intersex & out

CATEGORY PAGE

Born Both Excerpt in OUT Magazine

By Hida / March 15, 2017 /

    I’m very grateful to the editors at OUT, the U.S.’s largest LGBT+ online magazine, for running “Intersex Activist Navigates Gendered Bathrooms, Gay Clubs in Exclusive Born Both Excerpt.” I think it’s a perfect venue for me– a long term queer activist who has at different points embodied every letter in the LGBTI acronym!…

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Just another frivolous, glittery gender observation

By Hida / June 12, 2014 /

Given my newfound commitment to weekly Wednesday blogging , not every blog will be a well thought out exploration of topics deeply intergral to being intersex. Some weeks’ posts are bound to be just the random, shallow but hopefully funny musings of your typical intersex chick next door. I think this is one of them.…

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The Third Sex: Then, Now, Never

By Hida / June 5, 2014 /

I’ll never forget seeing the cover of a 1950’s lesbian novel called The Third Sex. It’d been made into a postcard, and was on sale at one of those touristy gay stores in Manhattan’s West Village. The cover was alarmist, calling homosexuality “society’s greatest curse”, and featuring a picture of two women about to make…

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Who do you think you are: intersex and appropriation

By Hida / May 29, 2014 /

I was recently interviewed by the awesome Vash Boddie of IMRU radio in L.A., the county’s longest running LGBTI radio station (airdate T.B.A.). At one point, he said, “everyone’s a little intersex”, and it got me thinking: who can call themselves intersex? It’s a relevant question because, believe it or not, there’s a fair amount…

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How Now Pro Noun?  

By Hida / May 21, 2014 /

Nowadays, the preferred-gender-pronoun question comes up quickly when I speak about being intersex. I see it as a positive indication that we’re moving beyond Intersex 101, and folks are starting to wonder what we’re actually like, as people. I tell them that, just like non-intersex people, we have a wide range of gender identities and…

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Advocating Equality

By Hida / May 14, 2014 /

Hi everyone! I thought I’d apologize for and share that the reason it’s taken me SO long to write something new is that my mom passed away this year. Being a sensitive, emotional type, and her death being unexpected, it knocked me for a loop. And then another. And another. Now however, I feel her…

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What’s in a Name: Intersex and Identity

By Hida / May 13, 2014 /

In 1987, I was outed to my parents by my older brother in a scene straight out of the hysterical queer comedy But I’m a Cheerleader: dad yells, “Why can’t you be more like your sister!” gay son replies, “Guess what? She’s a lesbian!” I hadn’t told my dad because I was afraid he’d stop…

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3 Reasons This Intersex Lesbian Loved GOLDEN BOY

By Hida / June 17, 2013 /

I’ve been meaning to write a review of Abigail Tarttelin’s novel Golden Boy, about an intersex teen, since it was released late last month, but a few things got in the way: 1.  I find writing reviews kind of weird. 2.  It’s even weirder when my review is meant to provide an insider opinion —…

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Hermaphrodykes on Bikes

By Hida / June 9, 2013 /

The LGBTQI Pride Parade was today in Los Angeles, and instead of riding with the Dykes on Bikes, or watching with friends and then going to Booby Trap, the queer women’s pool party, I found myself blissfully biking down to the beach, then along the beach… then texting cancellations. Basically, I’m more into chill activities…

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We’re Here, We’re Herms, Get Used to It!

By Hida / May 31, 2013 /

[Note: In honor of LGBTQI Pride month, this post’s title is a riff on the old Queer Nation slogan, “We’re Here! We’re Queer! Get used to it!” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queer_Nation.]   There’s a line in Golden Boy, the excellent, recently released novel featuring a 16 year-old intersex protagonist, where he says that you have to choose one or the other,…

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Jesus Was My Intersex Role Model

By Hida / May 8, 2013 /

Recently, I’ve been thinking about what motivated me to be an intersex spokesperson and activist. For starters, there’s inspirational role models like the incredibly brilliant, badass Angela Davis. She took the racist establishment on head first, eloquently and bravely, jeopardizing her career as a university professor and spending 18 months in prison as a result. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh49nbTq268…

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Intersex: the Final Coming Out Frontier

By Hida / May 1, 2013 /

  Last week, before my okcupid-induced outing, I realized I was going to have to come out again, but not in the usual way. I’d found my date in a “girls who like girls” online search, so I obviously didn’t need to come to her as queer. But if I wanted to be able to…

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Birth of a Well-Hung Woman

By Hida / April 18, 2013 /

Today, I want to talk about my favorite new idiom: well-hung woman.  As most English speakers know, “well-hung” is slang for a man with a large penis, so you might be wondering how a woman could be well-hung? Well, if you know something about intersex people, you may have already figured it out; but in…

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Calling a Spade a Spade: Intersex is Just Intersex

By Hida / April 8, 2013 /

A few days ago, I received an excerpt from an article-in-progress by a law professor that stated that intersex is increasingly included as a subcategory of transgender.  I’m grateful that she contacted me for feedback, and confident that she’ll edit this out, but I’m shocked at how much people continue to obfuscate intersex.  Why oh…

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Welcome to my blog: Intersex and Out

By Hida / October 26, 2012 /

A friend of mine recently relayed that she told some friends about my intersex activism, and me, and they said, “She’s just doing that for attention, that doesn’t exist.”  Yes, intersex is to today’s two-sex system what the idea of the world being round was to the dominant earth-is-flat view: something most people couldn’t imagine–…

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