Welcome to the New Year!
I hope that everyone is having a great summer. Here at AGA we’ve not been online much over the past month, but we’re back now, and gearing up for 2010.
A few housekeeping matters:
- The Blog is now fully integrated into our website. You can see the new blog here. Remember to subscribe to the new RSS feed. This is the last post that will appear on the old feed!
- We’re still in need of donations for our community space. We are unfunded, and run completely on volunteer time and donations. We have recieved a few small grants, and continue to apply for more, but we desperately need funds if we are to continue to grow. If you can afford to give, please do.
- Our end of year report from 2009 is available now. You can download it now if you’d like to see an overview of everything we have achieved in the last 12 months.
- Memberships are still open! If you would like to get involved in one of the fastest growing queer organisations in the ACT, check out our membership page for details.
I’m looking forward to seeing you soon, so remember to keep an eye on our Events page and we’ll hear from you soon!
Cheers
Ryan
Sex and Gender Diverse Community Consultation
A Gender Agenda is holding a community consultation to gather information about what the sex and gender diverse community wants from a community space.
Why do we need a Community Space?
Because there are more and more of us in Canberra, and we are becoming more and more vocal! And with growing visibility comes growing demand. This demand simply can’t be met without having a space of our own… a community space.
And we do mean a community space – a space that is run by and for the community – a space that the community truly “owns”. Which is where YOU come in!
We want to hear your dreams!
What will we call this “space of our own”? What functions could this space serve? What services do you think are most urgently needed? What activities would you love to see offered? What do you dream might be achieved in 1 year? 3years? 10 years?
Please come along – to share your own ideas, to hear what other people have to say, and to be part of your community space right from the very beginning.
DATE: Monday, 30th of November 2009
TIME: 5.30 – 8.30 PM
LOCATION: Room 6, Level 1, Griffin Centre
Genge St, Civic
Contact: peter@genderrights.org.au
WE UNDERSTAND THAT NOT EVERYONE CAN MAKE IT BY 5.30PM. PLEASE COME ALONG EVEN IF YOU NEED TO ARRIVE LATE.
Teachers of Tomorrow
Today I participated as part of a panel of LGBT educators and youth workers to a graduate class of teaching students at the University of Canberra. The other presenters were excellent. Two educators presented on having non-normative family structure, and a youth worker presented on homosexuality and bisexuality. I attempted to speak about supporting gender non-conforming children in their roles as teachers.
I’d never spoken on this topic before, but unfortunately I was the only person available for the presentation. I felt very nervous, and probably should have made more effort to prepare before hand. Still, people seemed to be into the presentation, and I gave out our website address, so that hopefully some of the people in the room will be able to come here and find some more useful information.
Talking to people who genuinely want to be able to help trans people is something that really makes this gig worthwhile. Sometimes I get frustrated, and burned out, and wonder if anyone actually cares about this stuff… and then I present somewhere, or speak to someone who is curious, and interested, and wants to be helpful. The vibe I got from this presentation was amazingly positive, and I really appreciate that the teachers at the University of Canberra are making the effort to equip their students to make life a bit easier for the next generation of gender non-conforming and queer kids going through our schooling system.
Emergency Support Services
I have added a page of emergency support services to the main website. So far we have financial services, legal advice, and emergency accommodation listings. I urge you to go and have a look at it, and if you know of another service that should be listed there, and isn’t, please don’t hesitate to let me know!
Emergency services that are safe and accessible for trans people are not common in Canberra, and this places us in a ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ situation with some service providers. There are some services that may be problematic for trans people who do not pass, for sex/gender diverse people who are bisexual, genderqueer and intersexed people who identify outside of the binary and so on. This is unfortunate, but A Gender Agenda’s dealings with other organisations, as we urge them to adopt more inclusive policies, will never prevent us from redirecting sex and gender diverse people in need to an organisation that may be able to help them.
All that said, if you do approach an organisation that is listed on our website, and have a negative experience with them, please let us know. This allows us to not only modify our listing, but to contact the organisation, and try to work with them to create a more accepting environment for sex and gender diverse people. I firmly believe that most issues arise out of ignorance on the service providers part, and education can do much to eliminate difficulties for sex and gender diverse people in community organisations. After all, people don’t work in community orgs for the money! They do it because they are good people, and want to help the world be a better place!
The directory of support services will expand as time goes on, we plan on adding sections for medical practices, counselling services, domestic violence and rape crisis centers, support services for people with disabilities, indigenous people, youth, and financially disadvantaged people. If you have suggestions for any of those sections, also let us know!
A Gender Agenda on LibraryThing
Currently we’re working hard on getting some kind of physical premises where we can open our Gender Library. We have now spent all the money from the grant, and so there are several boxes of books in my lounge room right now. The sex and gender diverse community has donated a spectacular number of books to this project, and we are immensely grateful for everyone’s support!
Setting up a library is quite a lot of work! Even though we don’t have a premises, and so wont be loaning the books out for some time, there are still plenty of tasks to keep me occupied. I need to input each books information into our library software, cover each book so that it doesn’t get damaged, and put stickers on the ones that are not for loan, and warning labels on heinous titles like ‘The Transsexual Empire’ by Janice Raymond.
Tonight I created a LibraryThing account for the Gender Library, so that I could access their nifty ‘recommendations’ feature, and reviews of some of the books I haven’t read, so that I could put appropriate information into our software.
There are currently 117 books listed, which is by no means all of the books we have. We also have a number of pamphlets, zines, and magazines that are published by small community groups, and so do not have ISBN’s, and we have DVD’s, and a few Aussie books that just weren’t listed in the US Databases. Not to mention the books we purchased from Melbourne which I still need to collect!
Anyway, if you would like to have a look through the books listed, this is our Profile, and this is our list of books. Feel free to make recommendations of titles, or let me know if there is a book in the collection that I should put a ‘Warning: Transphobic Content” label on!
New Website Domain FAQ
A Gender Agenda Logo
A while ago Peter and I were on a radio show and discovered to our chagrin that our website address is almost impossible to communicate clearly verbally! We painfully spelled out our email addresses and the web address, several times…. A-G-E-N-D-E-R-A-G-E-N-D-A-DOT-O-R-G-DOT-A-U…
After the radio show, we decided that we should probably change our website. We were a little concerned that changing the domain might mean changing the name of our organisation, and we are rather fond of our name. Eventually though, we came up with some domains that were available, but wouldn’t require us to change our organisations name, and then narrowed it down to one that we liked most.
The other night we switched our domain over to www.GenderRights.org.au , and after much pain and grief, I managed to get the website migrated across, and working, and set up some magical things called ‘301 redirects’, so that all of our visitors would be able to find us again.
However, this momentus change has lead to a few ‘frequently asked questions’, so I’m taking this opportunity to answer them now.
Q: Does this mean you are changing the organisations name from A Gender Agenda?
A: No, we’re just changing the domain. Our slogan is ‘Gender Rights are Human Rights’, so Gender Rights fits as a domain name, without us changing our organisations name.
Q: Does this mean that A Gender Agenda is going national?
A: We’ve only changed our domain name, not our direction or mission. A Gender Agenda is a rapidly growing organisation, and we are very active locally in the ACT, but we are far too small and over worked to pull off any kind of national organisation (Though the question is deeply flattering every time its asked!). We’d love to go national one day, but really can’t right now.
Q: Oh no! I wont be able to find your website now!
A: Chill. The old address will automatically redirect you to the new website. Once you’ve been redirected, just bookmark the new site, and delete the old bookmark. The redirect will work for about a year, before the old domain goes offline.
If you have a link to us on your website, changing it over to the new domain as soon as possible would be most appreciated.
Q: I’m having trouble getting to a page I had bookmarked. It redirects me to the new site, and then it gives me a ‘404 Page Not Found’ error!
A: Unfortunately I’m learning as I go with this website biz, and I have lost a few pages in the migration and upgrade (not that I’m exactly sure *how* that happened). If you had a page directly bookmarked, or click on a link in google, and it takes you to a 404 error, go to the home page, and try navigating manually through the website to where the page logically should be. If you can’t find it, and its important, email me at ryan@genderrights.org.au and I’ll try to find the info for you.
Q: What about the A Gender Agenda email list I’m subscribed to?
A: The email lists will also be migrated to the new domain over the coming week. You’ll be notified once that has happened, so don’t worry too much about it.
Coming up for A Gender Agenda
SpringOut 2009
Its that time of year again… the run up to November, the month of Canberra’s local Pride Festival. A Gender Agenda and NewCTN are holding a joint stall at SpringOut’s Fairday this year. We’ve got lots of fun activities and events planned for the day, so come along and check out the festivities!
Also during November we have planned an Art Exhibition of Trans Political Art, with the grant kindly provided to us by Pink Tennis, the local Gay and Lesbian Tennis Club. This will be shown both in the Legislative Assemblies Exhibition Space, and in another Art Gallery, that we are still confirming.
There will also be an A Gender Agenda Picnic on the last Saturday of November, so mark the 28th of November in your calendar, and keep it clear!
In less cheerful news, we will be marking Transgender Day of Remembrance again this year. TDoR falls on the 20th, which is a Friday this year. We are hoping to have a ceremony inside a building, but again we haven’t yet confirmed locations. More details will be posted closer to the date.
Anyway, we hope to see you at an event soon.
Gender Library Update
A Gender Agenda has been very busy over the last few months. Even though we’ve not been updating the website much, plenty has been happening. We’ve held a fundraiser, continued lobbying the ACT Government for legislative change, provided free training for a group of local volunteers, supported student politics, and generally been out in the world, trying our hands at new things.
I think one of the most exciting new idea’s that we’ve had, has been the AGA Gender Library. The rationale behind the project, is that here in Canberra we don’t have a queer focussed bookshop, and none of the local LGBT Organisations have any trans employees, or information for or by trans/genderqueer or intersex people. This means that there is a dearth of information for sex and gender diverse people, and for those people who wish to educate themselves, and become more knowledgeable supporters of the sex and gender diverse individuals in Canberra. We thought that if we could collect enough of that material, we could provide a social and informational hub where people can gather to learn and talk about the myriad of issues that face the sex and gender diverse community both locally, and further afield.
A few months ago we sent out requests for book donations, and titles of books that people thought we should purchase, and since then we’ve been accumulating a stock pile of literature, films, and resources for transgendered, intersex, genderqueer, and other sex and gender diverse people. I currently have two big boxes of books in my lounge room, that have been donated by people from all over the country. The Bookshop Darlinghurst was kind enough to give us a 10% discount on the books we purchased from them, and an organisation in the USA refunded us the cost of our shipping when they heard what the books were for.
The public support of this project has been absolutely phenomenal. We’re currently looking for some kind of physical space where we can set up our library, and we’re hoping to have everything good to go so that our grand opening can coincide with Gender Diversity Day 2010.
A 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?
AGA’s Plans for 2009
A Gender Agenda have plenty of plans for 2009, we hope that something coming up tickles your fancy.
Sex and Gender Diversity Community Survey
The survey closed early in January, and we’re currently in the process of analysing the data. Once we’ve looked at the info, and pulled out some interesting factoids we’ll publish our findings to the AGA Website. We hope that our data will be instrumental in convincing the ACT Government that people undergoing medical transition are of a significant enough number in the ACT to have services and funding provided to us.
T-Boy Get-Togethers
Most of the trans guys in Canberra have at some point thought that they are the only FTM in the area, but we actually have a pretty healthy population! We hold regular informal get togethers for FTM Spectrum folk (not everyone there identifies as a man… I for example, identify as a genderqueer), and so if you’ve been looking for a laid back and chillaxed group to hang out with, shoot me an email at webmaster@agenderagenda.org.au and I’ll add you to our email list. This year we hope to be able to hold bi-monthly events, a dinner or coffee night on a weekday evening after work, and a Saturday lunch event – picnics, and bbq’s etc.
TransAction! Day – Feb 27
A Gender Agenda are looking forward to the first ever TransAction! Day. TransAction! Day is eventually intended to be a day of education in schools, and as such has already stirred up some controversy in the USA. The Illinois Family Institute is calling it ‘Deviant Transgender Day‘ which I think is a very amusing, and catchy name for it.
We don’t have the resources to plan anything really spectacular for this year, but will probably hold a BBQ on the weekend following, and send out press releases in the weeks prior.
Mardi Gras Gaggle – March 7
A Gender Agenda are marching with Tranny Panic for Trans Rights in the Australian Mardi Gras Parade. We’ve got a group of about 16 takers so far, but the more the merrier! I hope you’ll consider coming along. For more information or to register your interest, contact our Mardi Gras organiser Robyn Grafkin at baglieg@gmail.com ASAP.
Butch Auction Fundraiser
We hope to run a Fundraising party at the end of June. We’re aiming to coincide with New York Cities annual Trans Day of Action. The night should be loads of fun, with performances from local musicians and Drag Kings and Drag Queens. Tranny Panic will also be running an interactive performance to raise awareness about trans people and our constant battle over toilets.
If you are interested in performing at the Butch Auction, or you are some-kind-of-masculine identified man, woman or genderqueer and wish to be Auctioned off to raise money for A Gender Agenda’s work, please shoot me an email at webmaster@agenderagenda.org.au.
Workshops and Education
Later in the year, perhaps September and/or October (dates to be announced), we plan on holding a series of workshops about issues facing the sex and gender diverse community. We want to cover a variety of topics, from dating and sexuality, raising children outside of traditional gender roles, the intersection of trans and intersex needs, and how to deal with trans people within your organisation. The workshops will cost money, so that we can afford to fly presenters in from other cities, and so that we can book a nice venue and so on. We will be offering subsidies and free places to sex and gender diverse identified individuals who would like to attend, but cannot afford it.
Possible Film Festival
Pending news about sponsorship of the event, we may be holding a “Breaking the Binary” film festival, for talented young film makers who want to say something about being sex and gender diverse. More news about this will be published to the AGA website if we can get sponsorship.
Well! Its going to be a busy year! I hope that something there appeals to you!
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