Aleksander Berezkin

Aleksander Berezkin (Александр Берёзкин) is a Russian intersex nonbinary person, refugee, and intersex human rights activist. He is a founder of the first Russian intersex human rights organization Association of the Russian Speaking Intersex (ARSI). In 2018-2020 he started an organization, Intersex Immigrants Network, to support the human and civil rights of immigrants to the US, and those at risk of emigration.

Early life
Aleksandr was born in Novokuznetsk, Russia. He was diagnosed with Klinefelter syndrome at the age of 17, after learning about his diagnosis directly from his physician. He openly speaks about living with Klinefelter syndrome.

He has graduated with a BA in Sociology from Kemerovo State University and an MA in Sociology from Far Eastern State Technical University.

Aleksandr has stated that his doctor told him he would never find someone else with his intersex variation, that he should keep it a secret, and never talk about his identity with anyone.

Activism
Aleksandr started his advocacy in 2013, following a talk with Hida Viloria, working on intersex and LGBTI issues, organizing educational events for the LGBT community in Vladivostok. In 2014 Berezkin had to leave Russia as a result of a homophobic campaign against him. He sought political asylum in the United States on the basis that he was an LBGTQI activist. He was granted asylum in 2017.

In August 2013, he created a Facebook group called “The Association of the Russian-Speaking Intersex” (ARSI) for intersex people and allies, which further became the first Russian intersex human rights organization. In the following years, he acted as a Russian-Speaking Intersex consultant for the United Nations Free & Equal program.

Aleksandr speaks on health and civil rights issues.

Since 2021, Aleksander has been working on their Doctoral dissertation in Psychology, "Exploring the Embodied Psyche of Queer and Intersex Asylum Seekers & Refugees in the USA' at the California Institute of Integral Studies (San Franciso, CA)