Hida Viloria: Difference between revisions

'''{{FULLPAGENAME}}''' ({{LifeData|birth=1968-05-29|birthplace=New York, {{USSC|NY}}}}) is a Latine American writer, author, producer, and human rights activist.<ref name="Pham">{{REFnews

Viloria is intersex, non-binary, and gender non-conforming, using they/them pronouns.<ref>{{REFweb

}}</ref> They are known for their writing and their intersex and non-binary human rights activism and as one of the first people to come out in national and international media as a nonbinary intersex person.<ref name="Bibliography">{{REFweb

In 1996, Viloria participated in the first international intersex retreat. They reported that, eager to meet people like themself, instead they "met people who'd been traumatized and physically damaged by cosmetic genital surgeries and hormone treatments they'd been subjected to in infancy and childhood, and it moved [Viloria] to become an intersex activist."<ref name="Intersexion">{{REFweb

  |publisher=Intersex Society of North America

}}</ref> reaching audiences of over one hundred million via appearances in various documentaries about intersex people, including the first ''Hermaphrodites Speak!'', and most notably on ABC's ''20/20'',<ref name="Controversy">{{REFnews

In 2004, Viloria testified before the San Francisco Human Rights Commission on the need to ban medically unnecessary cosmetic genital surgeries on intersex infants and children.<ref name="Patel">{{REFnews

}}</ref>  They also argued that being raised to define oneself as disordered is psychologically harmful to intersex youth:

  |Text=While some doctors and parents are, according to supporters of the term like Chase (co-author of the DSD Guidelines and founder and director of ISNA), more comfortable referring to us as having "disorders" than associating with a label supported by homosexuals and transsexuals, I do not believe adopting a pathologizing label to distance ourselves from these groups is a solution, to say the least....  I know that it would have harmed my self-esteem to be raised under a term which named my difference a 'disorder.' Even complete ignorance about what to call myself was preferable as I was able to form positive beliefs about my unique qualities.

In the fall of 2011, Viloria founded the Intersex Campaign for Equality, to work for equality and human rights for intersex Americans. Their first action, in December 2011, was contacting former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to request inclusion of intersex people in human rights protocols and protections. In early 2012, they received a response from the U.S. Department of State in early 2012 affirming the importance of including the intersex community in human rights work.<ref>{{REFnews

  |title=OII receives reply from US Department of State to OII Chairperson Hida Viloria's letter asking for intersex inclusion in LGBTI – not LGBT-only – global human rights efforts

In 2012, Viloria spearheaded the first unified, global call for human rights by and for intersex people, in a letter signed by thirty leading intersex advocacy organizations, to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.<ref>{{REFweb

  |title=Open Letter to the UN OHCHR: 1st global call for human rights by & for intersex people! – Intersex Campaign for Equality

In 2013, Viloria served as one of three intersex co-organizers of the Third International Intersex Forum in November 2013, in Malta, which led to the creation of the Malta declaration, the most widely agreed upon statement of human rights' demands by the international intersex advocacy community.<ref>{{REFweb

In 2016, Viloria became a board member of [[Genital Autonomy America]] (GA America), an advocacy organization working with groups worldwide who are seeking to end non-therapeutic genital cutting of all female, male, and intersex infants and children.