Last week, Nightline ABC aired a segment in which Advocates for Informed Choice (AIC) President Sean Saifa Wall courageously confronted his childhood surgeon on a segment of Nightline ABC last week. AIC raises awareness about, and protects the human rights of, intersex children who often face pressure to undergo unnecessary surgury to conform their bodies to society's expectations.
AIC worked with producers at Nightline for more than a year because they understand that intersex is a complex topic that is easily misunderstood, especially in a brief segment. Likewise, GLAAD worked with AIC to prepare people for interviews in the Nightline segment.
The segment brought attention to the difficulty that intersex people face, especially within the medical community, but fell short of providing a full and accurate understand of the range of intersex conditions, even choosing to inaccurately define intersex as "being born with both male and female genitals." The reality is that intersex is a set of over 40 conditions that may impact someone's physical, hormonal, or chromosomal makeup.
You can see the original Nightline segment here. However, AIC reviewed and re-edited the segment to provide corrections and further explanation for the claims that were made. Watch that video here:
GLAAD has previously worked with AIC when MTV's Faking It revealed one of its characters was intersex. AIC, and their youth program, Inter/Act Youth, provided input into the character, and worked with MTV to produce a video and a blog post that described more about intersex people.