List of intersex people

See also: Intersex civil society organizations and Intersex characters in fiction

Intersex people are born with sex characteristics, such as genitals, gonads and chromosome patterns, "that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies".

It is important to note that intersex people have many different gender identities, and so there is no presumption that people on this list have any particular identity. This list consists of well-known intersex people, followed by a separate list of notable researchers on intersex issues. The individual listings note the subject's main occupation or source of notability.

Notable intersex people

A

• Jim Ambrose, intersex activist, (co)founded Inter/Act. and The Interface Project, appears alongside Tiger Devore in the short film XXXY (2000).
• Carlett Brown Angianlee, Naval offiver, likely first african american to undergo SRS
• Aaron Apps, American poet, author, winner of the 2014 Sawtooth Poetry Prize for the book Dear Herculine and essayist in the 2014 edition of Best American Essays.
• Eden Atwood, American jazz musician, actor, and an advocate for the civil rights of people born with intersex traits.

B

• Karl M. Baer (1885-1956), German-Israeli author, social worker, suffragette and Zionist.
• Herculine Barbin—the 19th century memoirs of this French intersex person were published by Michel Foucault in 1980. Barbin's birthday, November 8, is now observed as Intersex Day of Remembrance.
• Lisset Barcellos, filmmaker and director of the 2005 drama film Both.
• Max Beck, participant in the demonstration on October 26, 1996, that led to the establishment of Intersex Awareness Day.
• Maddie Blaustein, American voice actor known for her roles as Meowth in Pokémon and E-123 Omega in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, a founder of Second Life
• Tony Briffa, Australian intersex and human rights activist; world's first out intersex Mayor and first publicly elected out intersex person. Current co-chair of Organisation Intersex International Australia, and Vice-President and former President of the AIS Support Group Australia.

C

• Mauro Cabral, Argentinian intersex activist, writer, Co-director of GATE (Global Action for Trans Equality)
• Lady Colin Campbell, British aristocrat and author of Guide to Being a Modern Lady.
• Morgan Carpenter, Australian intersex activist and co-chair of Organisation Intersex International Australia.
• Eleno de Céspedes, a 16th-century intersex person in Spain. (Spanish)
• Cheryl Chase, American intersex activist and founder of the Intersex Society of North America.
• Hiker Chiu, founder of Oii-Chinese.
• Alessandro Comeni, Italian intersex activist, co-founder of intersexioni and honorary president of Associazione Radicale Certi Diritti.
• Katherine Connella, American actress and writer.
• Caroline Cossey, English model.

D

• Lisa Lee Dark, Welsh opera singer and voice actress.
• Georgiann Davis, American sociology scholar and researcher on intersex issues.
• Vaginal Davis, American genderqueer performing artist, painter, composer and writer.
• Tiger Devore, American clinical psychologist and educator on intersex issues.
• Foekje Dillema (1926-2007), Dutch track and field athlete.

E

• Lili Elbe (1882-1931), one of the earliest transgender women to receive sex reassignment surgery, was intersex.

F

• Fernanda Fernández (1755-unknown), Spanish intersex person. (Spanish)
• Sir Ewan Forbes (1912-1991), formerly Elizabeth Forbes-Sempill and 11th Baronet of Craigievar.

G

• Dan Christian Ghattas, German activist, historian and author of Human Rights between the Sexes, a first international comparative study of the human rights of intersex people and co-chair of OII Europe.
• Gottlieb Göttlich (1798-unknown), German medical subject.
• Sarah Graham, activist, addiction counsellor and UK "national LGBT treasure".
• Holly Greenberry, British intersex activist, co-Founder and director of Intersex UK.
• Sarah Gronert, German tennis player
• Sally Gross (1953-2014), South African intersex, anti-apartheid and Israel/Palestine human rights activist; secured first mention of intersex in anti-discrimination law.

H

• Thomas(ine) Hall, a person of indeterminate gender in 17th-century colonial Virginia
• Phoebe Hart, Australian filmmaker and director of Orchids, My Intersex Adventure, a 2010 auto-biographical documentary.
• Thea Hillman, American writer and activist, author of Intersex: For Lack of a Better Word.
• Curtis Hinkle, American activist and founder of Organisation Intersex International.
• Morgan Holmes, Canadian activist, associate professor of sociology and author of several books on intersex including Critical Intersex.

J

• Kimber James, former pornographic actor and escort.
• Natasha Jiménez, Costa Rican and Latin American intersex and trans activist.

K

• Julius Kaggwa, award-winning Ugandan activist.
• John Kenley, pioneering theatrical producer
• Ewa Kłobukowska, Polish sprinter.
• Shon Klose, Australian musician and activist.
• Emi Koyama, American activist on trans, intersex, disability and sex work issues, founder of the Intersex Initiative, and a co-founder of Intersex Awareness Day.
• Ins A Kromminga, visual artist and intersex activist

L

• Le Van Duyet, Nguyen Dynasty general and high-ranking mandarin in Vietnam.
• Esther Morris Leidolf, Founder of MRKH Organization, and author of The Missing Vagina Monologue.
• Small Luk, intersex activist living in Hong Kong, founder of Beyond the Boundary – Knowing and Concerns Intersex

M

• Alex MacFarlane, first known holder of an Australian passport with an 'X' sex descriptor.
• Maria José Martínez-Patiño is a Spanish hurdler who was dismissed from competition in 1986 for failing a sex test.
• Mani Mitchell, New Zealand intersex activist, researcher/presenter of the movie Intersexion.
• Nthabiseng Mokoena, South African intersex activist.
• Iain Morland, British author and music technologist.

N

• Tebogo Nkoana, African intersex activist, director of Transgender and Intersex Africa

O

• A.J. Odasso, American/British poet, Senior Poetry Editor at Strange Horizons magazine, the first of whose two poetry collections, Lost Books, was nominated for the 2010 London New Poetry Award, the 2011 Forward Prize, and was a finalist for the 2011 People's Book Prize.

P

• Pidgeon Pagonis, American intersex artist and activist, nominated as a 2015 Whitehouse LGBT Champion of Change.
• Dee Palmer, formerly David Palmer, English composer and keyboardist, best known for membership in Jethro Tull.
• Pinki Pramanik, Indian track athlete.

Q

• Emily Quinn, artist, animator and intersex activist.

R

• Michaela Raab, Germany, successfully took University of Erlangen-Nuremberg to court over non-consensual medical treatment in 2015.
• Dora Ratjen (1918-2008), German athlete.
• Veronique Renard, Dutch author and visual artist.
• Eliana Rubashkyn, Colombian pharmacist, activist and gender refugee.
• Apostle Darlan Rukih Moses, African gospel musician
• Daléa Rundblad, American musician and activist

S

• Erik Schinegger, alpine skier.
• Edinanci Silva, brazilian judoka and gold medalist in the woman's half-heavyweight division at the Pan-American games.
• Dawn Langley Simmons (1937 or 1922 to 2000), English author and biographer.
• Jim Sinclair, autism rights activist.
• Georgina Somerset (née Turtle) (1923-2013), first openly intersex person in the UK; active in the media from the mid-1960s.
• Santhi Soundarajan, Indian athlete.
• Levi Suydam, 19th century American intersex person.

V

• Dawn Vago, British intersex activist and musician.
• Hida Viloria, American intersex activist, author and chairperson of OII-USA and Organisation Intersex International. Viloria also appears in the film Gendernauts.
• Del LaGrace Volcano, visual artist and speaker on queer and intersex issues (e.g. the Critical Sexology Seminars, London).
• Christiane Völling, Germany, thought to be the first person to successfully sue in a case of medical treatment without consent.

W

• Stanisława Walasiewicz, also known as Stella Walsh, a Polish Olympic athlete and medal winner in the 1930s.
• Sean Saifa Wall, of African origin living in the USA, intersex and anti-racist activist.
• Gigi Raven Wilbur, American bisexuality rights activist.
• Gina Wilson, activist and founder president of Organisation Intersex International Australia.

X

• Ela Xora, British mask maker, visual and performance artist.

Z

• Dana Zzyym, American non-binary intersex activist and Associate Director of OII-USA. Zzyym is suing the US State Department for a passport.

Discussion in media and on internet

• There has been intense speculation about Caster Semenya, the South African middle-distance runner, being intersex. The way she has been dealt with by the sporting community and the media has itself been the subject of debate in the media. Tests she was subjected to included what were described as humiliating genital photography.

Noted researchers on intersex

• Georgiann Davis, associate professor of sociology and researcher on intersex issues.
• Milton Diamond, professor of neurology, Univ. of Hawai'i at Manoa, and director of The Pacific Center for Sex and Society located at the University of Hawaii.
• Alice Dreger, former chair of ISNA.
• Anne Fausto-Sterling, author of numerous books on intersex, including Sexing the Body: Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality, 2000.
• Richard Goldschmidt (1878-1958) coined the word intersex.
• Morgan Holmes, author of books including Intersex: A Perilous Difference (2007), and editor of Critical Intersex, 2009.
• Katrina Karkazis, author of Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience, a 2008 book on intersex that is regarded as meticulous, authoritative and thoughtful.
• John Money (1921–2006) was a psychologist, sexologist and author, controversial due to the David Reimer case.
• Iain Morland, British author on gender, sexuality, medical ethics and science.

See also

• Intersex