Aleksander Berezkin

Aleksander Berezkin (Russian: Александр Берёзкин) is a Russian intersex nonbinary person,^[1] 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).^[2]

Aleksander Berezkin
Александр Берёзкин
Born	1984 (age 40–41) Novokuznetsk, Russia
Organization(s)	Association of the Russian-Speaking Intersex (ARSI) and Intersex Immigrants Network
Known for	Intersex human rights activist
Website	arsintersex.org and aleksanderberezkin.weebly.com

Early life

Aleksandr was born in Novokuznetsk, Russia.^[3] 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.^[4][3]

He has graduated with a BA in Sociology from Kemerovo State University and an MA in Sociology from Far Eastern State Technical University.^[5]

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.^[6][4][7]

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.^[2][8] 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.^[5]

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.^[2] In the following years, he acted as a Russian-Speaking Intersex consultant for the United Nations Free & Equal program.^[5]

Aleksandr spoke on health and civil rights issues.^[9][10]

Since 2021, Aleksander has been working on their Doctoral dissertation in Psychology, "A Micro-phenomenological Inquiry into Lived Embodied Experience and Consciousness of Intersex/Variations of Sex Characteristics (VSC) Migrants in the United States" at the California Institute of Integral Studies (San Francisco, CA)