Skip to content Skip to footer
Search

Intersex & Faith

HomePanels & ConversationsIntersex & Faith

Intersex & Faith

April 20, 2022
7:00 – 8:00p (EST)

Hybrid event
Live on facebook & YouTube

In Person at Albertus Magnus College
700 Prospect Street, New Haven

Join us as we sit down with some of the creators behind the groundbreaking film Intersex & Faith for an open and honest conversation about Intersex identity and its intersection with various religions. Please join us before the film for a special screening of Intersex & Faith in the Behan Community Room at Albertus Magnus College. The panel will include perspectives from Megan DeFranza (Director of Intersex and Faith), Anunnaki Ray Marquez, Marissa Adams and Arlene Baratz, MD.

 

About The Film
Caught in the crossfire at the intersection of medicine, politics, and religion, perfectly healthy intersex children are being surgically altered to appear more like typical girls and boys. Surgeries and hormone replacements begun before children can consent often cause life-long physical harm and psychological trauma. These procedures have been identified as Human Rights Violations by the United Nations but continue in the United States every day. After uncovering the truth about their bodies, five intersex people break the silence about their physical differences. Coming from Christian and Jewish families, they show how religion often supports secrecy, shame, and surgeries but how they found healing, courage, and hope through intersex support groups, personal faith, and a few physicians willing to listen and then challenge medical protocols.
Thank You To Our Sponsor

Meet Our Speakers

Mx. Anunnaki Ray Marquez (he/they)

Anunnaki is an intersex man, activist, speaker, seminarian. His story is featured in the film. Anunnaki created restitution for himself by achieving Colorado’s first intersex birth certificate in September 2018. This lead to his TEDx talk, Born Intersex: we are human!  He spoke for PFLAG National “How to add the “I” responsibly to  LGBTQIA+” at their 2017 and 2019 National conferences. He speaks across the country and administers numerous support groups online (www.anunnakiray.com). 

Marissa Adams (she/her)

Marissa is an Intersex woman, activist, and board member at intersex and faith. Her story is featured in the film. Marissa is a graduate of Towson University and was involved with the youth program at interACT: Advocates for Intersex Youth from 2013-2021. Marissa is also the Communications and Support Coordinator at InterConnect and a team member with the FEDUP Collective, a group of trans+ and intersex individuals, whose mission is to make visible the high incidence of eating disorders effecting trans, intersex, and gender diverse people.

Megan DeFranza, PhD (she/her)

Megan is an endosex Christian woman, director of the film, author of “Sex Difference in Christian Theology: Male, Female and Intersex in the Image of God” among other publications on sex, gender, sexuality, and religion. Combining interviews from the film with her own theological research she recently produced a video-curriculum for churches entitled “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: Scripture and the New Science of Gender” available for purchase on Vimeo. (www.megandefranza.com)

Arlene Baratz, MD (she/her)

Arlene is a physician and mother of 2 intersex women. For the last 20 years, she has supported and advocated for the intersex community. She is Coordinator of Medical and Research Affairs for AIS-DSD Support Group, and Chair of the Medical and Research Policy Committee for interACT. Arlene has shared her expertise with Human Rights Watch, NIH, the California legislature, the AMA, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. She has co-authored many publications on topics ranging from parenting, ethics, and nomenclature to clinical issues such as psychosocial support, gonad management, and fertility preservation.