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Note: Information contained in the back issue of newsletter may be outdated.
This week, Intersex Initiative unveiled the website version 2.0 to make the site navigation easier and also to reflect some of the changes that have been happening here at the international headquarters of the Intersex Initiative (i.e. my bedroom-office). Some of the key changes include:
* Brand-new design! With the navigation bar on the side, it's now a lot easier to find what you are looking for. For example, there's "Projects" menu on the sidebar, which includes "Articles," "Speaker's Bureau," "Media Center," "Intersex Studies," and "V-DAY 2004."
* News on the top page! The news section (ipdxWIRE Intersex News) is regularly updated, so we moved it to the top page rather than burying it as just a corner. This way, more people will notice the latest news and commentaries on our website. Visitors can leave comments on each news item, or "trackback" the news from their blog/journal.
* Dropping "Portland" from our logo. I liked the old logo, but we now have bases in the San Francisco Bay Area and in Japan as well, so we're using the name "Intersex Initiative" sans "Portland" more prominently. However we're still using the acronym for now "IPDX" ("PDX" being the airport code turned nickname for Portland) because it sounds cool (and besides, it was never actually an acronym anyway).
* "Publications" section! We now have a section on our website where you can download our educational booklets in PDF or order hard copy.
Please check out our new website, and do let us know what you think! The address for the website is <http://www.intersexinitiative.org/> (although <http://www.ipdx.org/> continues to work also).
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Other news from ipdxWIRE Intersex News:
TOMORROW: J SEVELIUS TO PRESENT INTERSEX WORKSHOP AT UC BERKELEY
On January 30, J Sevelius--also known as Jay Walker the drag king--will present a workshop on intersex activism at University of California, Berkeley campus. J is a member of Intersex Initiative's Speaker's Bureau, which now covers not just Portland, Oregon area, but also the San Francisco Bay Area. Topics include: What is intersex? What do intersex activists want? What do I need to know before adding the "I" to our "LGBT" organization? For more information, go to Queer Berkeley's website.
URL: <http://www.intersexinitiative.org/news/000102.html>
STUDY QUESTIONS SEX CHANGE FOR CHILDREN WITH CLOACAL EXSTROPHY
"Boys will be boys" and "nature trumps nurture" were two of the cliche expressions echoed throughout the media as they reported the latest findings by Johns Hopkins researchers (and intersex allies) William G. Reiner and John P. Gearhart on genetic males assigned as females at birth due to cloacal exstrophy. "Cloacal exstrophy" is a rare medical condition in which the development of lower abdominal wall structures is incomplete, causing a portion of the child's intestines to be exposed outside of the body. It can occur in both genetic males as well as females, but gender assignment becomes a concern in the case of genetic males with cloacal exstrophy, where the penis is short, absent, or split in half. Over the past 25 years, it was standard practice for these genetic males to be assigned female sex, with corresponding genital "reconstructive" surgeries...
READ MORE AT: <http://www.intersexinitiative.org/news/000103.html>
PSYCHIATRIST PROPOSES LEGAL REMEDY AGAINST FORCED TREATMENT
The SUNY psychiatrist Thomas Szasz, who is well known for harsh criticisms of his own profession (psychiatry), published a paper in the December 20, 2003 issue of BMJ in which he proposed the creation of legally enforceable psychiatric protection orders to prevent involuntary institutionalization and medical treatment on psychiatric patients. The legal remedy Dr. Szasz is proposing is designed to empower patients to make their own decisions regarding psychiatric care in advance of any major psychiatric episodes in a legally enforceable form so that they will not be institutionalized, medicated, or otherwise treated medically against their will...
READ MORE AT: <http://www.intersexinitiative.org/news/000067.html>
NEW STUDY SHOWS LOSS OF SENSATION AS RESULT OF SURGERY
A new study published in the latest issue of BJU International confirms the earlier findings that feminizing genitoplasty (clitoral reduction/recession and vaginoplasty) diminishes patients' sexual sensation. While it is based on a small sample (hence this is called a "pilot study") of women with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), the researchers found that all participants scored low on the sensation in the clitoris; further, those women who were sexually active reported sexual difficulties, particularly infrequency of intercourse and anorgasmia...
READ MORE AT: <http://www.intersexinitiative.org/news/000066.html>
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Thanks for your support + Kotoshimo yoroshiku onegai shimasu!
Emi Koyama <emi@ipdx.org>
Director, Intersex Initiative
http://www.intersexinitiative.org/
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