The Power of Unsilencing

This weekend, I feel blessed and privileged to be attending the 19th annual AIS-DSD Support Group Conference in San Francisco, CA (for those of you who aren’t familiar with intersex alphabet soup, AIS-DSD stands for the Androgen Insensitity Syndrome – Differences of Sex Development).

Thursday, at the Continuing Medical Education (CME) portion of the conference, I met some of the bravest, most articulate young adults I’ve ever met – youth from the Inter/Act advocacy group who gave a terrific presentation on what doctors should NOT do when interacting with intersex teens. I wish that every MD in America could’ve been there – it woud’ve gone a long way toward eliminating a lot of angst and anguish.

Then yesterday. The stories – all the stories. I wish I could tell you all the stories, but they are not mine to tell. All I can say is that every individual at this conference is a hero, a rockstar. That they speak their pain to relieve the suffering of others. That they have hearts that are infinite in their capacity.

But the most humbling lesson I learned yesterday was the healing power of narrative. The grace and peace offered by Unsilencing. NONE OF THE ABOVE isn’t the story of the women I met yesterday. In the words of the inimitable Kristin Elizabeth Clark (FREAKBOY), it’s not the intersex story, it’s a intersex story. Nevertheless, it is a story that I am proud to have told, and if it reaches one person, I will have done my job.