The following is a timeline of intersex history.
Timeline <onlyinclude>
Pre-history Sumerian creation myths, 4000 years ago, include the fashioning of a body with atypical sex characteristics.
Antiquity Hippocrates and Galen view sex as a spectrum between men and women, with "many shades in between, including hermaphrodites, a perfect balance of male and female". Aristotle views hermaphrodites as having "doubled or superfluous genitals".
2nd century BCE
Callon of Epidaurus undergoes surgery on ambiguous genitalia, described by Diodorus Siculus. Diophantus of Abae socially transitions and joins the army of Alexander Balas.
1st century BCE Diodorus Siculus describes the god Hermaphroditus, "born of Hermes and Aphrodite", as having "a physical body which is a combination of that of a man and that of a woman"; he also reports that such children born with such traits are seen as prodigies, able to foretell future events.
43 BCE – 17/18 CE Ovid describes the birth of Hermaphroditus.Ovid, Metamorphoses 4.287–88.
23–79 CE Pliny the Elder describes "those who are born of both sex, whom we call hermaphrodites, at one time " (andr-, "man", and gyn-, "woman", from the Greek).Pliny, Natural History 7.34: ; Veronique Dasen, "Multiple Births in Graeco-Roman Antiquity", Oxford Journal of Archaeology 16.1 (1997), p. 61.
c. 80–160 CE Sophist philosopher Favorinus of Arelate is described as being a eunuch () by birth.Philostratus, VS 489 Mason and others describe Favorinus as having an intersex trait.Mason, H. J., "Favorinus' Disorder: Reifenstein's Syndrome in Antiquity?", in Janus 66 (1978) 1–13.
Medieval period c. 400 CE Augustine writes in The Literal Meaning of Genesis that humans were created in two sexes, despite "as happens in some births, in the case of what we call androgynes".
c. 940 CE Hywel the Good's laws include a definition on the rights of hermaphrodites.Shopland, Norena (2017), Forbidden Lives: LGBT Stories from Wales, Seren Books
12th century According to the canon law Decretum Gratiani, "Whether an hermaphrodite may witness a testament, depends on which sex prevails" ().Decretum Gratiani, C. 4, q. 2 et 3, c. 3 Peter Cantor, a French Roman Catholic theologian, when writing about sodomy in the writes "the church allows the hermaphrodite to use the organ by which s/he is most aroused. But should s/he fail with one organ the use of the other can never be permitted and s/he must remain perpetually celibate to avoid any similarity to the role inversion of sodomy, which is detested by God."Preves, Sharon E. (2003). Intersex and Identity: The Contested Self. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
1157 In his Chronicle, or History of the Two Cities, Otto of Friesing described hermaphrodites as "a mistake of nature", "grouped together with other supposed defects of the body, such as short stature, dark 'Ethiopian' skin, and lameness".
1188 Gerald of Wales in Topography of Ireland states "Also, within our time, a woman was seen attending the court in Connaught, who partook of the nature of both sexes, and was a hermaphrodite."
13th century Canon lawyer Henry of Segusio argues that a "perfect hermaphrodite" where no sex prevailed should choose their legal gender under oath.Henrici de Segusio, , Venice 1574, col. 612. Henry de Bracton's ("On the Laws and Customs of England", c. 1235)"Henry de Bracton". Encyclopædia Britannica (2009). Retrieved 17 March 2009. . classifies mankind as "male, female, or hermaphrodite", and a "hermaphrodite is classed with male or female according to the predominance of the sexual organs". The Hereford Mappa Mundi (c. 1300) includes a hermaphrodite, outside the borders of the world known to its makers.
17th century English jurist and judge Edward Coke (Lord Coke) writes in his Institutes of the Lawes of England (1628–1644) on laws of succession: "Every heire is either a male, a female, or an hermaphrodite, that is both male and female. And an hermaphrodite (which is also called Androgynus) shall be heire, either as male or female, according to that kind of sexe which doth prevaile." The Institutes are widely held to be a foundation of common law. 17th-century historical accounts include Eleno de Céspedes, in Spain. Thomas(ine) Hall (born c. 1603) in the United States, is ruled to have a "dual-nature" gender by colonial Virginia governor John Pott.
18th century
1755 – after 1792 Spanish nun Fernanda Fernández is found to have an intersex trait and subsequently reclassified male.
1763/1764 – 1832 Vietnamese general Lê Văn Duyệt helps to unify Vietnam.
1774 17-year-old Rosa Mifsud appears before a Maltese court after petitioning for a change in sex classification from female. Two clinicians perform an examination and found that "the male sex is the dominant one". The petition is appealed and granted.
1792 Anglo-Welsh philologist William Jones publishes an English translation of : The Mohammedan Law of Inheritance which details inheritance rights for hermaphrodites in Islam.
1794
The General State Laws for the Prussian States () grants hermaphrodites the right to choose their sex at the age of 18, if the sex of rearing proves to be wrong. It remains in force until 1900 when the becomes effective across the German Empire.
c. 1798 German intersex man Gottlieb Göttlich becomes famous as a travelling medical case.
19th century
1843 Levi Suydam is an intersex person in Connecticut whose capacity to vote in male-only elections is questioned in 1843.
1838–1868 Herculine Barbin writes memoirs that are later published by Michel Foucault. Barbin was reassigned male against her wishes after clinical and legal examination. Her birthday is marked in Intersex Day of Remembrance on 8 November.
1851 The Welshman newspaper publishes an account of an intersex child on 7 November. During the Victorian era, medical authors introduce the terms "true hermaphrodite" for an individual who has both ovarian and testicular tissue, verified under a microscope; "male pseudo-hermaphrodite" for a person with testicular tissue, but either female or ambiguous sexual anatomy; and "female pseudo-hermaphrodite" for a person with ovarian tissue, but either male or ambiguous sexual anatomy.
20th century 1906 The Cambrian newspaper in Wales publishes an article on the death in Cardiff of an intersex child who, at post-mortem examination, was determined to be a girl. at the National Library of Wales
1908
Polish gynecologist Franciszek Ludwik Neugebauer publishes a compendium with more than 750 pages of case studies, often with photos, covering the preceding 20 years. This includes surgery performed at the beginning of the 20th century by Emil Zuckerkandl in Vienna.
1915 The terms 'intersex' for the individual and 'intersexuality' for the phenomenon are coined in the German language by endocrinologist Richard Goldschmidt after studies on gypsy moths. One year later, Goldschmidt uses the term to describe pseudohermaphroditism in humans.
1923
The term 'intersex' is introduced as the (contested) medical diagnosis ("intersex type woman") by Austrian gynecologist and obstetrician Paul Mathes His book is published after his death, in 1924.
1930
By 1930, the term 'intersex' had already been widely used in medicine in Germany as a new term for (pseudohermaphrodite), and doctors reported numerous different procedures of intersex surgery.
1932
The German gynecologist and obstetrician Hans Naujoks performs what is described as the first complete and comprehensive intersex surgery and hormone treatment on a patient with both ovarian and testicular tissue, at the University of Marburg. The female patient is described as fully functional after surgery and, starting in 1934, spontaneously menstruates.
1936
The geneticist and leading German race theorist Fritz Lenz calls for more intersex research, especially on twins.
1943
Hugo Höllenreiner, an ethnic Sinti detainee in Auschwitz concentration camp, is genitally injured at the age of 9 during medical experiments carried out by Josef Mengele, acts which constitute war crimes. Höllenreiner testifies that he was one of Mengele's many candidates for forced sex change but did not receive full surgery. The first suggestion to replace the term 'hermaphrodite' with 'intersex', in medicine, comes from British physician A. P. Cawadias in 1943.Cawadias, A. P. (1943) Hermaphoditus the Human Intersex, London: Heinemann Medical Books. This is taken up by other physicians in the United Kingdom during the 1960s.
1944
The first intersex surgery of a child is performed at the Children's Hospital of the University of Zurich (). The girl, suffering from congenital adrenal hyperplasia, has her clitoris amputated at the age of seven. She receives hormones in 1951. Between 1944 and 1947, three girls have their clitorises amputated.
1950 In July, the first mandatory sex verification tests in sports are issued by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for woman athletes. All athletes are tested in their own countries.
1952 John Money is awarded a PhD by Harvard University, entitled Hermaphroditism: An Inquiry into the Nature of a Human Paradox.
1966 The botched circumcision of David Reimer is followed by sex reassignment surgery in line with theories on optimal gender and gender identity formation by John Money. The case of David Reimer became known as the "John/Joan case" and it does not support early interventions on the bodies of infants who cannot consent.
1968 Chromosomal sex verification testing in sport is introduced by the International Olympic Committee at the Mexico City Olympics.
1979 The Family Court of Australia annulls the marriage of an intersex man who was "born a male and had been reared as a male" and subjected to "normalizing" medical interventions, on the basis that he is an hermaphrodite.
1980 Former Polish Olympic track athlete Stanisława Walasiewicz (Stella Walsh) is killed during an armed robbery in a parking lot in Cleveland, Ohio, on 4 December 1980. She is found to have intersex traits.
1985 The Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome Support Group Australia (AISSGA) is founded, thought to be the first intersex civil society organization.
1986 Spanish hurdler Maria José Martínez-Patiño is dismissed from competing after she fails a chromosomal test.
1992 The IAAF ceases sex screening for all athletes, but retains the option of assessing the sex of participants.
1993 The Intersex Society of North America (ISNA) is founded by Cheryl Chase and others. Chase announces the organization in a letter to The Sciences. ISNA remains active until 2008.
1996 The first public demonstration by intersex people, in Boston on October 26. Morgan Holmes, Max Beck and members of the direct action groups Hermaphrodites With Attitude! and The Transexual Menace [sic] demonstrate outside the hotel complex in Boston where the American Academy of Pediatrics is holding its annual conference. The event is now commemorated by Intersex Awareness Day.
1997 Milton Diamond and Keith Sigmundson publish a paper discrediting John Money and his optimal gender model, after tracking down David Reimer.
1999 In Sentencia SU-337/99 and then Sentencia T-551/99, the Constitutional Court of Colombia restricts medical interventions on intersex children aged over five years. The term endosex is coined as an opposite or antonym to the term intersex, by Heike Bödeker in Germany.
21st century
2001
Indian athlete and swimmer Pratima Gaonkar commits suicide after disclosure and public commentary on a failed sex verification test.
2003
Australian Alex MacFarlane is believed to be the first person in Australia to obtain a birth certificate recording sex as indeterminate, and the first Australian passport with an 'X' sex marker.
2004
Intersex Awareness Day is first marked on 26 October.
2005