Theme: Staying Connected
Held on 24th-26th of September, 2021
Held Online
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 OII Europe Online Community Event and Conference for the first time was held completely online. Under the theme of “Staying Connected” we were delighted to once again be surrounded by our amazing community during the 3-day event consisting of a one-day public conference and a two-day closed community event. Over 94 participants registered for the event, for many this being their first ever Community event.
The program of the Public Conference on September 24th included panels on the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, a dialogue with allies on examples of good allyship and – last but not least – a session by intersex musicians! As always we were amazed by our speakers and their words. A big thank you to all our invited speakers and musicians!
The program of the Public Conference was one of the first events, to our knowledge, to include panels on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the intersex community with speakers from most regions of the world, as well as a panel on research ethics for allies working on the topic of intersex.
All the panels also featured simultaneous interpretation into Spanish and French and live captions. Despite some minor technical difficulties the event went smoothly and successfully!
The program of the Public Conference included the following sessions:
Keynote speech by Silvan Agius, Cabinet Expert of Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli, European Commission
Good Practice in Research by Allies Panel Discussion with the speakers:
- Dr. Nikoletta Pikramenou, Aristotle University, ally-member of Intersex Greece
- Amets Suess Schwend, INIA, Intersex – New Interdisciplinary Approaches, Andalusian, School of Public Health, Granada
- Dr. Ulrike Klöppel, member of the advisory board of Internationale Vereinigung Intergeschlechtlicher Menschen – OII Germany
- Surya Monro, INIA, Intersex – New Interdisciplinary Approaches, Professor in Sociology and Social Policy, University of Huddersfield, UK
- Régine Abadia, Film Director, director of the documentary “Entre Deux Sexes
COVID-19 and Intersex Panel, with the following speakers:
- Dan Christian Ghattas, Executive Director of OII Europe
- Hiker Chiu, Chair of Intersex Asia
- Gaby Gonzalez, Coordinator and activist for the human rights of intersex people in Argentina. Organisation Orquidea Intersexual
- Obioma Chukwuike, intersex and human rights activist, founder and Executive Director Intersex-Nigeria, and member of the African Intersex Movement
One Year Later: Intersex Activism in COVID-19 Times Panel Discussion with the speakers:
- Eliana Rubashkyn, intersex pharmacist, chemist and human rights activist, ILGA World Intersex Programme Officer
- Crystal Hendricks, Chair of Intersex South Africa
- Hiker Chiu, Chair of Intersex Asia
- Manuela Falzone, activist of IntersexEsiste and member of AISIA
- Mauro Cabral Grinspan, Executive Director, GATE Trans, Gender Diverse and Intersex Advocacy in Action
The program of the Community event included advocacy and capacity building sessions, informal hangouts, conversations, and more fun and relaxing sessions, as well as sessions for family and loved ones.
Split into three separate tracks that were held simultaneously along with a dedicated hangout space, the sessions included a wide variety of topics, from documenting hate speech and hate crime to intersex characters in the media, from intersex advocacy with European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) to personal activist self-care, from intersex artists music listening sessions to intersex and sports… We can go on and on, there was so much! We are also proud that we were able to pay all intersex speakers for their amazing contributions.
Of course, it is sad that we were unable to hold the Community Event in person in 2021, but the online format allowed the Community Event 2021 to have attendees coming from all regions of the world. Also, throughout the entire event simultaneous interpretation into Spanish and French was available, as well as live captioning.
According to the feedback OII Europe received afterwards, many attendees found the event empowering and many appreciated the option of staying in touch after the end of the event. Even in the online format it felt like a real Community Event, and we are hopeful to come back to holding such events in person soon.
The program of the Community Event included the following sessions:
- Personal self-care and handling the emotional impact of human rights work by Erin Vlahović, Executive Coordinator and Intersex Program Coordinator at kolekTIRV (ex Trans Aid) and Magda Rakita, co-founder & Executive Director of Fundacja Interakcja and chair of trustees at Interconnected UK
- Youth&I publication by Steph Lum, founder and editor of YOUth&I, intersex advocate and poet
- Session about the Emergence of the Intersex Movement from 2006 to 2015, by Audrey Aegerter, Chair of InterAction Suisse and Board Member at OII Europe
- Session about intersex advocacy with the European Commission Against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI) Advocacy by Cianán Russell, Senior Policy Officer, ILGA-Europe
- Intersex Artists Music Listening Session
- Intersex Characters in the Media Talk
- Documenting hate crime/Hate speech
- Intersex and Sports session with invited speakers Annet Negesa, former Ugandan middle distance runner, Urs Vanessa Sager, 65 years old intersexy activist from Switzerland, Vice President of InterAction Switzerland, and Dr. Payoshni Mitra, Athlete rights activist & scholar
- 2020 OII Europe Good Practice Map Presentation + Exchange with community about new good practice from their countries
- ILGA-Europe Rainbow Map Intersex Indicators Discussion
- Education (and queering) of Medical Professionals About Intersex Matters by Mirjam Werlen, InterAction Suisse
- Family and Loved Ones Conversation and Writing Spaces
- Chill music listening space
- As well as Intersex Drinks in the evening!
For dedicated meeting spaces during our community event we used the free online platform Kumospace that simulates being together in a room. Acoustically and visually you could approach a group seated in a bar area, and while coming closer you would be able to hear and join the conversation. Or you could walk on the beach and listen to the ocean for a while.
The incredible AwA_stern collective was responsible for the Awareness during the event, making sure everybody felt safe, heard, comfortable and had the option to receive emotional support whenever needed, during and after the event. We have also learned lessons for the future online events about the need to have funds and procedures in place to cover internet data for attendees who might not be able to attend without it.
We received highly positive feedback regarding the event, and we were delighted to once again get the feeling of a real Community Event and community unity, even despite it having been held in the online format. We had a fantastic time and we’re so grateful to our community! We are also grateful for the kind support by Zoom for providing a temporary extended number of participants package for this event.
