Transgendered in Australia

Yesterday HACK interviewed Laura Jane Grace from Against Me! about her gender transition. I didn't get around listening to the hack podcast until today, and also listened to the extended interview podcast as well. The Facebook entry for this was all full of mixed reactions and degenerated into an "US vs THE TROLL" scenario. But I found the interview to be quite good, and Laura seems to have a sensible approach to gender transition.

It's this year's Transgender Day of Remembrance today. Here in Australia just west of the dateline, I have an early start on this, but I also get to see posts about it from other countries for up to a day after.

I always get a bit depressed leading up to this. I first heard of the event back in 2006 when I was working on my Honours Fine Art project - a Tarot deck about gender transition. I already had a "death card" which in this case was about suicide, but I added one about murder as well. I was (and still am) particularly outraged by the abduction, torture and killed of Gisberta in Portugal. She was featured on that extra card, and also as a Webcomics Project page as well. 

At times I feel fortunate living in Australia. I read about the discrimination, harassment, assault, and murder of trans persons overseas and it seems like a very dangerous place for someone like me. Not that we don't have the same here, but the murder of trans persons here seems much less frequent. WE have suicides here of course, but there are issues over reporting that accurately for LGBT folk in general. Much remains hidden.

And I have to ask myself - if I lived overseas, in some place like Brazil or the USA, would I be dead by now?

It's easy to think "that doesn't happen here" but it does. I've been hounded and assaulted and discriminated in the past. As much as it "shouldn't", the risk comes with the territory - the territory of living as myself, as a trans woman. Almost all the names on the lists I've never known, never met, never corresponded with, but I feel the pain of their deaths anyway.

When I was young I never thought I'd live beyond 30, and here I am this year at 55, and 18 years as Laura. I spent years hiding away in the public service and in other pursuits denying a core truth about myself until finally I did something about it. Because of that however, I had money to buy (most of) a house, and had money put aside for reassignment surgery as well (though both came from my superannuation prematurely). I count myself fortunate in having both. Other's aren't so lucky. They come out and maybe get thrown out by their family, friends and community; are forced into low paying or risky work; are seen as easy targets of hate and violence. Others seek the false security of "stealth" which promises a form of acceptance but has its own risks, and embraces a shame that we need not own.

Yeah, I'm fortunate. But others aren't so "lucky", their journey ending in murder and suicide. And it doesn't matter that I didn't know them personally. What matters is that I understand what drives them to be different, to be who they are. "That could have been me" is the feeling I have every time I hear or read of a trans murder or suicide. And for all I know, it could still be one day, even here. So let us remember those who've fallen. Let us mourn their deaths, but in doing so acknowledge that their lives, no matter how brief, were in some way and in some part, lived on their own terms.

Let us remember the fallen.

Participating contributors draw and publish a relevant webcomic or image for the day (20th November or equivalent date, depending on schedule) with links to other contributors and/or the archive. Participants don't have to be transgendered to join, just appreciating the tragedy of the lives lost that are memorialized by TDOR is enough. What they do need is a suitable visual artwork that appears on a site (webcomic, blog, Deviant Art type site, Facebook, Live Journal et cetera) read by others. What matters is sharing your concerns in an artistic fashion, so that others can hear of the Transgender Day of Remembrance. Don't forget to send your contributions to the Webcomic Archive as well!

Reprinted from http://www.acon.org.au/research/tr…

This research project aims to explore the issue of health and ageing among people who fit under the trans* umbrella or are intersex.

Specifically with the knowledge that many health agencies and residential institutions do not have specific structure or policy for people in this demographic, this research is to ascertain responses to current health users and projections of concern for the future of using health agencies.

It is hoped to gain more knowledge and information about how trans* and intersex people experience and think about health care, and in particular, aged care services both now and in the future.

The survey will take around 10 - 15 minutes to complete.

Click here to complete the survey.

The House of Reps is asking for your (that is, if you're Australia) opinion on two Bills in Federal Parliament RIGHT NOW. You can tell themn what you think by taking an online survey. This is no bogus net petition that won't be noticed, this is the House of Reps wanting to know just how much support or dissent on this there is out here!

HAVE YOUR SAY by going to http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar… and completing the survey there.

Just a reminder about this year's Transgender Day of Remembrance Webcomic Project. And just what is that?

The Transgender Day of Remembrance was set aside to memorialise those who were killed (or forced to suicide) due to anti-Transgender hatred or prejudice., and is held annually on 20 November. The Webcomic Project is where participating contributors draw and publish a relevant webcomic or image for the day (or equivalent date, depending on schedule) with links to other contributors and/or the archive. The main thing is to educate the readership of each person's webcomic or blog about the issues listed above.

You don't have to be transgendered to join, just appreciating the tragedy of the lives lost that are memorialised is enough. What you do need is a suitable image or comic that appears on a site (webcomic, blog, Live Journal et cetera) read by others. If you do a webcomic yourself it could be included in that, or in a related blog if such would be out of context for the webcomic.

If you do participate, be sure to send a copy of your contribution to the Archive where they will be uploaded later for posterity (details of how to do this are at the site). This year's theme is "Open" - You may do whatever subject you like, related to the day.

AUSTRALIA: Getting a passport made easier for sex and gender diverse people

http://foreignminister.gov.au/

Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd and Attorney-General Robert McClelland today announced
new guidelines to make it easier for sex and gender diverse people to get a passport in their
preferred gender.

Under the guidelines, sex reassignment surgery will no longer be a prerequisite to issue a
passport in a person’s preferred gender.

( Read more...Collapse )
Update: The Revised Policy on the Australian Passport Site

This is a survey of the trans community's "reactions to the use of descriptive terminology in the professional
literature of gender identity issues".See https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8RG… for details

Hi folks,

Just spreading the word re the newly formed Still Fierce Melbourne crew.

Cheers,

Ash

.................................................................................................

This is an introductory letter from Still Fierce! Melbourne, a newly formed collective of intersex, sex and/or gender diverse people and our allies and supporters. We are writing to you to say hi, and to let you know what projects and events we are working on and to invite you to participate in our collective or in our events, or both, or to voice our interest in networking with your organization!



Still Fierce Melbourne was formed a month or so ago, inspired by the work of Still Fierce Sydney, a similar collective. While we haven't fully established our manifesto we have established that we are an open collective, and that we are interested in working on political lobbing for ISGD rights at a national level, in creating stronger social and political networks for ISGD people and in doing consciousness raising work in the community about ISGD people and our experiences and issues. We have yet to establish the details of our relationship to Still fierce! Sydney, right now all that is in concrete is that we are using the same name and are supporting their list of demands for the rally in Canberra.

What is ISGD?

If you haven’t heard this acronym before, don’t worry, neither had most of us up to a year ago. It stands for Intersex, Sex and/or Gender Diverse. We decided as a group to use this new term instead
of transgender, transsexual, intersex, cross dressers etc etc because we are interested in moving away from the border wars that we have seen happen between different sex/gender diverse identity groups in the past, and to overcome the generational differences in what language people use
to describe themselves, and basically just to encompass all sex and gender diverse people when we are lobbying for rights, when we are talking about discrimination and when we are talking about our peers.

Here is a brief rundown of what we are working on right now:

The first major project we are working on is getting a 45 seater bus to take to a rally for ISGD rights in Canberra on the 11th of May. The tickets are on a sliding scale basis (starting from $20 to as much as each individual can afford). The bus will be leaving approximately around 1 am
on Friday morning and departing that evening after the rally and driving through the night to arrive back in Melbourne late that night. We will make the bus times public as soon as we know!

To confirm a seat on the bus or find out more information about the rally please email: stillfiercemelbourne@gmail.com

We have been meeting fortnightly but have yet to find a regular venue, so if you are interested in coming to our meetings (all welcome!) Email us at still-fierce-melbourne@googlegroups.com and we'll met you know the details!

We are very excited about networking with other trans/ ISGD groups in Melbourne and Victoria and learning more about what other groups are doing and exploring the possibilities of how we can work together!

We look forward to meeting you soon,

Much love,

Still Fierce Melbourne

To find out what’s going on and to stay in touch about events join the Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?s…

Or to get involved in some of the behind the scenes stuff join the Still Fierce! Melbourne Google group:

http://groups.google.com/group/sti…

Details about the national Intersex, Sex and/or Gender Diverse Rally:

This is a video about the rally in Canberra on May 4th 2011:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bit…

The rally is supported by Still Fierce Sydney, Still Fierce Melbourne, and Sex And Gender Education Australia, Australian Health and Education Centre, Australian Federal Greens Party, Australian Socialists Alliance, Femme Guild Sydney, Scarlet Alliance, Equal Love Canberra, Young Lawyers Human Rights Committee (NSW), CRAVE Metropolitan Community Church (Sydney), Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH), Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) Student Union Queer Department [RUSU Queer Department], The University of Melbourne Student Union Queer Department [UMSU Queer],
WA Gender Project, The Seahorse Society of NSW, University of Sydney Queer Students, National Union of Students [NUS]

Still Fierce and Allied Organizations are calling on the federal and state Governments to implement the recommendations of the 2009 Australian Human Rights Commission’s Sex Files Report, review inequalities in the law for ISGD people and to outlaw unethical medical practices forced on intersex
Children. We invite other groups to join us in rallying for the rights of ISGD groups of people and we are open to suggestions for further addition to our demands.

We are calling for equal rights for ISGD People; our Memorandum of Demands
follows:

1/ Implementation of the AHRC Sex Files (2009) recommendations

2/ Legal protection against enforced medical treatment of ISGD children

3/ Federal antidiscrimination laws protecting all ISGD people

4/ Full Medicare funding for medical and psychological procedures needed by any ISGD people

5/ Full Marriage rights for ISGD People.

6/ Enshrinement of the right to establish ones’ own sex and/or gender identity in federal law.

For more info on the Sex Files Report:

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/genderdive…

<3 Stay Fierce! <3

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hello!

im ryan, and im ftm! yah

i just wanted to post about my new youtube channel, where im trying to set up a place for people to talk about ftm everyday issues. Ive set up a few videos already and am open to ideas to make new videos. one of the more important reasons for doing this was because i felt that the lgbt community has a way of excluding queer people of color, and being hispanic myself, i identify with this feeling. i havent seen much out there based on these issues and thought maybe this could be a place for some of that to be spoken about.

well heres the channel check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/user/ryanre…