A boat representing the intersex community is now also sailing in the Canal Parade. "A big step, as it was always said it was better not to talk about it."

Will we get enough people on the boat? That question quickly crossed Sharan Bala's (39) mind when the idea arose to sail on a boat specifically for intersex people in the boat parade during Pride in Amsterdam. "There are very few people who are completely open about being intersex," says Bala.

For the first time, intersex people will be sailing their own boat in the Canal Parade, the largest event during Pride in Amsterdam, on Saturday. Bala, a filmmaker and artist, founded 'Spread the Word,' a collective for intersex people, which organized the boat. About half of the ninety people on the boat are intersex people; the rest are allies . Bala: "I don't think so many intersex people have ever come together openly in the Netherlands."

An estimated 190,000 people in the Netherlands have hormones, reproductive organs, or chromosomes that don't align with male or female. For many of them, coming out is a daunting prospect, Bala notes. "I've received many messages from people who want to come on the boat, but don't dare. That's completely understandable. When you've been told your whole life not to talk about it, it's a huge step to suddenly find yourself on a boat. On live television."

Sharan Bala also didn't share her secret with anyone, not even friends and family outside the family. That changed five years ago when she met Marieke Schoutsen after their therapist introduced them. "That's why it's so important to meet people with the same experiences, to have someone who understands you." They decided to make a documentary together, "Choosing, Cutting, Silence ," which aired last year on VPRO. In it, they share their secret with friends and review medical records, among other things.

Confidentiality

For years, the protocol was to choose one sex for babies whose sex could not be determined, operate on them at a young age, and never discuss it again. "That secrecy, whether it was imposed, as was the case in the past, or exists more implicitly, as it does now, is disastrous for people," says Miriam van der Have, director of the NNID, the Expertise Center for Sex Diversity.

Van der Have founded the NNID in 2013 to advocate for and increase the visibility of intersex people. The organization aims to ban all non-essential medical treatment for intersex children under the age of twelve – only from that age should children be allowed to make their own decisions.

In 2017, the Council of Europe determined that unnecessary medical intervention on intersex children without their consent violates human rights. However, the Dutch government has not yet implemented a legal ban on non-consensual and unnecessary medical treatments. Last month, outgoing State Secretary Mariëlle Paul (Primary Education and Emancipation, VVD) and Minister of Health Eddy van Hijum (NSC) announced in a letter to Parliament that they would conduct a study into the pros and cons of regulation.

Purple-yellow

During Pride in Utrecht, where the NNID has been participating with a boat for several years, Van der Have saw how important such a boat parade can be. "I was sitting on the terrace with a group of people who said: I want to come, but I don't want people to see that I'm intersex. Because of the cheering people on the docks, they finally had the courage to wear a purple and yellow shirt, the colors of the flag for intersex people. And thus to come out as who they are. That's at least as important as political change."

On Saturday, the NNID will also be sailing on the intersex boat, recognizable by the yellow flags with a purple heart and the banners with the slogan: Love every body .

I have received many messages from people who would like to come on the boat, but do not dare

The purple and yellow boat is the second to sail through the canals, after the organization's boat carrying almost all the Pride ambassadors. Almost all of them, because ambassador Marleen Hendrickx (34), a theater maker and intersex activist, chose to sail on the intersex boat. "Luckily, I can wave to my fellow ambassadors."

Never before has the Pride organization asked an intersex person to be its ambassador. "I think that's because the emancipation of intersex people is the most recent, after that of the other letters of the LGBTQ+ community," says Hendrickx. Compared to the other ambassadors, she's had a relatively quiet week. "As an ambassador, you're mainly used for 'your' letter. And there aren't many activities for intersex people."

Queer community

Not every intersex person feels part of the queer community, says Hendrickx. "But the way intersex people are treated stems from the same heteronormative thinking that LGBTQ+ people are fighting against: you have a man and a woman, and they can have sexual intercourse with each other. That's why I had the surgery."

From the age of ten, Hendrickx was informed by doctors that she was intersex. They told her that the people around her wouldn't understand, might bully her, or even cut off contact. When she was 22 and, after years of keeping quiet, told her friends and family, people shrugged. "They said, 'Oh, how awful for you,' and that was it. The discrepancy between what doctors told me and the reality was so great. I thought: all intersex people need to know this, that this whole secrecy thing is nonsense."

When Hendrickx first sailed on the NNID Pride boat in Utrecht in 2023, she felt awkward for the first ten minutes. "Why are you clapping for me? I'm not doing anything." That feeling gave way to pride. "I truly felt: we're here and we're never leaving. Like I was flying. I want every intersex person to have that feeling."