Organisation Intersex International - Australia

Artworks by Chris Somers xxy

2006-09-16T09:21:00.000-07:00

Organisation Intersex International

Spokesperson for Intergender Issues

The artist reveals

Gender and Sex cannot be so simply defined. Medicine together with most of society has great difficulty in recognizing other sexes and or genders that do in fact populate the world. That other gendered and sexed people are akin to a political time bomb set to explode the myths attributed to them. And in so doing asks that humankind question what do they mean by sex and gender; while acknowledging that there are both physiological and psychologically different gendered people whose sex does not fit within the prescribed ‘norms’ of what is considered as being purely ‘male’ or ‘female’ which in actuality is in essence at odds with itself in any case. Chris Somers advocates these other gendered and sexed people have a right to co-exist amongst the whole of humankind without prejudice and without fear together with the same human rights taken for granted and given to the majority of peoples...

Chris Somers is primarily a photographic illustrator and multi-media artist where the camera and other processes play an important part in the making of an image.
"A Picture from My Bedroom Window" depicts a low resolution image of Chris Somers’ tent in Antarctica

To view more artworks by Chris Somers xxy, visit:

http://tinyurl.com/zesgr

Summer Dry and hot by Gina Wilson

2006-09-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

Summer Dry and hot
the nights
thick and warm
as sopping milk
Ted Mulray
playing on the Jukebox
since I arrived

If I drink another coke

my insulin
will die
I haven’t been in touch
since I came here
a month ago
I can drink now
all I want
I’ve the money
and a mind to do that
So drunk as a lord
for the first time
what do I do?

Give suicide a try
Then we all know
that’s not right
now is it?
I should have known
right there and then
and yet I didn’t

I floundered
and I drowned
Kept my privates to myself
kept my secret in my pants
I’m Just another little Richard
Shitting bricks

Summer hot and milky
nights thick and dry
bottle nearly empty
I swear that if I hear
that Ted bloody Mulray
another time

I’ll …
well then I’ll just ….

The tinderbox is lit.

The fuse has found a match

The Hidden Gender

2006-09-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

Chris Somers’ self-portrait when he was 19.
SHERYL-LEE KERR reports
The hidden gender

10 THE SUNDAY TIMES, September 2005

Ten years ago Chris Somers became one of the 1st people in Australia to reveal publicly his make-up was a blurring of both male and female genders. Now married and living in Geraldton, the adventure-lover has spent the past decade on a quest to change the world's very definition of gender.

IT’S not everyone who can boast of having crashed the Australian Electoral Commission’s computers by requesting it add a third gender to its choice of male or female. And not everyone can say they have worked on the Sydney Harbour Bridge, joined a polar-explorer brother in Antarctica, skydived, unicycled, flown planes, had their back broken, busted a drug ring, had a gun held to their head or hitchhiked 160,000km around Australia – barefoot.

But then Chris Somers isn’t just anyone. The enthusiastic 58-year-old relaxing on a soft red couch in a practical photographer’s vest and colourful silk scarf is one of the most unlikely of crusaders you’ll ever come across, on one of the most unusual missions.

Chris is fighting for the rights of people born with a different chromosome mix from the norm to be free to live as they wish and not be forced to live as either male or female. It may seem an uncomfortably challenging philosophy to Western ears, but, as the photographer points out with a thoughtful rub of his salt-and-pepper beard, the West is only one part of the world.

“You have the Navajo Indians and the Inuits, for example, who each have a significant number of genders beyond two and there are other cultures which allow for differences in gender relationships – but not in our cultures,” Chris says. “The West seems to be highly sophisticated and yet incredibly backward in other respects. We allow for difference elsewhere – we get very excited if we hear of the latest find of an unusual flower or creature from some exotic place but when it comes to humans we shun it.”

Chris is among the one or two in every thousand people born with an extra X chromosome, a condition known as 47XXY Syndrome.
Complete article in PDF:
www.equity.uwa.edu.au/welcome/priority_areas/gender_identity?f=92773
Complete article in HTML:
http://tinyurl.com/mlldq

OII express their gratitude to Geoff Somers MBE – Patron of OII

2006-09-02T11:39:00.000-07:00

Chis Somers’ adventurous brother, Geoff Somers MBE plus Polar Medal (these two being awarded at Buckingham Palace, London, UK) has graciously accepted to be a Patron in name for the Organisation Intersex International.

He is one of the most accomplished and renowned Polar navigators and expedition logistics experts in the world. He is a highly experienced and accomplished polar dog sled driver and polar trainer for people wishing to set up major expeditions in the Polar Regions or elsewhere and a world record breaker. He has been in Antarctica every year since 1989 and many times in the northern Polar Regions, including unexplored jungles and excessively hot sand and mountainous deserts. He has worked with film crews and done some amazing world first journeys and has inspired many others by his exhilarating motivational and other professional speaking engagements.

We in OII are honoured that he is an official patron.

DSD vs. Intersex? Do you care?

2006-09-01T14:13:00.000-07:00

Do you have an opinion about the new term chosen to replace the term "intersex" with "disorder of sex development", or, "DSD"? Make you opinion known. OII is taking a survey. Click on the link below:

http://freeonlinesurveys.com/rendersurvey.asp?sid=3bj6j5u5g6ll4jz211822

You can read the results of the survey thus far at the following link.

http://www.intersexualite.org/English_OII/dsd_survey/dsd_survey.html

OII thanks you for your participation.

Literary contributions from Gina Wilson

2006-08-28T07:47:00.000-07:00

Rivers idly bend toward me.

hold me in wet corners

of their meanderings,

hold me prisoner

to their slow intentions.

Captive to their beauty

they steal the earth

beneath my feet

‘til there is no place

left to stand,

‘til like love,

I am left to drown

in the drunken joy

of their waters,

in the myth of their

endless journey,

to spend all my days

in their endless embrace

like the days,

I spend;

with

you.

You can read a short story By her at the following URL:
http://www.intersexualite.org/English-Poems.html#anchor_30

Chris Somers xxy

2006-08-27T11:16:00.000-07:00

Spokesperson for Intergender Issues

Chris has worked for many years on behalf of intersex and intergender human rights. Chris was given the wonderful and awesome opportunity to visit Antarctica in 1995/1996 and together with a pioneering spirit, used this rare chance in a life time, as a catalyst for change in international awareness, attitude and perceptions concerning all those who are intersexed and or androgynous. Chris raised both the specially designed flag denoting the XXY person and the Rainbow Flag and became the first openly and intersexed and androgynous person in the world to do so. Both Flags were flown at the South Pole and within the mountains of Antarctica to represent all those of us whom are intersexed and or androgynous. A powerful affirmation of our legitimate place within the world and universe.

Chris's world renown brother, namely Geoff Somers MBE, who is considered to be amongst the best of the Antarctic and Arctic adventurers, is a world leading polar navigator and a brilliant expedition logistics advisor amongst other extremes he ventures into around the world. Geoff's skills are highly sought after by other adventurers and many leading expeditions. Geoff has always been very supportive of Chris's bid to help enlighten the world to differences concerning sex and gender, specifically intersex and has very kindly offered his patronage to our organisation. We are delighted to have his support.

We are very honoured to have Chris represent OII on behalf of intergender issues.

http://www.intersexualite.org/English_OII/IAIA/Somers/Chris_Somers.html

http://www.intersexualite.org/P-Sexing-The-Difference.html