Morgan Carpenter, PhD, is an intersex man and bioethicist who lives on Bundjalung Country in northern NSW. He is our Executive Director (a part-time role) and he runs our Policy program. He is also an Associate Professor at Sydney Health Ethics in the University of Sydney School of Public Health, where he completed PhD studies in bioethics in 2023. In 2023, Morgan’s “tireless work” was singled out for particular recognition, by Australian Capital Territory Chief Minister Andrew Barr, in introducing Australian-first legislation to protect the rights of people with innate variations of sex characteristics in medical settings. He has been named as a significant contributor to a 2021 Australian Human Rights Commission report on the health and human rights of people born with variations in characteristics.
Morgan has also changed the global and local face of intersex advocacy: in 2013 he designed and shared the intersex flag, now used across the world, framed around concepts of bodily integrity and autonomy. Morgan wrote our submissions to Senate inquiries on involuntary or coerced sterilisation, and anti-discrimination legislation, and also participated in hearings on those inquiries.
He participated in the first intersex expert meeting, organised by the UN. He was an expert and drafting committee member for the Yogyakarta Principles plus 10 and has also consulted or been a reference group member for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, the ACT government, Australian Department of Health and Aged Care, Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, NSW Health, and other bodies. A director since we registered as a not-for-profit company in 2010, Morgan Carpenter has served in numerous board positions, including president.
