author felt it was not publishable due to negative attitudes towards homosexuality in Britain. Forster passed away in 1970 aged 91, the novel was found with a note attached reading “Publishable, but worth it?”

During his life Forster found success with many other books including A Room With a View, Passage to India, Howards End, Where Angels Fear to Tread and The Longest Journey. He also authored many short stories, plays, travel essays and literacy criticism.

Maurice was adapted into a feature film in 1987, it was one of the first film roles for Hugh Grant who played Clive, James Wilby portrayed Maurice, while Rupert Graves took on the role of Alec.

Singer Janis Joplin died in 1970 at just 27 years of age

Singer Janis Joplin is remembered for her powerful voice and the hard partying which lead to her early death at the age of just twenty-seven.

In the years since her passing, it’s also been recognised that Joplin was bisexual and had many relationships with both men and women.

Born in Texas in 1943, Joplin suffered bullying during her school years and found solace in the music of blues greats including Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Lead Belly. She began performing blues numbers with school friends, and when she went to college, she joined a folk trio.

In 1962 she dropped out of college and hitchhiked to San Francisco. She began recording music, but also struggled with addiction to methamphetamine, heroin and psychogenic substances. Friends banded together to buy her a bus fare home to Texas where with the help of her family she returned to good health.

By 1966 she had returned to San Francisco where she joined psychedelic rock band Big Brother and the Holding Company. The band toured the west coast of America and began building up a loyal fanbase and the following year released their debut album. Soon the band was being billed with Joplin’s name out the front.

In 1968 the band covered the song Piece of My Heart, which was originally recorded the previous year by Erma Franklin, the older sister of soul singer Aretha Franklin. The song became Joplin’s signature tune.

Joplin had gone solo by the time she appeared at the legendary Woodstock Music Festival in 1969. By this stage the singer’s drinking and drug taking was growing again and at times it seriously affected her ability to perform. The singer continued to tour and spend time in the studio working on her next album, but she was increasingly reliant on alcohol and drugs.

Joplin was found dead on the floor of her hotel room at the Landmark Motel in Los Angeles on this day in 1970, her body discovered by her road manager and close friend John Byrne Clarke. The coroner later ruled her death was a heroin overdose and that alcohol was also a factor, describing in her passing as an accidental death.

In 1970 the posthumous album Pearl became the biggest of her career and included her take on Me and Bobby McGee, a song written by Kris Kristofferson and Fred Foster, that had first been performed by Roger Miller.

Joplin’s death at 27 shocked music fans and followed just a month after the death of Canned Heat singer Alan Wilson. Just sixteen days after Joplin’s death, guitarist Jimi Hendrix also passed away. All three were 27 years old at the time of their passing.

The collective deaths are often referred to as the 27-club, an informal list of actors, artists and musicians who have died from overdoses. The following year The Doors’ Jim Morrison would overdose at the same age, and the Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones would also be added to the list. In later years Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, artist Jean Michel Basquiat and singer Amy Winehouse would also be 27 years old at the time of their passing.

Joplin left behind four studio albums, two with Big Brother and the Holding Company, and two solo records. Over the years several live recordings have also been released. She is remembered as one of the best rock singers of all time.

Monty Python star Graham Chapman died in 1989

Comedian Graham Chapman who was a co-founder of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, died of throat cancer at the age of 48, on this day in 1989. He was survived by his partner of 23 years, David Sherlock, and John Tomiczek who the couple adopted as a teenager in 1971.

Chapman had played the lead role in several of the comedy troupe’s films including Holy Grail and The Life of Brian.  He first came out during an appearance on a television show in 1972. He was a vocal spokesperson for gay rights and one of the few prominent celebrities who spoke about being gay.

Famous people born on this day

Former Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir celebrates her 83nd birthday, internationally acclaimed theatre director Robert Wilson was also born on this day, he passed away in 2025, while Chris Lowe from Pet Shop Boys is 66 today.

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Isabelle Lake is remembered for her passionate advocacy for the rights of transgender people in Western Australia. Following her death at the age of just 21 she became the first transgender woman to be inducted in the WA Women’s Hall of Fame.

Lake, an LGBT activist, passed away on 28th February 2012 due to leukemia. Lake was an active member of the queer community who was particularly passionate about the rights of Western Australia’s transgender people.

When she was 18-year-old, Isabelle began living her life to the fullest, transitioning to her female gender. Isabelle made her transition with the support of her family, friends and the Freedom Centre.

A year later she developed an aggressive form of Leukemia that she and her family fought with vigor. In 2010 she resumed studies at UWA, studying Microbiology, Immunology and History with a passion and intellect that hadn’t sparked in her prior life.

Despite the incredible challenges she had already faced in her young life, it was during this time that Isabelle became an enthusiastic and effective voluntary worker with a range of organisations including the Freedom Centre, the WA Gender Project, Slut Walk Perth and the Equal Opportunity Commission. However, in November 2011 the Leukemia returned and despite another hard fight she succumbed on 28 February 2012.

Since her passing Isabelle has been inducted into the WA Women’s Hall of Fame on International Women’s Day in 2015 and a memorial fund has been established in her name.

The annual Isabelle Lake Memorial Lecture ran for a decade and became a key point for discussions about transgender rights and advocacy. The final lecture was delivered in 2023 by AFL coach Dani Laidley.

Karl-Maria Kertbeny was born in Vienna in 1824 

On this day in 1824 Karl-Maria Benkert was born born in Austria. He was the first writer to use the words homosexual and heterosexual. Prior to his writings people had been described as sodomites and pederasts. He also proposed that people who only masturbated should be called monosexual.

As a young man he worked as a bookseller’s apprentice, he recounted he had a young friend who was gay, when someone found out about his sexuality, they tried to blackmail the friend, who sadly took his own life rather than be exposed. When he was 23 Benkert changed his name to Kertbeny – which had more aristocratic associations.

After a stint in the army he began working as a journalist and travel writer, publishing at least 25 books. In the late 1860’s he began to write extensively about homosexuality, coining the term himself. While he publicly claimed that his interest was from an anthropological perspective, describing himself as “normally sexed”, his diaries revealed that he was most likely homosexual.

In his writing Kertbeny proposed that people who were same sex attracted were not possessed by the devil or evilness, rather gay people were born with their sexual attraction, and it was unchangeable. He also challenged the notion that gay men were effeminate and highlighted that many heroes throughout history were thought to be gay.

Kertbeny did not live to see his terminology become common use around the world, he died in Budapest in 1882 aged 58. In recent years the local gay community has placed a new tombstone at his grave, and it has become a part of their annual Pride celebrations to place a wreath at his resting place.

In 2017 Eric Abetz declared the rainbow flag was a symbol of a hostile nation

Australia’s long journey to marriage equality took many years and had many odd and unusual moments, and on this day in 2017 Liberal MP Eric Abetz described the Pride flag as being the symbol of a hostile nation.

Senator Abetz made the statement during a Senate Estimates Committee hearing.

The Tasmanian senator, who was a leading campaigner in the fight to stop marriage equality in Australia, quizzed officials from the Department of Finance about the protocols for flying a rainbow flag within a government building.

Senator Abetz said he had heard reports of the rainbow flag, which is a symbol of the gay and lesbian community, being displayed within the foyer of the Department of Finance. The Liberal MP said because some employees of the Department of Finance may be opposed to marriage equality it was only proper that an equal opportunity be given to a group arguing for the marriage laws to remain in their current state.

“To cut to the chase, there was the rainbow flag on display in the lobby which, believe it or not, some people see as an activist flag for a particular cause in relation to an issue of whether or not we should change the legislation on marriage and some people of course support that cause, others don’t.

“If that is allowed, then one imagines that the Marriage Alliance banner should be flown equally,” Senator Abetz said.

Things then took an unexpected turn when Senator Abetz went on to describe the rainbow striped Pride flag as the symbol of a “hostile nation”.

“This particular flag, you will realise, is the flag of the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands, that declared war on Australia.”  Senator Abetz said.

The accusation left pretty much everyone scratching their heads. Until some research revealed that back in 2004 a protest against the nation’s ban on same sex marriage was launched. A tiny uninhabited island in the coral sea was proclaimed The Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea. Activist Dale Parker Anderson was proclaimed the emperor of the protest nation.

The protesters then declared war on Australia. They also chose Handel’s Zadok the Priest as their national anthem and released some colorful postage stamps. The nation claimed to be 100% homosexual and their main camp was named Heaven after the famous queer nightclub in London.

Senator Abetz’s claims that we were at war with an island nation filled with homosexuals coincided with a push from the Australian Christian Lobby to have the rainbow flag banned from flying on any public buildings.

OIP Staff, this post was first published in 2021 and has subsequently been updated.  

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He introduced a similar order during his first presidency, the rule was then revoked by Joe Biden during his term in office.

The new order will potentially force all current personnel who are transgender to be removed from their employment. While he’s also ordered that the military’s diversity, inclusion and equity programs be gutted.

Prior to Trump’s first presidency it was estimated that there were 14,000 transgender personnel in the US armed forces.

Alongside the orders relating to transgender staff, the President also ordered that all military personnel who had been dismissed for failing to take COVID vaccinations be reinstated with back pay.

The President also ordered the development of an ‘iron dome’ missile protection system in the USA. The Executive Order directs implementation of a next generation missile defense shield for the United States against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles, and other next generation aerial attacks, according to paperwork cited by CNN.

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Federal prosecutors had described Dr Eithan Haim, a 34-year-old surgeon, as having snatched the private medical records of patients who were young people experiencing gender dysphoria.

He was accused of passing them on to an activist as part of a campaign to cause malicious damage to the Texas Children’s Hospital. It was alleged that Doctor Haim had accessed the hospitals database under false pretenses two years after he stopped working at the facility.

Dr Haim had pleaded not guilty to four counts of wrongfully obtaining identifiable health information and had described himself as a “whistleblower.” If he had been found guilty at trial, he could have faced up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

At the time providing gender affirming care to minors was legal in Texas but the hospital had previously announced it had stopped providing care after an investigation was ordered by Govenor Greg Abbott.

Dr Haim claimed he had redacted all the identifiable information from the patients before handing it on to the activist. Speaking to the New York Times he said the news that prosectors were dropping the case had come as a surprise, but he said it was thanks to President Trump.

Johnathan Gooch, a spokesman for Equality Texas said the decision was another assault on the rights of transgender people in the region.

“I think this whole incident with the exposure of private medical data seriously eroded a lot of trust between LGBTQ people in Texas and their doctors, which is such an important relationship,” Gooch said.

“I think it is alarming to see an implicit endorsement of anti-trans vigilantism from the Justice Department. If this is permissible, what else is permissible?”

In 2023 Texas changed its laws making it illegal for doctors to give puberty blockers, hormone treatment or gender related surgery to people under the age of 18.

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“The Cairns Sexual Health Service delivered an apparently unauthorised pediatric gender service without an agreed model of care to 42 pediatric gender service clients, 17 of whom were prescribed stage one or stage two hormone therapy in a way that may not align with treatment guidelines,” Health Minister Tim Nicholls told the Courier Mail on Monday.

The report claims that children as young as twelve years of age were prescribed puberty blockers and cross sex hormones without parental consent, or the correct level of medical support.

The newspaper says concern about the operations of the Cairns Sexual Health Service were raised by a whistleblower health worker who came into contact with a young person who had been prescribed puberty blocker medication without the required consultation with mental health professionals or an endocrinologist.

An internal review reportedly found that patients were being given treatments that were not was backed by the required experience and credentials and did not adhere to the Australian Standards of Care and Treatment Guidelines for Trans and Gender Diverse Children and Adolescents. Since November last year the service has not been accepting any new clients who are under the age of 18.

The previous Labor government completed a review of Gender Services in 2024 that made 25 recommendations on how services in the state could be improved, it did not include any services that were allegedly occurring at the Cairns facility.

Earlier this month the new Liberal government said it was halting the implementation of recommendations from the report, and another review might be required. The party’s policy is that they do not support the gender affirming model of treatment for gender dysphoria and are opposed to the prescription of puberty blocking medications.

Last year the British government banned the use of puberty blocker medication in the United Kingdom following the publication of the Cass Review into the services offered at the Tavistock Clinic.

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The bill passed 218 – 206, with two Democrats voting in favour of the bill. The legislation will now have to get through the senate to progress to the next stage in the political process.

The Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act would remove Title IX rules that currently allow transgender girls to play sport in the female category. The ban would apply to any school receiving federal funding.

Florida representative Greg Steube who sponsored the bill said the law needed reflect the belief that God created distinct categories of men and women.

“All throughout humanity, we have recognized as a species that there are women and there are men, as God created, who are obviously biologically different.” Steube said.

Speaking after the bill was passed on the Christian news program Washington Watch Steube said that terms including ‘transgender girl’ and ‘transgender boy’ were made up terms that didn’t exist a decade ago.

“The Democrats call this discriminating against trans women and trans boys and all of that kind of stuff, made up terminology. Ten years ago nobody would have known what that word means.”

The Republican representative said the Democrat members supported over 70 different genders, including people who identified as “astral gender”. Steube said astral gendered people believe they have a gender related to outer space.

“They can define what astral gender is but they can’t define what a woman is.” Steube said.

The Republican member said during the debate Democrat members has lied by suggesting that the bill would lead to sport coaches asking to see children’s genitals to confirm they gender. Steube said the bill would just require parents to supply their child’s birth certificates.

At a media conference following the passage of the bill Republican representative Lisa McClain from Michigan said the laws were needed because of predatory men, and the recent election of Donald Trump as the country’s President had delivered a mandate to take action.

“They do not want men in women’s sport or locker rooms and we’re following through with the mandate given to us. It sickens me knowing that confused and predatory men can take away years of hard work from our girls ad enter their sports and their locker rooms.”

House speaker Mike Johnson told the media that “biology is not bigotry” saying the belief that humans were only male and female was supported by both biology and scripture.

The bill has been opposed by more than 400 civil rights organisations who argue that it marks an unprecedented intrusion into school sports that could spark widespread investigations into student medical records.

How many transgender students are in the USA is debatable, figures from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 3% of the student population is transgender. However a 2022 report from The Williams Institute put the figure much lower at just 1.4 per cent. It would equate to around 300,000 young people between 13 and 17 years of age across the USA.

Local campaigners welcome the US decision and call on Australian leaders to follow suit

Stephanie Bastiaan from Australian Women’s Forum told Sky News that the decision was “absolutely beautiful” and she hoped it would lead to the topic being a major issue during the upcoming federal election campaign.

Western Australian independent MP Sophia Moermond also welcomed the decision saying Australia needed to take action on the issue too.

“The US is leading the way in protecting the rights of women and girls. Australia needs to reinstate the definition of woman/girl/female so that sex based protections become meaningful again.” Moermond said in a social media post.

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Lili Ilse Elvenes was born in 1882, her life story is the focus of the film ‘The Danish Girl’

Lili Ilse Elvenes, better known as Lili Elbe, was a Danish painter and one of the earliest recipients of gender reassignment surgery.

Born in Vejle, Denmark in 1882 she worked as a painter and illustrator. While studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts she married another arts student, Gerda Cottlieb. The couple travelled through Italy and France before settling in Paris in 1912. During this time Lili began to live more openly as a woman, often posing as her wife’s sister-in-law.

In 1930 she travelled to Germany to undergo a series of gender reassignment surgeries, which were to be carried out over a two-year period. At the time such surgeries were very experimental.

Her case became a sensation in the Danish and German newspapers. In Denmark the couple’s marriage was annulled, and Lili was able to gain a passport under her new name. She returned to Dresden and began a relationship with a French Art Dealer.

In 1931 she had her fourth surgery which saw doctors attempt to transplant a uterus to her body and create a vaginal canal. Lili Elbe became the second transgender woman to have a vaginoplasty.

Three months after he surgery her body rejected the transplant, and she was required to have additional surgery. She suffered from infection which led to her death from cardiac arrest on 13th September 1931 at the age of 48.

Her life story was shared in the novel The Danish Girl which was written by author David Ebershoff. It was adapted into a film in 2015 starring Eddie Redmayne. The film was criticised for using a cis-gendered actor to play a transgender woman, and in 2021 Redmayne said he regretted taking on the role.

OIP Staff, this post was first published in 2020. 

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Wales is a former SAS officer, business consultant and motivational speaker. He’s best known for appearing on the Network 10 series Survivor.

The West Australian has reported that Wales used his first speech to Liberal party members to outline how as an MP he’d stand up for free speech, citing author JK Rowling’s views on people who are transgender.

During a speech given on Saturday Wales reportedly said protecting freedom of speech was a top priority for him as a candidate.

“Starting with freedom of speech…. like JK Rowling, standing up to the bullies who went after her for suggesting it’s not okay for men who identify as women to take the place of our daughters on swim teams.” Wales said.

The aspiring politician also said he would be focusing on protecting people’s religious freedom if he was successful at winning the seat back for the Liberals.

The affluent electorate which covers the suburbs of Bicton, Riverton, Ferndale, parts of Murdoch and Canningvale had always been considered a safe Liberal seat.

The Liberal party held the seat from 1984 until the last federal election, aside from a short period in 2016 when the party dumped the sitting member Dennis Jensen.

At the 2022 election a massive swing saw the seat won by Labor’s Sam Lim, a former police officer.

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Warning: This story has details of comments which might be distressing to some readers. For 24-hour crisis support and suicide prevention call Lifeline on 13 11 14. For Australia-wide LGBTQI peer support call QLife on 1800 184 527 or webchat.

Cole is a US activist who opposes the gender affirming care model. Cole shares her story of transitioning gender after being diagnosed with gender dysphoria when she was nine years old, and then going on to receive puberty blockers and cross sex hormones.

Cole underwent a double mastectomy when she was 17, but later chose to live as the gender she was assigned at birth.

Cole has become one of the most well-known cases of someone de-transitioning and she has regularly appeared in media reports and alongside conservative politicians.

While many studies have shown that the rate of people regretting undergoing gender transition and surgery is very low, those who have made the decision to return to living as their gender assigned at birth are often championed in the conservative media.

Over the last year Cole has appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in the USA, as well as appearing alongside politicians bringing in bills against allowing transgender youth to access gender affirming health care.

In an email the Australian Christian Lobby said it was bringing Cole to Australia as part of their push to have inquiries into transgender health care at both a federal level and within each state as well.

“The attack on biblical truth surrounding gender is relentless, spanning legislative chambers, media platforms, and jurisdictions.   

“Children are being ensnared in a cruel ideology that denies biological reality, leading to a lifetime of medical interventions and emotional scars.” ACL CEO Michelle Pearse said in an email.

Pearse said Cole story showed “the risk of altering God’s natural design through gender ideology and medical interventions.”

Studies show rates of regret among transgender people are extremely low

In Australia children can be prescribed puberty blockers to halt the onset of puberty and can under medical supervision then go on to be treated with cross-sex hormones. Surgical procedures for people under 18 however are extremely rare.

A 2023 study from the University of Michigan, published in the journal JAMA Surgery looked into 235 patients who had undergone a gender affirming mastectomy over the last 30 years.

They found that the median satisfaction rate among those patients was five out of five, and that not a single patient in the study regretted their decision to change gender. The study centred around a single medical provider, and researchers say the next step will be to look at satisfaction rates across multiple providers.

Previous studies have also shown that the level of regret is extremely low. A study of 6793 people who sought gender-affirming services at the multi-disciplinary VU Medical Centre in Amsterdam between 1972 and 2015 found that patients who underwent a gonadectomy had a regret rate of 0.6 % for trans women and 0,3% for transmen. They acknowledge that rate of regret may be higher though as many patients did not continue seeing the clinic for follow ups.

One of the largest studies into transgender levels of regret was the US Transgender Survey that took place in 2015. It included 27,715 adults, and they asked if patients had ever, even if only temporarily detransitioned.

Rates of detransition were higher in transgender women (11%) than transgender men (4%). The most common reasons cited were pressure from a parent (36%), transitioning was too hard (33%), too much harassment or discrimination (31%), and trouble getting a job (29%).

In 2024 a new study conducted at the Child and Adolescent Health Service Gender Diversity Service at Perth Children’s Hospital showed the rate of patients who reidentify with their sex registered at birth is very low.

The study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics on 4th March 2024 showed that 5.3% of young people reidentified with the birth registered sex before or during assessment, only 1% of patients who initiated medical treatment detransitioned.

Image of Chloe Cole by Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Chloe Cole, CC BY-SA 2.0

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The 20 page Dignitas infinita (Infinite Dignity) was published this week by the church’s powerful body on doctrine and is the accumulation of five years’ worth of work.

The document covers a wide range of issues from conservationism to war, human traficking and gender issues.

The church says that while surgery may be required to resolve genital abnormalities, it does not condone surgery that is undertaken to allow someone to live as a different gender.

While also speaking out against surrogacy, the document did reaffirm the Catholic church’s opposition to the criminalisation of homosexuality.

“It should be denounced as contrary to human dignity the fact that, in some places, not a few people are imprisoned, tortured, and even deprived of the good of life solely because of their sexual orientation,” it said.

LGBTIQA+ rights advocates say the statement is from ‘the dark ages’

Equality Australia TransEquality Chair Ymania Brown said the declaration “takes us back to the dark ages”. 

“These harmful and derogatory statements ignore the diversity of the human population and the growing scientific evidence about sex and gender,” she said. 

“One of God’s greatest gifts to us is free will and the ability to think for ourselves. If something like surgery or hormones makes our lives easier and better, then let us make that choice for ourselves.”  

Brown said the doctrine fuelled misunderstanding about trans people, many of whom were deeply religious.  

“The Church should be listening to LGBTIQ+ people from within their faith communities so the harms of the past can be avoided,” she said. 

“As a trans woman and devoted Catholic I see myself as God’s creation and deserving of support, respect and love.” 

Benjamin Oh, chair of Rainbow Catholics Interagency Australia, said the document was at times “inconsistent with its good intention to promote human dignity”. 

“To speak impersonally about LGBTQ+ lives without actually including us and our lived realities and experiences is dehumanising,” he said. 

“The Gospel teaches us about truth and justice through the lives of the oppressed. We hope the drafters of this document will seek further understanding and education from credible sciences and the witness of LGBTQ+ Catholics, which the document sorely lacks.”  

Global Director of Growing Families Sam Everingham said surrogacy was an incredible gift to an otherwise childless couple. 

“There are many Christian women across the globe who feel completely empowered through their work giving otherwise infertile couples the gift of family,” he said. 

“The Vatican authorities remain alarmingly out-of-touch with the reality that human trust, love and altruism are no better expressed than when a selfless woman offers to help another in need. 

“In my role as a researcher and educator, I have interviewed over 200 surrogates across eight nations globally who have chosen to carry for a loved one or stranger. I have published on both their motives and relationships with recipients. 

“My research, along with that of many others in the field, demonstrates that while these relationships can be difficult to navigate, where strict screening is employed to ensure a surrogate has the appropriate psychological and medical characteristics, surrogates report a huge sense of personal fulfilment from being able to give childless couples a family.”  

The announcement was also criticised by Ashley Scott from All Kids are Equal who said surrogacy was a choice made by informed and consenting adults. 

“While the Vatican may hold its outdated position on surrogacy, we stand firm in our belief that every family deserves the opportunity to experience the joys of parenthood, regardless of their circumstances,” he said. 

“The reality is that surrogacy, when conducted ethically, is a compassionate choice for families facing challenges in starting a family. It’s about understanding, respecting, and supporting the choices of women who choose to become surrogates.” 

Former Hobsons Bay Mayor and intersex advocate Tony Briffa said the declaration also discounted the voices and experiences of intersex people. 

“As a Catholic woman subjected to non-consensual and unnecessary medical intervention as a child due to my intersex variation, I am extremely saddened by the Vatican’s hypocrisy and lack of compassion and understanding,” she said. 

“Children born with intersex variations should be afforded the dignity and respect of time to decide for themselves what interventions and bodily modifications they want, if any.  

“The Vatican’s idea of what constitutes sex and gender is outdated and dangerous and ignores the fact biological sex, like sex characteristics and gender identity, exist in a spectrum. I call on the Vatican to meet with trans and intersex people so they can be enlightened.” 

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