Back To the Main SiteA Gender Library Request
A Gender Agenda is opening a Gender Library at some point in the next few months. We have a grant to purchase books for the library, and do have a preliminary list of books we want, which is about 140 books long! Obviously, we can’t buy all of those. We can probably buy between 30-50 books, depending on the price of the books.
So we have two requests:
1. If you have a book (or multiple books) that you would like to donate to the library, what is it? (So we don’t buy it, and double up)
2. If there is a book (or multiple books) that you think that no self-respecting trans-positive book collection should be without, what is it?
These are the sorts of things that we are looking for:
- Non-fiction: Biographies, anthologies, self help, post-modern gender analysis, trans-positive medical information (medical stuff needs to be no older than 5-10 years), feminist classics, histories, political and activist writings, sociology, information for friends, partners, parents and children.
- Photography: Loren Cameron, Del La Grace Volcano, and other books of photographs of trans people, or by trans people
- Films: Documentaries, and movies starring trans people or transy characters. Can be either motion picture, or animations. (Including *trans-positive only* erotica) We are also looking for movies for children.
- Fiction: Stories that star trans people, stories by trans people, stories that have minor trans characters that are positively represented, (Including *trans-positive only* erotica). Also fantasy and science fiction books where an alternative gender system is represented.
- Childrens picture books: Everything from picture books about trans kids, or trans parents, to picture books with transy themes.
- Novels for kids and teens: Anything that has gender crossing as a major theme, regardless of whether an adult might think the character is ‘trans enough’. Only positive representations though – nothing where the transy character gets killed/raped/beaten/publicly humiliated for being transy.
If you can think of any authors or producers of trans media that might be willing to donate something to the library, please let me know so that I can contact them. :) We will be marking any media that is donated which is good advertising for writers and indie film makers.
If you wish to make a donation of a book or some cash to help us buy a book, keep in mind that A Gender Agenda is a Health Promotion Charity, so donations are tax deductable. We will value book donations at 50% of the RRP of a book in reasonable condition.
So if you wish to make a donation we need to know:
1. Whether and how you would like to be acknowledged in the book you donated
2. Whether and in what name you would like your tax deduction receipt to be provided.
Contact me on the email address webmaster@agenderagenda.org.au if you would like details as to where to send the donation, or would like to arrange a meeting to give it to me in person.
NOTE: Blatantly transphobic media of any kind will not be accepted, including but not limited to ‘The Transsexual Empire’ and other writing by Janice Raymond, Sheila Jeffreys, etc, medical/psychiatric information by Zucker, Bailey, Blanchard or John Money, films such as ‘Psycho’ or ‘Silence of the Lambs’ etc.
Books and papers critiquing the work of famous transphobes are welcome.
So then! What books and films do YOU think we should purchase?
Queer Collaborations 2009
This year, Queer Collaborations was held at ANU, here in Canberra. Queer Collaborations is an annual student conference for students who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Intersex, Queer, or Genderqueer. Robyn and myself went along on behalf of A Gender Agenda to present a keynote on being a Trans Ally on the first day, and attended the Trans/Genderqueer Caucuses. The Placards that were made for our Mardi Gras entry were displayed in the Queer Art Exhibition.The event was a lot of fun. Hugh Bartlett, from ANU’s Jellybabies, did a wonderful job of pulling the event together, and making sure it ran smoothly.
During our presentation on being a trans ally, there were lots of questions, and it was really obvious that the LGBT movement has a lot of work to do before cisgendered queers are really on top of the myriad of health, human rights, and political issues that face trans and genderqueer people. We didn’t even really speak about intersex rights, except for briefly mentioning Infant Genital Mutiliation. The thing I found most heartening was the number of medical students there, who approached me after the presentation to ask about how to do better than their predecessors.
QC is a bit of a self-reflective political event. No changes to the real world are ever actually made, and frequently attempted changes to QC don’t stick either. However its an important event for the networking opportunity it provides young activists. I’m very glad that I went, because I met a number of wonderful activists from other cities. We’ve already been able to provide each others organisations with support and assistance. These kinds of national alliances among queer organisations are invaluable.
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