[4] As a child, Pagonis, a queer and non-binary person who uses they/them pronouns,[5][6] was diagnosed with androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS).

[7] They were not told of this intersex variation, were assigned female at birth, told that they had ovarian cancer (when they in fact had internal testes and no ovaries), and subjected to a series of cosmetic surgeries to remove sections of their genitalia, which their doctors justified as being necessary to facilitate "sexual relationships with men.

"[2][7][5] They learned about intersex traits during their freshman year in college, while attending a lecture at DePaul University.

[7] In 2013, Pagonis testified with Mauro Cabral, Natasha Jiménez and Paula Sandrine Machado before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights about the medical interventions they were subjected to as an intersex child.

[1] In 2014, Pagonis created a documentary of their own, The Son They Never Had: Growing Up Intersex, which they tour around the country, advocating against nonconsensual "corrective surgeries".

[20] They lobbied for the part when meeting show creator Joey Soloway at a White House awards ceremony.

[21] The role of Baxter involves them working as a volunteer at the Los Angeles LGBT Center hotline along with Maura.

[28] Pagonis also co-founded the Chicago-based Intersex Justice Project with activists Sean Saifa Wall and Lynnell Stephani Long.

[31] TikTok told The Verge that in both of the instances Pagonis noticed, the tag had been removed by mistake and was subsequently restored.