Chicago activist shares stories of an intersex life in Reeling film festival documentary

Filmmaker Pidgeon Pagonis didn’t learn until college that they were born with androgen insensitivity syndrome, a genetic condition in which people are born with both male and female sexual characteristics.

Doctors never told Pagonis they were born intersex, a blanket term for people born with these naturally occurring sex characteristics. Instead, they said Pagonis had ovarian cancer and administered a series of medical procedures to alter their body to fit traditionally female sex characteristics.

“Everything looks normal. You’re a normal girl,” doctors would tell Pagonis and their parents. “But getting my medical records in college and learning the truth, I realized that I was normal, but they made me abnormal by disfiguring my body, forcing me into hormones and lying to me.”

Pagonis, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, shares their story as an intersex person and activist in director Aubree Bernier-Clarke’s short documentary “A Normal Girl,” which is screening at 9:15 p.m. Friday at Landmark’s Century Centre Cinema, 2828 N. Clark St., as part of the 2019 Reeling LGBTQ+ International Film Festival.

Starting at six months old, Pagonis underwent surgeries to remove their testes and clitoris, which doctors said was too big. Starting around 10 years old, Pagonis had female hormones pumped into their body and later underwent a vaginoplasty.

The nearly 14-minute film follows Pagonis’ journey from first learning the truth about their condition to getting involved in national-level activism to end the practice of performing these surgeries — which have been deemed medically unnecessary and a human rights violation by the United Nations — on intersex children.

It also touches on the experience of Pagonis’ mother, who was led to believe by doctors that these surgeries were needed for Pagonis to live a normal life.

“I think parents can relate to my mom and see through her experience what it might be like for them if they allow doctors to persuade them into doing these unnecessary surgeries on their baby,” Pagonis said.

The film introduces viewers to 10-year-old Ori Turner, an enthusiastic intersex child who is also nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.

According to Turner’s mother, doctors tried to pressure the family into administering the intersex surgeries on them, but she went in with more research on intersex people and resisted.

“Ori is full of love, spunky, funny, cute, engaged and smart — everything that doctors say intersex kids can’t be without these unnecessary medical interventions,” Pagonis said.

Pagonis and other intersex justice activists believe that these forced medical interventions should be put off until intersex children are older and can decide for themselves as adults whether they want the procedures.

The film highlights a 2017 protest in which Pagonis and members of the Intersex Justice Project, an organization they co-founded, protest outside Lurie Children’s Hospital, calling for it to stop administering these procedures on intersex children. This would make Lurie Children’s Hospital the first hospital in the U.S. to end these surgeries.

“We don’t want the surgeries forced on us,” Pagonis said. “We want them made available to anybody who wants them, which could include intersex people when they’re older, as well as transgender and gender-nonconforming people.”

Pagonis said they are working on how and when to release the short documentary, but they hope to secure enough funding to turn it into a feature-length film.

“I hope viewers learn what it means to be intersex and that these surgeries are unethical,” Pagonis said.

The 37th annual Reeling Film Festival runs from Sept. 19–29. Tickets and the full schedule can be found online at ReelingFilmFestival.Org/2019.