The third edition of the State of Intersex Organizing survey was launched in October 2023 and received participation from 151 intersex respondents worldwide. The results provide illuminating insight into intersex organizations’ priorities, activities, needs, and experiences. The survey results also document their funding sources, budget sizes, and other elements related to movement sustainability, as well as their capacity to serve intersex people. The reports include the findings of global surveys, comparison with Global Resources Report funding data, case studies, recommendations, and more.
Executive Summaries are available in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
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Top findings
The survey received participation from 151 intersex organizations around the world, triple the number of responses in the previous survey, with 82% based in the Global South and East.
Compared to the previous survey, significantly more respondents from Asia and the Pacific and Europe and a major increase from Sub-Saharan Africa, while responses from Northern America were lower. Organizations from Latin America and the Caribbean and from the Middle East and North Africa participated for the first time.
While the global intersex movement has been growing steadily, larger numbers of new organizations were founded starting in 2015 – more than half of the respondents (56%) were founded since the previous survey.
This chart shows the percentage of global intersex groups participating in a range of advocacy sub-activities.
Organizations were also asked to select their top activities urgently needing additional resources. By far, the most frequently chosen were “advocacy against ‘normalizing’ interventions” (53%) and “advocacy for the human rights of intersex people” (48%), aligning with a consistent focus throughout the findings.
82%
Intersex organizations are working at all levels, local to international. More than eight in ten (82%) reported work at the national level.
18
Intersex organizations are working to meet their communities’ needs across advocacy, direct service, education/training, safety/security, and arts/culture. On average, organizations reported 18 advocacy sub-activities.
69%
Almost 7 in 10 (69%) of intersex organizations reported responding to external threats from opposition groups or individuals.
$20,000
Worldwide, over half (60%) of intersex organizations had budgets below US$20,000.
35%
Over one-third (35%) of intersex organizations received no external support (government or foundation funding).
30%
About one-third (30%) of intersex organizations had only one or two funders.
1%
The 2021–2022 Global Resources Report found that only 1% of global LGBTI funding was focused on intersex populations, a level that has stayed similarly low across ten years of documentation.
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