Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today is Intersex Awareness Day. Intersex Australians are people whose biological sex characteristics at birth are not typically male or female. These people make up the 'I' in LGBTIQ. These are the people most Australians never hear about and have little understanding of. Being born with intersex characteristics is statistically as common as being born with red hair, yet intersex Australians remain largely invisible.

As one of the co-conveners of the Parliamentary Friendship Group for LGBTIQ Australians, I hosted a breakfast here in Parliament House last week in recognition of Intersex Awareness Day. In this place there are many parliamentary friendship groups, but I'm particularly proud of the friends of LGBTIQ, along with Warren Entsch from the Liberal Party and Greens' Senator Janet Rice.

Around 20 members and senators attended the breakfast, where the intersex community generously shared some of their own very personal stories. They eloquently expressed that intersex Australians simply want the same rights as all: body autonomy, self-determination and legal recognition. The breakfast was a very moving and informative event, one that I hope will be repeated annually. I also hope that it will be the impetus for a much wider conversation about the rights of intersex Australians. So today, on Intersex Awareness Day, let's make sure intersex Australians are seen and heard and proud to be citizens of this nation, and that not one of them is ever invisible again.