A Digital Museum of Intersex Resistance in the United States, 1996-2026

Wherever there are people, there will be people born with all kinds of genital anatomy: phalloclitoris, ovotestes, vulva with testes, penis with uterus—bodies outgrowing any predictable order. Among us there will always live bearded ladies, organic eunuchs, güevedoces, and—to evoke the controversial word and reclaimed slur—hermaphrodites, who surface inconvenient questions about building societies on two body types. We’re a lot more than other people’s questions.

Living in a two-body-type world was never easy. It got a lot harder in the 1950s. Sexologist John Money, who would go on to build the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic and rise to the top of his field, made a career on the idea that genitals and hormones could be changed in childhood, without consequence. After centuries of disgust, the medical profession was eager to act on any person with sex differences. Money offered his solution. “Leave town and burn the records,” doctors told parents outside operating rooms, promising "normal" children.

Those children grew up. The ones who managed to learn the truth of their own bodies, often alone in their states, cities, and homes, began picking up the pieces. They knew the way they were treated was wrong.

This project records 30 years of human events, 1996-2026, to give context for how "intersex" became the movement it did. How people fought to keep their own bodies, find each other, expose "sex" as an excuse for surveillance, and counter ideas the U.S. medical industry exported around the world. May our archive spark many more.

If you’re new to this history, welcome. We’ve spent decades in struggle to take back the power of “sex”—of self-determination—from government and industry. We need each other, now and always. If you’re an intersex person, read this project as a love letter. Its legacy is yours. Here’s to the beauty we make when we tend to each other through this grief.

With love,
Hans & Saifa
Strategy Lab for Intersex Movements
October 2026