2SLGBTQIA+ Resources

From Hida Viloria, writer and intersex activist, a candid, provocative, and eye-opening memoir of life, love, and gender identity as an intact intersex person, as well as a call to action for justice for intersex people.

Location: Okanagan Library

Presenting the latest theoretical and empirical research from an international group of experts, this interdisciplinary volume contains critical approaches from both the humanities and social sciences. With its contributions to sociology, anthropology, medicine, law, history, cultural studies, psychology, and psychoanalysis, Critical Intersex will appeal to scholars and clinical practitioners alike.

Location: Okanagan and Woodward Library

In this ground-breaking anthology, nineteen trans, non-binary, agender, gender-fluid and intersex writers share their experiences of gender euphoria

Covering a wide variety of topics in an easy-to-read way, the book explores what intersex is, what it is not, a detailed overview of its 40 or so different variations, historical and social aspects of intersex and medical intervention, along with practical, proven advice on how professionals can help and support intersex people.

This edited collection interrogates how social and cultural representations of individuals with intersex variations impact how they are understood and treated from legal and medical perspectives across the world.

Location: Online

Analyzes intersex debates through a queer feminist, intersectional, and transnational lens.

Location: Online

This book explores representations of intersex - intersex persons, intersex communities, and intersex as a cultural concept and knowledge category - in contemporary North American literature and popular culture.

Location: Online

This book addresses intersex rights violations and analyses intersex people's legal demands as expressed by intersex activists themselves and delivered through statements and reports issued by intersex rights organisations, the United Nations and the Council of Europe.

Location: Online

Once referred to as hermaphrodites, intersex persons are born with a sexual anatomy or physiology inconsistent with social expectations of what constitutes a normal male or female. Of course, this definition of intersexuality, like all definitions, is rhetorically charged. In other words, intersexuality does not have meaning in and of itself that can be separated from the culture in which it resides. It is a product not just of scientific fact but also of a myriad of cultural forces that have changed through time, and with it our perceptions of what is normal, of who should be corrected if they are not deemed normal, of when and how this treatment should take place, and of who has authority to speak on such things. Until the last two decades, and in fact not uniformly until the last few years, those born with intersex conditions were made to conform, often surgically, usually in the first 18 months of life, long before they had enough knowledge and maturity to agree or dissent to treatment. But a rise in intersex activism has led to remarkable changes in the previous medical paradigm that once governed the treatment of literally thousands of intersex children. A great deal of important literature has been dedicated to the origins of this intersex activism as well as the history of the treatment that necessitated it. But to date little attention has been paid to the role virtual intersex communities have played in contributing to intersex activism. Online intersex communities are important resources for intersex persons, their families, and advocates. They enable their participants to learn about who they are and that they are not alone, to tell their stories and have them heard by those that may be helped by them or may be able to offer help, to find a medical practitioner that is recommended by other intersex persons, and to advocate for change to established discourse, not as a single voice, but as part of an organized group of others. Brian Still's rhetorical analysis of a select number of key intersex web sites, supplemented with interviews of leading intersex activists and scholars, allows us to take a previously unexplored critical approach to comprehending the medicalization of intersexuality as well as the online communities that have, in the ongoing production of themselves, shaped productive resistance to it. Drawing on the ideas of Arjun Appadurai, Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, and also Stuart Hall and Paul du Gay, Still points out that because society values (perhaps now more than before) the words of "wounded storytellers," or those who do not treat but have been treated (and in many cases traumatized), then intersex activists can speak with a measure of newfound authority, taking advantage of a media capable of disseminating the meanings they create so that they are more accessible and, consequently, more influential in re-shaping what it means to be normal. Still's examination shows that what virtual intersex communities represent, from personal blogs to email lists, is the opportunity for those isolated by the nature of their treatment and the geographic distance that often stands between them, and others like them, to feel a sense of belonging, to exchange information, and, in the process, to generate productive noise. This book would be of interest to all Internet, cultural, and gender studies collections, and it would also be of value to those collections housing books on the rhetorical analysis of new media.

Location: Okanagan Library

Approximately one in every two thousand infants born in America each year is sexually ambiguous in such a way that doctors cannot immediately determine the child's sex. Some children's chromosomal sexuality contradicts their sexual characteristics. Others have the physical traits of both sexes, or of neither. Is surgical intervention or sex assignment of intersexed children necessary for their physical and psychological health, as the medical and mental health communities largely assume? Should parents raise sexually ambiguous children as one gender or another and keep them ignorant of their medical history? Drawing upon life history interviews with adults who were treated for intersexuality as children, Sharon E. Preves explores how such individuals experience and cope with being labeled sexual deviants in a society that demands sexual conformity.  Preves frames their stories within a sociological discussion of gender, the history of intersex medicalization, the recent political mobilization of intersexed adults, and the implications of their activism on identity negotiation, medical practice, and cultural norms. By demonstrating how intersexed people manage and create their own identities, often in conflict with their medical diagnosis, Preves argues that medical intervention into intersexuality often creates, rather than mitigates, the stigma these people suffer.

Location: Okanagan & Koerner Library

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are likely to feature the first transgender athlete, a topic that will be highly contentious during the competition. But transgender and intersex athletes such as Laurel Hubbard, Tifanny Abreu, and Caster Semenya didn¿t just turn up overnight. Both intersex and transgender athletes have been newsworthy stories for decades.

In Sporting Gender: The History, Science, and Stories of Transgender and Intersex Athletes, Joanna Harper provides an in-depth examination of why gender diverse athletes are so controversial. She not only delves into the history of these athletes and their personal stories, but also explains in a highly accessible manner the science behind their gender diversity and why the science is important for regulatory committees¿and the general public¿to consider when evaluating sports performance.

Sporting Gender gives the reader a perspective that is both broad in scope and yet detailed enough to grasp the nuances that are central in understanding the controversies over intersex and transgender athletes. Featuring personal investigations from the author, who has had first-person access to some of the most significant recent developments in this complex arena, this book provides fascinating insight into sex, gender, and sports.
Location: Online

AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION 2019 STONEWALL HONOR BOOK When their daughter Rosie was born, Eric and Stephani Lohman found themselves thrust into a situation they were not prepared for. Born intersex - a term that describes people who are born with a variety of physical characteristics that do not fit neatly into traditional conceptions about male and female bodies - Rosie's parents were pressured to consent to normalizing surgery on Rosie, without being offered any alternatives despite their concerns. Part memoir, part guidebook, this powerful book tells the authors' experience of refusing to have Rosie operated on and how they raised a child who is intersex. The book looks at how they spoke about the condition to friends and family, to Rosie's teachers and caregivers, and shows how they plan on explaining it to Rosie when she is older. This uplifting and empowering story is a must read for all parents of intersex children.
Location: Education Library

"On October 10, 1970, the day she was born, she was named Dorothy Maree Alaniz--a baby girl. Curiously, though, no one filled out a birth certificate that day. When the certificate was finally filed on November 5, the name on it was Rudolph Andrew Alaniz. Within less than one month after her birth, this girl became a boy." Every year in the United States, more than two thousand children are born with an intersex condition or disorder of sex development. What makes someone a boy or a girl? Is it external genitalia, chromosomes, DNA, environment, or some combination of these factors? Not even doctors or scientists are entirely clear. What is clear is that sex is not an either-or proposition: not girl/boy, XX/XY, switching between two poles like an on-off switch on a radio. Rather, sex is like the bass and treble knobs on that radio. Between XX and XY provides a fascinating look at the science of sex and what makes people male or female. There are people born XXY, XXXY, or XXXXY, or with any number of variations in X or Y chromosomes, but those who do not fit into society's preconceived notions about sex often face a difficult path in life. Dr. Callahan explores why humans are so attached to the idea of two sexes, and examines our obsession with sex and sexual intercourse through the ages.
Location: Woodward