On Intersex Awareness Day, 26th October 2022, the Darlington Consortium of intersex-led and allied organisations, and community members working towards implementation of the Darlington Statement is proud to announce the recipient of the third Darlington Australia/Aotearoa intersex ally award, “The Darling”.
The award is presented to an organisation, institution or individual that has demonstrated an exemplary commitment to action on intersex issues, beyond affirming the Darlington Statement. This Statement, created in five years ago in 2017, is a community consensus statement that sets out the demands of the intersex community in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand. It calls for recognition of our right to bodily integrity, and outlines the systemic changes needed to ensure their enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health, wellbeing and other human rights.
Congratulations and thank you to Working It Out (WIO)
WIO has shown outstanding allyship beyond affirming the Darlington Statement, and progress the objectives of the Darlington Statement through:
- Learning about intersex people and issues from intersex community members
- Making their service affirmative and meaningfully inclusive for intersex clients
- Elevating intersex voices through the creation of intersex specific resources and the Better Lives project – educating Midwives about variations to sex characteristics and how to support these community members and their families
- Advocating for intersex issues within governments, NGOs, private and public sectors
- Meaningfully including intersex within the LGBTIQA+ sector
- Creating or promoting affirmative, rights-based healthcare services that depathologise intersex
Statement by the winning nominee
Statement by Lynn Jarvis, CEO the Working it Out on being awarded the Darling Award:
“Working It Out is extremely honoured to receive this year’s Darlington Award. We see it as a wonderful acknowledgement of our commitment to do better in this space, and to support ways of creating meaningful change. This has been achieved via a great working relationship with our local Intersex Peer Support Australia (IPSA) representative, Simone-lisa Anderson. By jointly working together we have been able to raise the profile of intersex issues in Tasmania and achieved some significant human-rights based wins. Our pilot ‘Better Lives’ project (professional learning and resources for midwives and new parents) has now been expanded to work in broadly across health and education. We are looking forward to sharing all our resources to support better outcomes for people with innate variations of sex characteristics both nationally and internationally.”
Congratulations and thank you to all the nominees for the 2022 Darling Award!
“The ACT Government Office for LGBTIQ Affairs is honoured to have been nominated for The Darling 2022. We work to support government policy to promote Canberra as the most LGBTIQ+ welcoming and inclusive city in Australia. One of the flagship reforms to which the government committed is reforming how care and support is provided to people who have variations in sex characteristics. This project would not be possible without the ongoing advocacy, expertise, and wisdom of intersex people. We hope that our work will make a difference to intersex people in the ACT and around Australia, better ensuring respect for bodily autonomy and bodily diversity.”
Thank you to all the nominees for their ongoing work supporting the intersex community and our human rights movement.
More information
This year’s award was commissioned from intersex artist Bonnie Hart.
Find out more about the Darlington Statement at https://darlington.org.au
To become an ally of the intersex human rights movement, affirm the Darlington Statement at https://darlington.org.au/affirmation/