Pioneering intersex activist Juleigh Mayfield has died at the age of 51. She passed away on Saturday 20th June after a battle with kidney failure.

Mayfield shared on Facebook in April that she was in late-stage kidney failure and had been advised to start dialysis within a month. However, she made the choice to seek alternative medicine.

Her passing was confirmed by her best friend Manny Carames-West, who said Mayfield had been like a sister to him. “She always talked about it, and I think she did a good job of sort of prepping the people who were close to her for that this eventually was going to become a reality, because she was getting tired of the struggle,” he told Watermark Out News. “Not only did she have a struggle with the world accepting who she was, but her body was attacking her constantly.”

Mayfield was born with a 47XXY chromosome variation, meaning she was born with a partial uterus, one ovary, one testicle, one cracked fallopian tube, male-sized lungs, a female-sized heart, breast tissue and a diminished Adam’s apple. Assigned male at birth, she later came to realise she was a woman. She spoke with love about the years she had lived as a man, recognising those experiences had helped shape the woman she became.

She was a passionate and vocal advocate for the intersex community, using her platforms on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook to educate others about what it means to be intersex and the challenges intersex people face. In 2024, she told Watermark Out News: “I know I’m creating ripples that long term might make a difference. That’s important to me. Nobody said advocacy was easy… but once it finds you, you feel like you need to keep doing it for the people behind you.”