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Press Release about the Bring-IN Research Project

Press Release about the Bring-IN Research Project

We find ourselves in the very awkward position to publish a complaint in the form of a public announcement, to clarify the involvement of Intersex Greece – Hellenic Intersex Community national association in the research project Bring-IN, funded by the EU and implemented with the coordination of Panteion University1.

Since our organization is the first and only intersex-led association in the country so far, we initially accepted -warmly and enthusiastically- the invitation extended to us, and four of our members (intersex themselves, or parents of intersex children, and an expert in intersex-relevant matters) offered voluntarily their testimonies in the form of experiential interviews. It is upon these testimonies that the biggest percentage of the National Report titled “The Status of Intersex People in Greece” was based.

However, when the report was first published, we discovered that our experiences were presented in a distorted way, often through arbitrary conceptions, even with significant meaning-altering translation errors. Following this realization, we, voluntarily and in good faith, submitted comments, clarifications and corrections where needed. To our great surprise, our offer was treated in aggressive and offensive manners, and the original texts remained online. Up until this moment, only some of these corrections and clarifications were introduced into the report.

Feeling exposed and misrepresented, our members that offered their testimonies and our expert-member, requested, as is their right provided by law and with the help of our legal representative, the withdrawal of the testimonies from the research project Bring-IN.

Intersex Greece has submitted this withdrawal request to the Bring-IN project since April 2021, but to date, this has not been accepted.
We considered this request to be necessary since:

  • The personal data provided during the interviews for the program have been published prejudicially, and in a way that further stigmatizes us, and by no means promotes the defense of our rights.
  • The Ethics & Deontology Committee of Panteion University informed us that this research project has not received their permission for implementation according to ar.23, par.2a of Law 4521/2018.
  • To date, our members including our expert, are credited as “critical readers” of the report, without their comments having been incorporated in it.

We are publishing this press release now, as on November 4th-5th online events are being organized, to present data and information that is available online without our informed consent and approval.

Finally, we would like this present release/complaint to also function as a call to the entire research community, a call for a truly inclusive qualitative research on intersex issues.
Research that will not treat intersex people as “objects of inquiry” but rather as active subjects
who struggle to protect their rights that are being violated.

In layperson’s terms… Nothing about us, without us.

 


1_ Other partners of Bring-IN Project: Symplexis (Greece), Bilitis (Bulgaria), Háttér Society (Hungary), Restorative Justice for All (RJ4All, United Kingdom), Information Technology for Market Leadership (ITML, Greece).