Earlier this year a UN committee report noted deep concern that ‘medically irreversible and unnecessary sex assignment surgery and other treatments are reportedly performed on intersex children’ in Ireland. Although the numbers of intersex people here are significant, little is known about the issues they face, even within the LGBTI community, as Chris O’Donnell reports.

Kitty Anderson Co-chair of OII Europe Organisation of Intersex International

In 2016, the Programme for Government gave a commitment to a National Youth LGBTI+ strategy, spearheaded by Minister Katherine Zappone. Out of the 3,710 young people who took part in the survey upon which the strategy will be based, only one identifi ed as intersex. This could be due to both stigma and the fact that many people with intersex variations are unaware of them.

Not much is widely circulated about the unique biologies and needs of people in the ‘I’ part of the LGBTI community, and yet it is estimated that intersex variations occur within 1.78% of the population. That’s over 5,000 people, more than the population of Galway city. Nonetheless, rarely has intersex been taken on as an issue or given any signifi cant discussion in the Irish context.

According to Tanya Ní Mhuirthile, Assistant Professor of Law in DCU, “Intersex isn’t something that’s easy to see. It’s not something we can tell by someone when we meet them. You may have someone where that’s apparent at birth, because genitalia are somehow ambiguous, and so those cases are easier to identify. They’re not the vast majority of intersex cases. Intersex development can also take place at puberty, when the body isn’t developing the way one might expect.”