(Past) "Nobody Needs to Know" with Intersex Advocate Pidgeon Pagonis

Intersex advocate Pidgeon Pagonis will give a presentation titled “Nobody Needs to Know.”  The presentation is scheduled for Tuesday April 23rd at seven o’clock.  The presentation will take place on the UW-Platteville campus in the Nohr Art Gallery.  The presentation is free and open to the public. Seating is limited.

According to the Cleveland Clinic, people who are intersex have reproductive or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit into an exclusively male or female (binary) sex classification.  People who are intersex have genitals, chromosomes or reproductive organs that don’t fit into a male/female sex binary. Their genitals might not match their reproductive organs, or they may have traits of both. Being intersex may be evident at birth, childhood, later in adulthood or never. Being intersex isn’t a disorder, disease or condition.

Pidgeon Pagonis has worked for over a decade as an intersex advocate, speaker, consultant, photographer and filmmaker to shed light on the human rights violations endured by intersex people.

Their goal is to help end the non-consensual irreversible medical procedures meant to discipline unruly intersex bodies. Pidgeon’s accessible advocacy helps people complicate their preconceived binary notions about “biological differences”. Their work has been essential for those who want to show up for intersex people in their lives but aren’t sure where to start.

Whether advancing the intersex cause as the co-founder of the Intersex Justice Project (IJP),

co-producing viral informational videos, creating art that centers intersex voices, appearing on the cover of National Geographic “Gender Revolution” special issue or being honored as a LGBT Champion of Change in by the Obama White House, Pidgeon has staked out a place at the fore of debates on intersexuality. In 2020, IJP’s #EndIntersexSurgery campaign succeeded in getting Lurie Children’s to become the first hospital in the nation to apologize and halt surgeries.

Pagonis published their memoir, “Nobody Needs to Know,” last fall.  The first 50 people in attendance at the April 23^rd event will receive a free copy of Pagonis’s memoir.

Pagonis’s presentation is made possible with a grant from the Menard’s Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation (MCSII).  The grant recipient is Dr. Robert Snyder, Professor at UW-Platteville.  According to the university’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, Dr. Snyder’s grant is the first gifted grant in the history of the university.

Funding for the free book distribution is provided by College of BILSA DEI Activity Grant.