Sean Saifa Wall is a published speaker, researcher, and long-time advocate for intersex rights. He is a

queer ''Queer'' is an umbrella term for people who are not heterosexual or cisgender. Originally meaning or , ''queer'' came to be used pejoratively against those with same-sex desires or relationships in the late 19th century. Beginning in the lat ...

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...

, and

intersex Intersex people are individuals born with any of several sex characteristics including chromosome patterns, gonads, or genitals that, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "do not fit typical bina ...

man of color and former president of

Interact Advocates for Intersex Youth Advocates for Informed Choice, doing business as, dba interACT or interACT Advocates for Intersex Youth, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization using innovative strategies to advocate for the legal and human rights of children with intersex trai ...

. He approaches his work to end intersex oppression through an

intersectional Intersectionality is an analytical framework for understanding how aspects of a person's social and political identities combine to create different modes of discrimination and privilege. Intersectionality identifies multiple factors of adv ...

lens.

Early life and career

Sean Saifa Wall has described growing up in the Bronx in the 1980s in a family with other intersex members. In an interview by

Pidgeon Pagonis Pidgeon Pagonis (born 1986) is an American intersex activist, writer, artist, and consultant. They are an advocate for intersex human rights and against nonconsensual intersex medical interventions. Early life and education Pagonis was born in ...

, he describes how an uncle of his was forced to sleep outside on the porch of his hospital after a surgery, and how his intersex and black identities are inseparable. Drawing parallels, Wall has stated, "Although seemingly different subjects, they share the same common denominator, state-sponsored violence against marginalized individuals". Diagnosed with

partial androgen insensitivity syndrome Partial androgen insensitivity syndrome (PAIS) is a condition that results in the partial inability of the Eukaryote#Animal cell, cell to respond to androgens. It is an X linked recessive condition. The partial unresponsiveness of the cell to the ...

, he was subjected to a gonadectomy at age 13, necessitating lifelong hormone replacement therapy. Wall volunteered for

Gay Men's Health Crisis The GMHC (formerly Gay Men's Health Crisis) is a New York City–based non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization whose mission statement is to "end the AIDS epidemic and uplift the lives of all affected." Hist ...

at age 14, prior to studying at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...

. He later travelled to Cuba with Pastors for Peace, documenting the local health system.

Activism

Wall served as president of

for three years. During that time, Interact filed a lawsuit, ''M.C. v. Medical University of South Carolina'', in the County of Richmond, South Carolina, in partnership with the

Southern Poverty Law Center The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American 501(c)(3) nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. Based in Montgomery, Alabama, it is known for its legal cases against white su ...

. In 2015, Wall joined an international advisory board for a first philanthropic Intersex Human Rights Fund established by the Astraea Lesbian Foundation for Justice. He has also developed an art project entitled EMERGE. As part of his advocacy work, Wall has been interviewed by

Nightline ''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News' late-night television news program broadcast on ABC in the United States with a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. Created by Roone Arledge, the progra ...

, in a segment where he also confronted his childhood surgeon,

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III to focus on tracking viral content. Ken ...

, HuffPost Live, and written for The Advocate and

Quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...

. Wall spoke at TEDxGrandRapids in May 2015.

Selected bibliography

* * * *

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wall, Sean Saifa Year of birth missing (living people) Living people African-American activists Intersex men Intersex rights activists Intersex rights in the United States Intersex writers LGBT African Americans People from the Bronx Queer men Queer writers American transgender writers Transgender male writers Williams College alumni