As an intersex survivor, it is my commitment to join other intersex or social activist, in helping to show this world that little intersex children should not be harmed any more. I am now dedicated to do this with Judi Herring, M.D., and with the new friendships, mentorship and wisdom of several intersex activists who walk before me. You know who you are, and I thank you for your love, believing in me, and encouraging my efforts.
I now know that gender is one’s own conception of who they are. Gender is like our personality and it can only be self-determined. Gender is not in our genitals, reproductive system, hormones, or chromosomes. At the birth of an intersex infant, the guessing of our gender has to stop, because too many irreversible errors are being made. Too many lives being violated, I was one of many. These tragedies continue all over the world to this day.
I feel that a baby born with intersex traits has the right to self-determination of their own gender. There is no way a doctor, a team of experts, or that child’s parent could possibly know the gender of their intersex child when they are an infant. This means that mistakes are often made. Lives are being destroyed with good intentions.
It is my dream, that the things that happened to me, and the horrific things that have happened to others, who were surgically, hormonally, or psychiatrically violated, become a thing of the past. It is my dream that intersex people are celebrated once again. That we are left to be the way we are born, and that this world creates a better place for all of us. That if we want medical interventions it is left to us, not our doctors, our parents or society.
I am excited to collaborate this effort with Judi Herring M.D.. Our paths crossed, almost a year after she had created her TEDx, “Gender Bound, Lessons From the World Between”:
It was the most amazing day to be paired with a person who could help me give me my voice back. I was assigned female at birth, and I had to be taught that I was a girl at the age of three and four years old. Some would call what I went through “conversion therapy”. At this tender age, I knew I was of the male gender already, but was told I was wrong. The consequences of this lead to significant physical disability and medical violation. Here is the link to our first talk together, where I share my story for the first time September 2015: Listen with Care: Build Bridges of Understanding.
Together, and with the help of other intersex activists and new friends, I hope to get the message right. Again, I try to show this world that self-determination is the best way. It is now time that intersex people (infants and children) receive their human rights, and be able to choose what is done to their bodies hormonally and surgically, and be given choices. Of course, there are those rare times, when medical health risks are involved, and an intersex infant/person has to undergo treatment, but those incidences are very rare. Corrective genital surgeries, and the surgical assignment of gender, is never a medical emergency. After so many lives destroyed, it has become imperative that self-determination is up to the intersex infant/child/adult. It is their life, their genitals, their body, their fertility, and their gender.
I finally captured the attention of our government officials here in Jacksonville, Florida: It is my hope, I can make a difference to our city, to this world.
I welcome you to follow this journey.
Educational Intersex Videos, Websites, Blogs, Authors, and Articles.
World Wide Advocacy & Support For Intersex and Transgender People
~.V.~
Mx. Anunnaki Ray Marquez 
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