On April 22, 2021, the editors of this special issue interviewed activists Sean Saifa Wall and Pidgeon Pagonis. Sean Saifa Wall is a Black intersex and transgender activist known as the cofounder of Intersex Justice Project. Over the past decade, Pidgeon Pagonis rose to visibility as an activist on behalf of intersex people. They created viral content, two films, cocreated the Intersex Justice Project, and currently are wrapping up a memoir. Today, they're embarking on the journey of a lifetime: figuring out their life's purpose(s) post intersex activism. Wall and Pagonis cofounded the Intersex Justice Project (IJP) with Lynnell Stephani Long in 2016. In addition to centering Black and Brown liberation, IJP collaborates with activists in the Global South and uses direct action to end nonconsensual surgeries performed on minors. Among IJP's accomplishments, perhaps the most notable is their historic #EndIntersexSurgery campaign. In July 2020, they succeeded in getting Lurie...
Creating Intersex Justice: Interview with Sean Saifa Wall and Pidgeon Pagonis of the Intersex Justice Project
David A. Rubin is associate professor of women's and gender studies at the University of South Florida, coeditor of Queer Feminist Science Studies: A Reader (2017), and author of Intersex Matters: Biomedical Embodiment, Gender Regulation, and Transnational Activism (2017), as well as numerous articles and essays.
Michelle Wolff is an assistant professor of religion at Augustana College where they teach courses on ethics, religion, race, gender, and sexuality. Wolff's manuscript on intersex scholar-priest and activist Sally Gross (1953–2014) is in process. Their most recent article, “Companion Sex Robots: Racialized Household Economics,” in the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, received the 2021 Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza New Scholar Award Third Place.
Amanda Lock Swarr is associate professor of gender, women, and sexuality studies at the University of Washington. She is coeditor of Critical Transnational Feminist Praxis (with Richa Nagar, 2010), author of Sex in Transition (2012), and recipient of the Sylvia Rivera Prize in Transgender Studies. Her forthcoming book is Envisioning African Intersex: Challenging Colonial and Racist Legacies in South African Medicine.
David A. Rubin, Michelle Wolff, Amanda Lock Swarr; Creating Intersex Justice: Interview with Sean Saifa Wall and Pidgeon Pagonis of the Intersex Justice Project. TSQ 1 May 2022; 9 (2): 187–195. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-9612823
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