Living Out


 

 with Banti Jaswal

 

 

As we celebrate Intersex Awareness Day we turn out attention to our incredible community for your thoughts on awareness and living authentically. Banti Jaswal (they/them), is an intersex artist, presenter, and Greater Boston Area PFLAG scholarship recipient. For this special IAD newsletter issue Banti shares about their experiences of becoming and living authentically.

On Coming Out
I was able to come out after I had a community of people who loved and supported me no matter what. With these intersex and non intersex people behind me I thought “well who cares what other people think”. I was fortunate that most of my experiences have been great. It's important to be prepared for questions that people may not know are offensive but this helps me with my speaking. The bad experiences don't hurt me as hard with my core family and friend’s love. Before coming out I wish I'd known that it is one step closer to being your true self. For me, at least, it felt freeing. People will love you no matter what.

On Living Authentically
It has helped me make good friends because I am honest about every element of myself to my best ability and has helped me find good people (find the real ones). I feel like it's something to have to re-come out. I am just casual about it because it is just one part of me. I still face hard downs and slow ups because I am still processing everything and understand it will be with me my whole life. I could not be in this place without the intersex community and am so grateful to get to be a part of it.

On Awareness
Intersex awareness means sharing, educating, having discussions, celebrating, and connecting. This is how I feel people should talk about intersex: Intersex is beautiful, real, and needs to be known (shared with the world). The best part Intersex Awareness Day is it is a day of awareness so even if you are intersex, an ally, or someone who is not out you can still share if (you feel comfortable) a link, a story, or a resource.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dear InterConnect Community

Image
    by Rebecca Baughman Kerns       As I sit here and reflect on the past two years, I’m so proud of the many milestones we achieved.  The in-person conference in Minneapolis was not only well-received but also a testament to the strength of our community.  Every time I turned around, I saw a new connection being made, a new memory being formed or a new friendship created.  The impulse to connect, as often as we can, is not to be overlooked.  Whether you have attended one conference or dozens, they are life changing.  Minnesota showcased many of the victories happening in our own community.  We had the chance to sit together and watch a documentary about our community, giving voice to our lives.  I hope everyone reading this has the opportunity to get together with others in the intersex community.  If you cannot make it to a meet-up, let us help you create one in your own area. Our monthly Zoom meetings have s...
Read more

Remembering InterConnect's Founder

Image
Sherri Groveman Morris On Monday, October 9, we learned of the passing of InterConnect ’s dear founder, Sherri Groveman Morris (1958-2023).  Sherri, an orchid legend, founded InterConnect in 1996 as the AISSG-US (Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group, US Chapter) and was also actively involved with the Intersex Society of North American (ISNA). At that time, InterConnect functioned as a small support group for women with AIS.  Over the last 27 years, InterConnect has grown into an organization that supports people with all intersex variations and gender identities, their families, friends, and allies.  Dr. Charmian Quigley, who knew Sherri from InterConnect 's founding, wrote this about Sherri:  "Passionate and compassionate, committed, courageous, dedicated, warm, honest, human, humorous, driven, bold, articulate, engaging, our surrogate mother and grandmother, the matriarch of our family tree; the architect of a support movement that has blossomed over...
Read more

ABA Supports Intersex Bodily Autonomy

Image
American Bar Association Resolution supports intersex bodily autonomy   Last week, the American Bar Association (ABA) adopted resolution 511 supporting the bodily autonomy of children with intersex traits. Within resolution 511, the ABA “urges licensed professionals not to conduct or propose medical or surgical intervention on minors with intersex traits until the minor requests the proposed care, understands the impact of the proposed care as well as alternatives, is provided with affirming psychosocial supports, and gives informed consent or assent, except when immediate life-threatening circumstances require emergency intervention.” We applaud the ABA in their support of intersex children to make their own informed choices regarding their medical care. Read more HERE .
Read more