Today’s #30DaysofPride is intersex rights activist, filmmaker, model, and actor River Gallo! Meet River, born in 1990, they were assigned male at birth but at the onset of puberty, their doctor told them their testicles were absent at birth.
My family and I sat motionlessly on pleather chairs in the waiting room. It was a strange gathering — I was the only kid who had an appointment, so I didn’t understand why my parents dragged the entire family to the doctor with me. My health seemed perfectly fine, save for the lump forming in the back of my throat.
“Your testicles were absent at your birth,” confessed my doctor in an examination room that reeked of off-brand Lysol. My stomach turned. I looked to my parents for confirmation: Is he serious? They sat in the corner, sad and small. My mother buried herself in my father’s shoulder, hiding her watery eyes and running mascara. The doctor told me that I would begin testosterone injections immediately in order to start puberty. As part of his “treatment plan,” he informed me that in a few years, at age 16, I would undergo plastic surgery to get prosthetic testicles surgically implanted in my empty scrotum. He reassured me that in time I’d look and feel like a normal man. I had no say in any of this.
When the doctor had told River about this, he failed to mention that there were people just like themself. They felt so alone and angry at their parents.
I was devastated — pissed at my parents for keeping this a secret, and upset at my doctor for his clinical way of revealing the truth about my body, with no mention of how it would impact me psychologically or resources to help me adequately process this new information. In hindsight, the most shocking part of this appointment was that my doctor didn’t tell me that there were other people like me: people who are born with a reproductive and/or sexual anatomy that doesn’t fit the typical definitions of female or male.
He didn’t tell me that I am intersex.
From that moment on, my body was constantly objectified and put on display by the medical community. I can’t count how many times I had to strip down to be examined by doctors. When I was 13, a doctor brought group of his medical students to my examination. Each one of them took pictures of my body without my consent.
I Didn’t Know I Was Intersex — Until I Made a Film About an Intersex Character by River Gallo, July 19, 2018, them.com
In 2017, Gallo started researching information about their condition for their short film Ponyboi, they discovered a Buzzfeed Video featuring “InterSexy” a group of intersex folks, including Pidgeon Pagonis, who were talking about what being Intersex means.
The way people were so open and proud of their bodies made Gallo feel a renewed sense of pride in their own body. It felt good for them to be seen.
The short film that Gallo had been working on was released in 2019. The short was picked up to be adapted into a feature-length film by Fox’s Tideline Entertainment and was funded with a Sundance grant. The film premiered at The Sundance Film Festival.
“It made me think about the different ways that all people are affected by the patriarchy, even within the queer community, where one would think you’d be in a safe space. But it’s pervasive,” Gallo said.
A Q&A called out one scene in particular for praise, one where an increasingly desperate Ponyboi and a trans woman club owner played by Indya Moore have a sharp exchange before calming down and conversing about how hard it is find one true self.
“Indy and I, we worked on that dialogue together, and we crafted that scene to a point where, yeah, it was something so special to me too,” Gallo said. “Honestly, I can confidently say this is the first time a scene between an intersex person and maybe a trans questioning person, and a trans woman, are talking to each other about the differences and similarities of their experience. This is the first time that’s ever happened in cinema.”
“I think as a queer and intersex and non-binary person, I really need to push the envelope of the kinds of stories and the nuances that we’re exploring in the storytelling.”
River Gallo On What Led Them To ‘Ponyboi’ At Sundance Premiere – “Being Intersex, Being Latinx, Being From New Jersey” by Jill Goldsmith January 21, 2024
I could not find the trailer for the Fox production, so I have attached the short film trailer below.
Since discovering the term intersex, Gallo has fought for visibility and bodily autonomy of Intersex children.
Disclaimer: The following is taken from a 2018 article when Gallo was still using He/Him pronouns so the article addresses them as He and Him
While doing research for the film, which served as his USC grad school thesis, Gallo came across a word that he didn’t know existed — intersex. He then realized that his life experiences fit into the definition of what makes someone intersex.
“This is not only something people are talking about openly, but something they proudly own as their identity! I felt a palpable surge of love and pride for my body for the first time,” he wrote in a personal piece for Them.
Gallo now uses the platform that Ponyboi afforded him to empower LGBTQ youth and bring intersex issues to the mainstream consciousness. One specific issue that hits close to home for him, is the issue of unnecessary and purely cosmetic surgery on intersex children who are born with atypical genitalia. “Some days it really angers me. It is a reminder of a decision that wasn’t mine.”
River Gallo brings intersex issues to mainstream consciousness with film “Ponyboi”, By Rashad Sultana, May 16, 2019 at 7:50pm · Updated on January 29, 2024
In 2023, River was featured in the documentary “Every Body” along with fellow intersex activists Alicia Roth Weigel and Sean Saifa Wall.
In an interview for the 2023, Out100 Gallo said this about their work in the intersex rights movement.
“Love is always the answer and real love often looks like healing oneself,” Gallo says. “I think certain people fear the paradigm shift that queer, trans, and intersex people represent and which causes them to desperately cling to traditional patriarchal values. However, the key to equality is for all people to cultivate a sense of radical compassion, recognizing our collective oneness and the humanity and community we can find in that oneness.”
EVERY BODY’S SEAN SAIFA WALL, RIVER GALLO, & ALICIA ROTH WEIGEL, 2023 Out100 Storytellers, Released October 31, 2023
Prior to their feature debut, River starred in multiple short films, a stage production of KING LEAR at the Annenberg Theater in Los Angeles, the Breaking the Binary Theater Festival, and the 24 Hour Plays on Broadway in New York. In the commercial space, River directed advertising spots for Facebook. River has collaborated and modeled for Abercrombie & Fitch, Crocs and made their New York Fashion Week debut walking for Chromat’s FW2021 show. For their work in the arts and on social justice issues, River made the OUT 100 list, won a GLAAD Rising Star Media Award, and was named one of the 10 LGBTQIA+ Film and TV Creators on the Rise in 2023 by Indiewire.
The intersex community is so important to talk about because it is so common and we rarely put a spotlight on that corner of the community. While I approach all my subjects with a lot of passion and dedication to telling their story. I do want to say that I have a big crush on River Gallo. They are gorgeous and everything about them is so cool in an effortless way! Trans femme Icon!!! Thank you River for all the work you do, I can’t wait to see Ponyboi!!! Happy Pride!
Finnoula’s corner 