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Michelle O'Brien

Michelle O’Brien has engaged in a range of activist pursuits, starting with support for the Peace Pledge Union at age 14, followed by the Anti Nazi League, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, the Anti Apartheid Movement, Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign and Amnesty International. All through this time Michelle was also trying to find ways of managing her own sex and gender issues within the church, which included a period in the Franciscan noviciate. She was active in the Church of England for most of her life, involved with the Jubilee 2000 and Drop the Debt campaigns, and was eventually elected to Southwark Diocesan Synod. It was from there in 2007 that Michelle left the church, because of the intolerable situation in which many gay, lesbian and transgender clergy and laity found themselves in within the Anglican Communion.

Michelle’s first degree was in Philosophy at Bristol University, she also holds a post graduate diploma in Management and Administration and an MSc in Information Technology. From 2003, she took up a place at Roehampton University researching transsexual and intersex people’s experiences of medical intervention as her social research thesis. During that time she attended numerous conferences in the UK and Europe, covering the medical, LGBT and Queer Theory implications of and for transsexual and intersex people. She has given several papers about her research and spoken at seminars in the UK and international conferences in Europe. During her time at Roehampton, Michelle taught undergraduate sociology classes, and was instrumental in establishing and helping to organise the Sex Gender and Sexuality research group there.

Michelle undertook her own personal exploration of the issues affecting intersex and transgender people during her post-graduate social research, establishing the significance of her own childhood medical history that lay beneath her inability to clearly identify as one of two genders comfortably. This coincided with her involvement with the Sibyls; she continues to remain an ally to the Sibyls as well as Changing Attitude, despite having left the church.

In 2005 she was invited by Curtis Hinkle, the founder of Organisation Intersex International, to become part of OII and help found OII-UK. It was as a representative of OII-UK that she spoke at the first European Intersex meeting held in Paris in 2006. Michelle published numerous articles about intersex in the context of her research on the OII international webiste between 2005 & 2009.

Michelle moved to New Zealand in 2010

Michelle’s O’Brien’s papers, talks and lectures

‘Exploring the Interplay: The Sibyls workshop “Gender, sexuality, spirituality”’ (Christina Beardsley, Michelle O’Brien & Jasmine Woolley); Theology & Sexuality, Volume 6 No. 3, 2012: 261-284

The Transsexual Person Is My Neighbour: Pastoral Guidelines For Christian Clergy, Pastors And Congregations, 2nd Revised Edition, (The Gender Trust, 2007): Appendix on intersex. ISBN 978-1-873049-10-5 http://changingattitude.org.uk/resources/publications/the-transsexual-person-is-my-neighbour

OII-Australia & OII-Aotearoa joint submission on the draft Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th edition and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health 7th Standards of Care. (Morgan Carpenter, Michelle O’Brien & Gina Wilson) 05/07/2012. http://oii.org.au/20360/submission-release-on-the-dsm-5-and-soc-7/ http://oiinz.org/2012/06/oii-australia-and-oii-aotearoa-release-submission-on-the-dsm-5-and-soc-7/

RIP Georgina Somerset Obituary written for the OII-UK website, 08/12/2013 http://oiiuk.org/663/rip-georgina-somerset/

Paper: How to Define a Term without Defining the Person 1st European Intersex Conference (OII), Paris - August 2006 http://oiiuk.org/759/how-to-define-a-term-without-defining-the-person/

French translation:

Comment définir un terme sans définir la personne Traduit de l’anglais par Curtis E. Hinkle (Présenté aux 1ères Universités d’été des Intersexes et Intergenres d’Europe - Paris le 18/08/2006)

Michelle’s papers Paper: Intersex in Changing Sex Narratives - the early years Swansea University 2009

Paper: The Turn Away from Post-structuralism Centre for Research in Sex, Gender and Sexuality, Roehampton - 18/03/2008 http://ws1.roehampton.ac.uk/researchcentres/segs/seminarsevents/index.html#Other_Events

Reflection: The Middle Way Sex, Gender & Spirituality Workshops - 2007-2009

Paper: The Disordering of Intersex Identities: Medical Misfits Transgender 2007 Conference Centre for Research in Sex, Gender and Sexuality - 13/02/2007

Paper: 'The Ethics of Embodiment' Presentation at Critical Sexology Seminar Series – Nov 2004 http://www.criticalsexology.org.uk/past.html#ethics

Paper: The socio-medical construction of intersex and transsexual pathologies and identities, and the narratives of medical intervention in the UK. Presentation for MPhil to PhD Upgrade - June 2004

Chapter: History of trans and intersex medical experience in UK MPhil to PhD Upgrade - June 2004

Paper: Researching intersex and trans medical experiences Roehampton Business & Social Science Research Day – October 2004 Gendys Conference - 2004 6th Congress on Sex & Gender Diversity - 2004

Paper: Global Issues around Sex, Gender & Diversity Global Issues series of lectures at Roehampton - May 2004

Paper: Issues around teaching & sexuality in Higher EducationSubmitted for award of Teaching Certificate in Higher Education - January 2004

Paper: Treatment of children with intersex and GID HBIGDA XVIII Symposium - Sept 2003