October 26, 2018
Happy Intersex Awareness Day, everyone!
Selecting Intersex Positive: What We Love About Being Intersex as the theme for our inaugural issue was a concerted effort to encourage all of us to think about being intersex in unique, original ways. We knew it would be challenging for some of us to put aside all the harm they’ve experienced as a direct consequence of being born intersex, and this is indeed the feedback we got from some folks interested in submitting. Nevertheless, we’ve always felt that—just as learning to love the parts of ourselves that society tells us we shouldn’t is a critical component in ending oppression of all marginalized communities—learning to love ourselves as intersex people is critical to ending bigotry, intersexism, and oppression.
Little did we know just how important stretching ourselves would be right now, the very week intersex and trans Americans have learned that our nation’s administration is attempting to write us out of existence. As we said to each other in a dismayed phone conversation just yesterday, how could we have known these events would coincide with Intersex Quarterly’s unveiling?
In that vein, how could we have known that the writers who would submit to our inaugural issue would be some of our favorite intersex authors? Or that they would comprise a veritable who’s who along the Intersex Movement timeline? They are, in alphabetical order: Jim Costich, Georgiann Davis, Thea Hillman, and Dana Zzyym.
As we pondered what we love about about being intersex, it occurred to us that one of the many things we love about it is getting to know and write about such incredibly brave, dedicated, ethical, pioneering people. We feel truly, joyfully honored that we get to publish these talented and dedicated activists, educators, writers, and parents.
We hope our contributions to this inaugural issue of Intersex Quarterly will bring you joy, too.
Your dedicated editors,
Hida Viloria & A.J. Odasso
Hida Viloria is a Latinx writer, author of Born Both: An Intersex Life (Hachette Books, 2017), a 2018 Lambda Literary Award nominee in Non-Fiction, and the founding director of the Intersex Campaign for Equality. In 2013 he/r pioneering activism was acknowledged when s/he became the first intersex person to speak at the United Nations by invitation, along with Jason Collins and Martina Navratilova, on Human Rights Day. S/he has advocated for LGBTQIA+ rights for over two decades as one of the first openly intersex and non-binary people in the world, and an openly queer lecturer, consultant (United Nations, Lambda Legal, Human Rights Watch, Williams Institute), and television and radio guest (Oprah, Al Jazeera, Tyra Banks, 20/20, BBC), and is one of the most extensively published writers in the field of intersex issues (The New York Times, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, The Advocate, Ms., CNN.com, Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics, American Journal of Bioethics, and more). Follow Viloria on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram at @hidaviloria, or on the web at HidaViloria.com.
A.J. Odasso is the author of two poetry collections from Flipped Eye Publishing: Lost Books (2010), which was a finalist for the 2010 London New Poetry Award and for the 2011 People’s Book Prize; and The Dishonesty of Dreams (2014), which had the honor of launching at the Grolier Poetry Book Store and Porter Square Books. A.J.’s third collection, an expanded version of their BU MFA thesis, was shortlisted for the 2017 Sexton Prize under the title Things Being What They Are and will be published in Summer 2019 under a new title, The Sting of It, by Tolsun Books. A.J. continues to serve as Senior Poetry Editor at Strange Horizons, where they have been part of the editorial staff since 2012. A.J.’s recent prose publications include a short story, “We Come Back Different” (in the Winter 2018 & Spring 2018 issues of Pulp Literature) and a personal essay, “Being the Dictionary” (in Knowing Why: Adult-Diagnosed Autistic People on Life and Autism, an anthology from the Autistic Self-Advocacy Network launched this October).