An estimated 1.7% of all babies are born with an intersex natural bodily variation—an occurrence as common worldwide as having red hair. These individuals—born with sex characteristics that do not fit typical binary notions of male or female bodies—have historically been stigmatized as different and standard medical practice has been to subject them to surgeries that “normalize” their genitals. Procedures that could be delayed until intersex children are old enough to decide whether they want them are instead performed on infants who then have to live with the consequences. In 2013, a United Nations report condemned these “corrective” sex-assignment surgeries.

Mx. Anunnaki Ray Marquez is the rare intersex individual whose genitals were not surgically altered at birth. Anunnaki is in the process of receiving a birth certificate recognizing that his true biological sex is intersex and not a disorder. Anunnaki hopes to build bridges of understanding so that all people, no matter how they label themselves, may experience the wholeness that is a basic human right in a socially just world.

Born intersex and assigned the wrong gender at birth, Anunnaki Ray Marquez lived as female for the first 46 years of life before emancipating his authentic male gender in 2014. Anunnaki’s marriage survived, and he remains with his husband of 28 years; the couple have three children, two biological and one adopted. In September 2018, Anunnaki received a birth certificate from the state of Colorado recognizing that his true biological sex is intersex and not a disorder. He became the third person to be recognized as intersex in the U.S. His social activist work focuses on an individual’s right to bodily autonomy, and the right to express their true gender identity.

Anunnaki is the Director of Gender/Intersex Education for PFLAG of Jacksonville, as well as an Intersex Advocate for Partnership for Child Health’s Jacksonville Youth Equality. He has become a gender/intersex activist and educator for all intersex, gender variant, and transgender children who have no voice and are being medically and psychiatrically harmed. Anunnaki is also a musician, performer, and artist. Visit Anunnaki’s TEDxJacksonville source page (https://anunnakiray.com/tedx-jacksonv...) for dozens of fact sheets about Intersex humans.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx