Seven Graham


Seven Graham is a British intersex activist, comedian, filmmaker and playwright, and drug addiction counsellor. They were a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and are a co-founder of the Amy Winehouse Foundation. In recognition of their intersex activism, The Independent on Sunday called them an LGBT "national treasure" and ranked them second in its 2015 "Rainbow List" of the most influential LGBT people in the UK. In 2017 they wrote and performed in a solo play called Angels are Intersex, and in 2018 they executive produced the short film Ponyboi.

Life

Graham was born in the United Kingdom in 1969 with the first name Sarah. They have XY chromosomes, but due to having complete androgen insensitivity syndrome, they were identified and raised as a girl. Doctors lied to them and their parents about their diagnosis, subjected them to repeated medical investigations, and removed their internal testes at age seven or eight "to protect them from cancer and imminent death", resulting in them needing otherwise-unnecessary hormone replacement therapy from age 12.
Graham was not given their CAIS diagnosis until they were 25. They were offered no support and, already a regular drug user, the diagnosis led to a period of self-destruction including alcohol and drug addiction. After several months of treatment, Graham recovered. They later became an addiction counsellor, saying "I have turned my pain into my work".

Career and activism

Graham worked as an addiction counsellor and therapist, running their own drug rehabilitation company which included a weekly LGBTI addiction and recovery therapy group. They have written articles on drug addiction for a variety of newspapers and magazines including The Sun, The Times, and Diva, and appeared on radio and television programmes including The Today Programme, BBC News and This Morning.
Graham was on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs from 2011 to 2017. They were an expert communicator for the government drug education service FRANK, and co-founded the Amy Winehouse Foundation.
Because of their activism, The Independent on Sunday listed them as a "national treasure" in its 2011 "Pink List", and in the renamed 2015 "Rainbow List" called them the second most influential LGBT person in the UK. Graham has advocated for intersex human rights, including speaking out against surgery to "normalise" intersex children's bodies. They have also investigated legal recognition of intersex as a distinct gender, and praised Germany for allowing babies to be registered as neither male nor female.
In 2017, Graham wrote and performed a solo play titled Angels are Intersex. After Angels are Intersex they began using the name Seven Graham and they/them pronouns. Graham was an executive producer of the 2018 short film Ponyboi, along with executive producers Stephen Fry, Johan Sorenson, Elizabeth Sorenson, and DJ Rutherford, and co-producers Emma Thompson, Rachel Singer, and Jamison Monroe. It was the first film to feature an intersex actor playing the role of an intersex person.
Graham has appeared as a guest on several podcasts, including Caitlin Durante's Sludge: An American Healthcare Story, Nadège August's What The Fockery?, and Lauren Wallett's The Creativity Coach.