Join our mailing list and stay up to date with the progress and opportunities at the Victorian Pride Centre
Paul Byrne-Moroney
He/Him
About
Professional Title
Business Owner / Public Speaker /Peer Support Representative - Intersex Peer Support Australia / Board Director - InterAction for health and Human Rights (formally Intersex Human Rights Australia / Radio Producer and Broadcaster - JOY94.9 "The I in Us" - the only intersex radio show in Australia
Organisation
Spoken from the Heart
Locations
- All of Victoria
Areas Of Expertise
- Advocacy and Inclusion
- Community
Presentation Topics
- Advocacy
- Awareness storytelling
- Chronic Illness and Disability
- Community Engagement
- Conference presentations
- DEI
- Education
- Empowerment
- Healing and Compassion
- Hope for the Future
- Improving our Impact
- Inclusion
- Intersectionality
- Intersex Lived Experience
- Large groups
- Leadership
- LGBTIQA+ Advocacy
- LGBTIQA+ advocacy through storytelling
- LGBTQI+ visibility
- Motivation
- Motivational speaking
- Neurodiverse Perspective
- Organisational change
- Organisational inclusivity
- Preventing Future Harm
- Rainbow Families
Files
Open to Negotiating Fees
Yes
Biography
From the age of eight, Paul felt different from other boys, including his brothers; he just didn’t know why. For years, he hid his body away, avoiding any situation that might expose his body or his lack of strength, such as change rooms or intimacy. He led a double life of daily inner turmoil and distress, coupled with an outward projection of happiness and stability.
Paul’s secret tormented him, eventually entering his dreams. Throughout his 20’s a cruel nightmare cursed his sleep — when an intruder would enter his bedroom, pull back the blankets, look at his body, and laugh. He never told a soul, not even his parents, until the age of 28 when he finally found the courage to seek answers and remove this burden from his heart. It was then that Paul discovered that he had an extra chromosome, but it wasn’t until he was 50 that he heard the term intersex for the first time and consequently met other intersex people. Since then, he has become one of Australia’s most prominent intersex activists
Nowadays, Paul is a neurodiverse trailblazer in intersex advocacy, dedicated to increasing visibility, fostering inclusion, and advocating for systemic change for intersex people and intersex people with disability. Since 2006, when he cofounded the Klinefelter Syndrome Support Group of Victoria, Paul has been involved in improving the outcomes for children and adults with innate variations of sex characteristics, and their families. Since 2016 he has contributed to State and Federal policy reforms relating to Sexual Violence Prevention, the National Census, the Medicare Benefit Scheme (Assisted Reproductive Technologies), the 2018 Victorian Department of Health Independent Review of Assisted Reproductive Treatment, the 2023 Federal Government Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs inquiry into the Barriers to consistent, timely and best practice assessment of ADHD, the Inclusive Victoria: State Disability Plan (2022–2026), the 2025 Victorian Equal Opportunity, the Human Rights Commission LGBTIQA+ Inclusive Workplaces Guidelines, the 2025 WorkSafe Victoria Being Valued LGBTQIA+ Workplace Gendered Violence Toolkit (2025), and currently, the NDIA LGBTIQASB+ Strategy 2025-2030. During recent years Paul has also supported several organisations to increase and improve intersex inclusion including the Victorian Public Service, ANZ Bank, Accenture, Midsumma, Banyule Community Health, Minus18, JOY Media, Monash University, Western Health, Mt Alexander, Darebin and Banyule Councils, Merri Health, Drummond St Health Services, the National Disability Insurance Scheme and the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission.
Paul’s work is deeply rooted in advocacy, education, and community building. One example is when he volunteered as a key consultant for Being Valued, a pioneering initiative co-led by Your Community Health and Transgender Victoria (TGV) and supported by WorkSafe Victoria’s WorkWell Respect Fund. This project co-designed workplace education tools to help reduce violence against LGBTQIA+ workers and provide leaders with the resources to create safer, more inclusive workplaces.
Paul’s advocacy has been transformational in shifting workplace policies and conversations to be genuinely inclusive of intersex people and also bridging the gap between the intersex and wider LGBTQIA+ community.
His work has been overwhelmingly voluntary, driven by his unwavering commitment to intersex visibility and LGBTQIA+ inclusion.
A testament to the tireless contribution Paul makes to his community, he was a recent finalist in the 2024 Victorian Pride Awards in the Volunteer of the Year Category.
To read and hear more about Paul’s lived experience and what he brings to the LGBTIQA+ education / DEI space, click these links:
LGBTI+: ‘I’ is for intersex, not invisible (Independent Australia - online) - https://independentaustralia.net/life/life-display/lgbti-i-is-for-intersex-not-invisible-,14226
Pride Across the Ages Podcast Season 2 (Castlemaine – MainFM94.9) - https://www.iheart.com/podcast/338-the-pride-across-the-ages-108410196/episode/paul-108410204/
The I in Us Podcast - www.joy.org.au/thiinus
Experience
Paul has more than thirty years’ public speaking experience including twelve years as a cultural museum tour guide and having emceed and written the content and proceedings for countless weddings, memorials, reconciliation events, music festival opening ceremonies (with Traditional Owners), children’s and adult open mic events, conference presentations, and most recently, his radio show. In each of these roles, he has planned and created content with relevant stakeholders to ensure it is accurate, personally relevant, and culturally and age-appropriate.
Similarly, since 2016, Paul has written and presented educational presentations and facilitated intersex community panels at Victorian Government staff education events for International Intersex Awareness Day, at National LGBTIQA+ conferences, and for various other organisations and health services. Below are some examples:
Royal Children's Hospital, Victoria (2006), Australian X & Y Spectrum Support Conference, Victoria (2016), Victorian Public Service (VPS) Pride Network International Intersex Awareness Day (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), Better Together LGBTIQA+ Health Conference (2016, 2024, 2025), Health In Difference - LGBTIQA+ Health Conference, ACT (2018), Occupational Therapy Australia Mental Health Conference, Victoria (2024), ANZ Bank (2017), Accenture (2017), Darebin City Council, Victoria (2017), Drummond Health, Victoria (2018), Merri Health, Victoria (2018), Banyule City Council (2020), Renaissance Festival (2024), Western Health, Victoria (2025), Mt Alexander Shire Council, Victoria (2025), Mt Alexander Shire Dhelkaya Health, Victoria (2025).
Recently, Paul launched his new business: Spoken from the Heart – a business name that echoes his adage:
“If we speak from the head, we teach; If we speak from the heart, we touch”.
Paul believes that both methods have validity, but says that after nearly 20 years of sharing his story, no one has ever approached him to share how something he taught them changed the way they approach their work or their appreciation of what it means to be intersex. It is what moved or touched them that stayed with them and transformed their perspective.
As the only person in Victoria with an innate variation of sex characteristics sharing their lived experiences, and one of only a handful in Australia, Paul brings a unique voice, a unique story, and a unique perspective to LGBTIQA+ conversations and education, one that is too often overlooked and unheard – including in LGBTIQA+ diversity and inclusion spaces.
Lastly, in 2023, Paul did a radio course at JOY94.9 and, recognising the lack of intersex content on JOY, pitched the idea for what would become the only intersex radio show known to exist, worldwide. “The I in Us” went live on Feb 7, 2024, and after seventy episodes and over eighty guests the show now enjoys a local and international audience and local and international guests including Victorian Government Commissioners, Federal Senators, intersex advocacy leaders, artists, film producers and writers, and allies including human rights advocates and academic researchers. The show also enjoys an impressive podcast audience and an almost unassailable list of guests wishing to appear on the show.
Paul’s show motto is: “The more people we reach, the more lives we change”. And it is for this reason he wants to join the VPS Speakers Bureau. The intersex community often says, “the 'I' in LGBTIQA+ is for intersex, not invisible”, and that “gender and sexually diverse” is not a synonym for “LGBTIQA+”. There is another community embedded within the LGBTIQA+ acronym that needs to be heard. Paul will bring that voice to the VPS Speaker’s Bureau, and hopefully, more will follow.