The United Nations is hoping to raise awareness of intersex issues with a heartwarming short film.
“Perfect Just The Way They Are” was released by the U.N. Free & Equal Campaign on Oct. 26 to coincide with Intersex Awareness Day. The clip, which can be viewed above, depicts a family’s journey toward understanding after discovering their child is intersex, meaning that they were born with physical traits that don’t fit the typical definition of “male” or “female.”
The film was produced for the campaign by Shape History, a London and New York-based advocacy group focused on social change. Mike Buonaiuto, who is the group’s executive director, told The Huffington Post that, above all, “Perfect Just The Way They Are” represents the U.N.’s “commitment to a truly free and equal future.”
“Many parents and medical professionals feel the need to perform multiple life-changing operations on intersex babies and children, that have had no say in their sex whatsoever,” he said. “The vast majority of intersex people who have suffered through these operations are left physically, emotionally and mentally scarred by the process.”
Charles Radcliffe, who leads the equality and non-discrimination team at the U.N. Human Rights office in New York, echoed those sentiments, saying that many parents of intersex children suffer from “a lack of knowledge and peer support.”
“Few receive counseling or have an opportunity to speak with intersex children and adults or with other parents in a similar position,” Radcliffe told HuffPost. “If they did, research suggests they might make very different decisions.”
In May, Shape History was behind a video campaign calling for greater LGBTQ representation in blockbuster superhero films. We can only hope that “Perfect Just The Way They Are” is received with the same enthusiasm.
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