Marc Dirix

Democrats have regained control of both the House of Representatives and the Senate in the US midterm elections. The vote also brought several historic firsts. In New Hampshire, Democrat Chris Pappas was elected to the Senate, becoming the first openly gay man elected to the chamber. In Georgia, openly transgender and nonbinary candidate Bentley Hudgins also won their race. Pappas defeated former Republican Senator John E. Sununu.

The UN Human Rights Committee last week raised critical questions with Austria about medically unnecessary interventions on intersex children. The issue was addressed during Austria's periodic review of its compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Intersex people are born with sex characteristics that do not fit traditional definitions of male or female. Their sexual anatomy, reproductive organs, hormones or chromosome patterns may differ.

IntersexBEL has officially launched on International Intersex Awareness Day. The new association advocates for intersex people and is calling on the Belgian authorities to respect their fundamental rights. Intersex people are people whose sex characteristics do not conform to traditional definitions of the biological male or female sex.