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The IAIA advocacy team.
The IAIA, it's aims and objectives.
A new organization has appeared in the United States as a part of the NICHD, (The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development) and is known as "The Network on Psychosexual Differentiation". They seem to be a rather curious group of people including J. Michael Bailey and Eric Vilain among others; their concern seems to be the "Psychosexual development" of "People with Disorders of Sexual Differentiation". Looking through the titles of papers which require passwords to access, it is evident that they have some ideas that they would rather implement before they submit to any independent process of peer review.
It seems to us that there are clearly elements of Pathopathology involved with the appearance of the NICHD. Where a number of individuals with a common sense of superiority have decided that they are going to make patients with "DSD"s compliant with their rather demeaning medical practices.
To address this the Independent Association of Intersex Advocates has been formed, with the aim of highlighting and reviewing the work of organizations like the NICHD and presenting alternative perspectives to these ideas. IAIA seeks to exercise the right to disagree with those who have a long track record in making the lives of intersex people difficult.
The IAIA has also arisen because of a recent controversy involving a “Consortium of Disorders of Sexual Differentiation/Development”. Which seems to have angered a considerable number of people for a number of reasons. Firstly the sudden appearance of this, with assurances that this was done with extensive consultation, it seems this was not.
Many people felt as though they were not represented, rather they had a new approach to treatment placed upon them without any real consultation. This debate is going to be an ongoing debate for sure.
The second major issue seems to have been one about terminology, “DSD” does seem to have some pathologizing undertones to it, which many have found hard to accept. The IAIA hopes that opinion can be expressed on our site openly. To this end also the IAIA seeks to clarify this debate and hopefully something more constructive will come of it.
The IAIA advocacy team
