Whereas Intersex Awareness Day honors the first public demonstration by intersex people in the United States, which took place at the annual conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics on October 26, 1996; Whereas, since that historic demonstration in 1996, October 26 has become a day during which intersex people and allies come together to celebrate and uplift the intersex community; Whereas intersex refers to individuals with innate variations in their physical sex characteristics, including external anatomy, reproductive organs, hormonal function, and/or chromosomal patterns; Whereas the most widely cited estimate of the frequency of intersex traits in the population is 1.7 percent, yet the true prevalence is likely higher; Whereas health equity for intersex people is undermined by patterns of stigmatization and discrimination on the basis of variations in sex characteristics, intersex status, and perceived gender nonconformity; Whereas babies and children with variations in their sex characteristics are often subjected, without their own informed consent or assent, to irreversible surgeries and other interventions to make their bodies conform to stereotypical expectations of what it means to appear, behave as, or be male or female; Whereas instances in which variations in sex characteristics necessitate surgery on an urgent basis in infancy or early childhood are exceedingly rare, and decisions about such surgeries could therefore be safely postponed in the vast majority of cases until such time as an indication of medical necessity may arise; Whereas there is evidence that performing these irreversible surgeries in the absence of individual consent can result in severe lasting physical and psychological harm including loss of bodily function, the destruction of reproductive capacity, and the imposition of a sex assignment with which the individual will not identify