About

Hida (pronounced “Heeda”) Viloria is the chairperson of the Organisation Intersex International (or OII), the largest intersex organization in the world, with branches on six continents, and the Director of OII USA. She has a degree in Gender and Sexuality from the University of California at Berkeley, and has spoken extensively on the topic of intersex, including appearances in the documentary films Gendernauts and One in 2000, as well as ABC's "20/20," "The Oprah Winfrey Show," and, most recently, the Tyra Banks Show. She has also lectured extensively at universities including Standford, U.C. Berkeley, and N.Y.U., and written about intersex for CNN.com, The Global Herald, and The Hasting Center Report's Bioethics Forum.

Last October, in the wake of the Caster Semenya controversy, she served, by invitation, as the intersex representative at the International Olympic Committee's meeting of experts in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she argued against the pathologization of people with intersex variations, and for the inclusion of intersex female athletes in competitive sport.

Childhood

Hida was born and raised in New York City, the child of recently immigrated Colombian and Venezuelan parents, with what is known as clitoromegaly (or enlarged clitoris.) She was spared medically unnecessary treatments (such as non-concensual genital surgery and hormone therapy), due to the objections of her father, a physician, to surgery, and her mother, a former teacher, to hormone treatment.

Contrary to popular medical opinions that intersex children will be socially isolated and emotionally challenged, Hida was a well-adjusted child. In grammar school, she was placed in a gifted-child's group and was both an All-Star athlete (basketball) and a cheerleader. High school years included cheerleading, math league, and honor roll.

Although she felt more assertive than other girls growing up, she did not feel this was a negative thing. Later, she enjoyed that her breasts did not develop like most girls' did, as well as the other differences in her body that are specific to being intersex. She continues to do so today.

"I was never told that there was anything wrong with me or my body, and I feel blessed that this was the case because it enabled me to formulate my own, positive, identity. We fill our minds with what we are taught about the world around us. Let's make sure we teach our children how to love the unique beauty in themselves and others."