Wilson has played a leading role in moves to protect people on the basis of "intersex status" in anti-discrimination law, appearing before a Senate inquiry. Interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald, Wilson spoke about how initial proposals for intersex inclusion in federal legislation were inappropriate as they classed intersex as a gender identity. A Senate of Australia inquiry into anti-discriminination legislation supported the approach of the organisation and "intersex status" was added to the Sex Discrimination Amendment Act 2013, which passed into law on 1 August 2013.
Bodily autonomy
Wilson has called for "normalising" surgeries on intersex infants to end, saying that such interventions should only take place when a child is able to provide informed consent. In comments on Intersex Awareness Day 2012, Wilson said, "At a fundamental level homophobic bigotry, intolerance and ancient superstitions underpin contemporary mistreatment of intersex people. Intersex people are subjected to forced gendering and surgical alterations to our bodies to "disappear" our differences in a society that regards difference in sex anatomy as deeply suspicious." Interviewed by Andrew Bock in The Age, Wilson expressed concern about the use of prenatal screening to terminate intersex foetuses.
Mental health and access to healthcare
Wilson played a role in efforts to improve access to Medicare services in 2013. The organisation has also called for the removal of intersex people from definitions of gender identity disorder in the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic manual, saying "The assumption is that the birth assignment must be right. The doctor is never at fault, it's the poor intersex person who is wrong, who then gets carted off to a psychiatrist to try and 'fix' us."
While welcoming federal guidelines on recognition of gender, Wilson has expressed concern about misrepresentation of intersex issues by some trans groups including the instrumentalisation of intersex in moves to create a third gender category, warning of "far-reaching unintended consequences".
Selected bibliography
Selected published work includes:
"Testimony of an Intersex Person" in the Equal Rights Trust journal Equal Rights Review.
Appearance in the 2012 documentary Intersexion.
Appearance in a national campaign by Beyond Blue, titled Stop, Think, Respect, in the same year.
Gina Wilson was a finalist for the Australian Human Rights Commission Community Individual Award, 2013. The Commission describes the award as one of "the two most vigourously contested categories for the 2013 Australian Human Rights Awards" commenting that her "intersex advocacy work has been ground-breaking, helping to achieve authentic and appropriate inclusion in anti-discrimination legislation." Wilson was also nominated for a Community Hero "Honour Award" in 2011.
