Seven Graham

Seven Graham is a British intersex activist, comedian, filmmaker and playwright, and drug addiction counsellor. He was a member of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and is a co-founder of the Amy Winehouse Foundation. In recognition of his intersex activism, The Independent on Sunday called him an LGBT "national treasure" and ranked him second in its 2015 "Rainbow List" of the most influential LGBT people in the UK.[1] In 2017, he wrote and performed in a solo play called Angels are Intersex, and in 2018 he executive produced the short film Ponyboi.[2][3]

Seven Graham
Portrait of Seven Graham, wearing a camouflage jacket and pointing at the camera and winking
Portrait of Seven Graham
Born
Sarah Graham

April 1969 (age 54)
United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
Occupations
Known forIntersex activism

Life

Graham was born in the United Kingdom in 1969 with the first name Sarah. He has XY chromosomes, but due to a diagnosis of complete androgen insensitivity syndrome (CAIS), he was identified and raised as a girl.[4] Doctors lied to him and his parents about his diagnosis, subjected him to repeated medical investigations, and removed his internal testes (which the doctors claimed were ovaries) at age seven or eight "to protect him from cancer and imminent death", resulting in him needing otherwise-unnecessary hormone replacement therapy from age 12.[4][5] Graham was not given his CAIS diagnosis until he was 25. He was offered no support and, already a regular drug user, the diagnosis led to a period of self-destruction including alcohol and drug addiction.[4][6][7] After several months of treatment, Graham recovered.[8] He later became an addiction counsellor, saying "I have turned my pain into my work".[7][9] Graham later found that CAIS was likely a misdiagnosis, and that he more likely has partial androgen insensitivity syndrome (PAIS).[10]

Graham is non-binary and uses he/him and they/them pronouns.[11]

Career and activism

Graham worked as an addiction counsellor and therapist, running his own drug rehabilitation company which included a weekly LGBTI addiction and recovery therapy group.[12] He has written articles on drug addiction for a variety of newspapers and magazines including The Sun, The Times, and Diva, and appeared on radio and television programmes including The Today Programme, BBC News, and This Morning.[13]

Graham was on the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs from 2011 to 2017. He was an expert communicator for the government drug education service FRANK, and co-founded the Amy Winehouse Foundation.[14][15][16]

Because of his activism, The Independent on Sunday listed him as a "national treasure" in its 2011 "Pink List", and in the renamed 2015 "Rainbow List" called him the second most influential LGBT person in the UK.[12][17] Graham has advocated for intersex human rights, including speaking out against surgery to "normalise" intersex children's bodies.[7] He has also investigated legal recognition of intersex as a distinct gender, and praised Germany for allowing intersex babies to be recorded as neither male nor female.[5][18] In 2020, Graham joined other intersex activists including River Gallo to help the Los Angeles LGBT Center expand care for intersex patients.[19]

Graham has appeared as a guest on several podcasts, including Caitlin Durante's Sludge: An American Healthcare Story,[20] Nadège August's What The Fockery?,[21][22] Lauren Wallett's The Creativity Coach,[23] and Jeff Miller and Anthony Navarro's Talk Out Loud.[24]

Creative works

In 2010, Graham contributed an essay to the BBC Radio 3 "Letter to My Body" series, in which he expressed how the discovery that he was intersex led to addiction and depression.[25] In 2017, Graham wrote and performed a solo play titled Angels are Intersex. After Angels are Intersex, he began using the name Seven Graham and they/them pronouns (later adopting he/they pronouns).[2][11] Graham was an executive producer of the 2018 short film Ponyboi, along with executive producers Stephen Fry, Johan Sorenson, Elizabeth Sorenson, and DJ Rutherford, and co-producers Emma Thompson, Rachel Singer, and Jamison Monroe.[26] It was the first film to feature an intersex actor, River Gallo, playing the role of an intersex person.[3]

References
  1. "Acclaimed solo show Angels are Intersex starts touring next year!". Intersex Campaign for Equality. 8 November 2017. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 22 September 2019.
  2. Galland, Suzannah (28 August 2017). "Being Born Both: Sarah Graham's Solo Show 'Angels Are Intersex'". HuffPost. Archived from the original on 22 September 2019. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  3. Wong, Curtis M. (22 June 2018). "'Ponyboi' Explores An Intersex Youth's Journey Toward Self-Acceptance". HuffPost. Archived from the original on 24 September 2019. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  4. Morrison, Sarah (30 November 2013). "Special report: Intersex women speak out to protect the next generation". The Independent. Archived from the original on 27 April 2019. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  5. Graham, Sarah (22 September 2011). "The secret of my sex". The Independent. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  6. Graham, Sarah (27 June 2014). "Sarah Graham: I don't want Russell Brand and Co deciding drugs policy". The Conservative Woman. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  7. Graham, Sarah (23 October 2011). "Sarah Graham: My intersex experience". The Independent. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  8. Graham, Sarah. "Bionic Brains: We Have the Technology to Rebuild You". Addiction Today. May/June 2011.
  9. Graham, Sarah (14 September 2009). "I feel for Caster Semenya – I am a woman with male chromosomes". Daily Mirror. Archived from the original on 4 February 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  10. Seven Graham [@SevenGraham69] (22 June 2021). "So I'm asking for my Wiki page to be updated & to do this I need to say here that my original CAIS diagnosis has been proved incorrect by my body responding to testosterone- which I've been having as #tshots since 2018. It's likely I have PAIS; and I'm getting more medical tests" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 22 June 2021. Retrieved 22 June 2021 – via Twitter.
  11. Graham, Seven. "7G (@angelsareintersex)". Instagram. Archived from the original on 3 November 2020. Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  12. Morrison, Sarah (15 November 2015). "Rainbow List 2015: 1 to 101". The Independent on Sunday. Archived from the original on 15 September 2017. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  13. "Media". Sarah Graham Solutions. Archived from the original on 19 November 2015. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  14. "Membership". Gov.uk. Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Archived from the original on 3 February 2018. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
  15. "Sarah Graham". 96 Harley Psychotherapy. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  16. Sherwin, Adam (2 August 2011). "Amy Winehouse's father urges MPs to help young addicts". The Independent. Archived from the original on 24 September 2019. Retrieved 24 September 2019.
  17. "The IoS Pink List 2011". The Independent on Sunday. 23 October 2011. Archived from the original on 14 February 2020. Retrieved 19 November 2015.
  18. Intersex woman: 'This pink and blue thing is nonsense' (Television report). BBC News. 1 November 2013. Retrieved 19 November 2013.
  19. "Intersex Awareness Day: Intersex Rights Are Human Rights". LGBT News Now. 27 October 2020. Archived from the original on 1 November 2020. Retrieved 30 October 2020.
  20. "Sludge: An American Healthcare Story: Being Intersex with Seven Graham on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Archived from the original on 22 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  21. "What The Fockery?: ADDICTION EXPERT - Episode 14 on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  22. "What The Fockery?: ADDICTION IN Isolation - Episode 42 on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  23. "The Creativity Coach: Seven Graham on Non Binary Creativity on Apple Podcasts". Apple Podcasts. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  24. "Seven Graham on Talk Out Loud the Podcast". Talk Out Loud. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
  25. "BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, A Letter to My Body, Sarah Graham". BBC. 27 September 2010. Retrieved 22 June 2021.
  26. "Ponyboi". 2019 Tribeca Film Festival. Tribeca Film Institute. Archived from the original on 21 June 2020. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
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