Peter gave a moving speech at the opening. You can read it beyond the cut. The ACT Human Rights commission also sent a speaker, who’s speech you can download in PDF Format here.

Firstly I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we now call Australia and specifically the Ngunnawal people on whose land we meet today.
Secondly I welcome all of you – Ladies, Gentlemen, and most importantly all the rest of us – I’m Peter Hyndal from A Gender Agenda and we are thrilled to be hosting the “Gender Rights are Human Rights” exhibition. I think you’ll agree that we have a range of very impressive work.
I would really like to thank all the artists who have participated in this project – Robyn Grafkin, Erica Green and Gabriele Thomson who can not be with us this evening. Peta Bourne, Tina Fiveash, Margot Seares, and Ingrid Singh who are here, and especially Stephanie Parker who is not only a contributing artist but who has also put an enormous amount of time and effort into helping to organise the exhibition.
This exhibition could not have been possible without the financial support of Pink Tennis the Canberra Gay and Lesbian Tennis Club, and we’d also like to sincerely thank the Tennis Club for their support.
It’s interesting that no government or government department actually collects statistics about transgender or intersex people, and yet every government maintains that there are not very many of us at all. For example a very commonly quoted statistic is that out of every 150,000 people born female there will be one one transgendered person who chooses to live their life as a man. This would mean that there is only one trans man living in the ACT. I have it on very good authority that there are at least 5 times that number of trans men – in this room this evening – let alone in all of the ACT!  Based on the contacts that A Gender Agenda has, we believe that around 1 in 200 people in Canberra are Sex or Gender Diverse.
When we talk about transgender and intersex issues many people feel they do not have the information they need in order to understand.
I’ve had a flick through one of the most recent research papers published in Australia. The findings are consistent with a range of earlier Australian papers as well as many international studies, and the lived experiences of our community.
These are things that we know to be true:
We know that compared to the general population, our community is better educated – and yet we have unemployment rates 3-10 times greater. In relation to income levels – we also know that the greatest grouping of our community members is in the “less than $25,000 pa” category.
We know that the majority of us are the victims of discrimination, stigma or violence on multiple occasions every day. We know that there is a direct causal link between the experience of discrimination and the incidence of depression and so it comes as no surprise that 40-50% of us meet the criteria of being clinically depressed at any given point in time. This is a rate at least 40 times higher than the general population.
We know that depression is the major predictor of suicide and we also know that our community commits suicide at a rate more than 300 times greater than the general population.
The most common argument against law reform for identity recognition is that it is “too complicated”. I want you all to look at me now as I stand in front of you.
And I want to ask you – how can it be simple or easy to continue to insist that I am legally a woman?  When I stood up to speak every one of you identifies  me as being a man – how can it be so “complicated” for the law to recognise this reality?
They say a pictures worth a thousand words. And I hope that’s true because there’s been so many millions of words written that haven’t seemed to make any difference at all. So it’s heartening to believe that the fabulous art work around us also has the capacity to make a real difference.
Thankyou all for coming  Please engage with the artists about their work, encourage your friends to come and look at the exhibition later over the next week, and enjoy the rest of the evening!

They have requested that A Gender Agenda advertise their fabulous youth project, and we are more than happy to oblige! Qwire have made a fantastic effort to create an environment where they hope that trans, intersex and genderqueer youth will feel comfortable participating. I strongly recommend that if you have any interest in music, you consider getting involved.

They are seeking interested participants who would like to take on roles in singing, production, development, design, music and lyrics writing and arranging, and anything you else can think of, to develop and produce a public performance and commercial recording of an “event”.

Any way, here’s the info:
Participants aged 16-25, who identify as Lesbian or Gay, Trans or Intersex, bisexual or any other colour of our rainbow are who we are looking for!

Not only will participants produce their own performance, but they will be supported, coached, and joined by members from the Qwire, as well as music and production professionals from around Canberra, ACT and nationally.

Participants will also be encouraged and welcomed to join with the Qwire for a number of other events including:

How do I participate?
We will be holding a public meeting at 6pm on Tuesday 24th, for interested participants to come and hear more about the project, to meet and talk with Qwire members, and sit in on a Qwire rehearsal, just following our “Light and Fluffy” concert Late November.

Venue will be ANU Music Department, Llewellyn Hall, Level 5, Lecture Theatre 2. Please let us know if you wish someone to meet you there.
At this meeting, we will clarify questions about the project and seek your expression of interest, to commence working on the project, writing your own music and words, designing, developing and all the things that go with it, in the near year.
Those registering their interest prior to the meeting will also be invited to attend the “Light and Fluffy”, concert free of charge – with our guests, Can Belto (one of Canberra’s favourite choirs – other than us!),

Please contact the project Chef de Partie, Tim Little (Qwire Assistant Musical Director), on 0422210768 or cooltim@westnet.com.au to confirm your attendance, to register your interest and receive details of the “Light and Fluffy” concert.

You can also contact us on canberraqwire@yahoo.com.au for more information about the Qwire, and our regular season – you are welcome to join us

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

WE UNDERSTAND THAT NOT EVERYONE CAN MAKE IT BY 5.30PM. PLEASE COME ALONG EVEN IF YOU NEED TO ARRIVE LATE.

Hope to see you there, or at one of our upcoming SpringOut Events.

We wont be having any more events for a couple of weeks, as the SpringOut Pride festival swiftly approaches. Watch this space for advertisements for our events during November though!

Canberra is a pretty sleepy little town, and even though we’re national leaders with regard to Gay and Lesbian rights, we tend to be a bit behind the times when it comes to queerness and gender diversity. There seems to be a pretty persistent belief that all trans people are straight elderly ladies who started out as boys. Tonight as I sat at a table with a pair of cute radical queer dykes, young trans men, and young queer trans women, I felt very at home, and mused that most people don’t even realise that we have this many gender diverse and radically queer people in Canberra, let alone this being a rather smallish gathering of a narrowly defined demographic. I really hope that AGA’s youth group continues to grow, both in numbers, and in diversity of genders, sexualities, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and abilities.

We started talking about what kinds of things we might do in the future, and floated such ideas, as having a glamorous and highly silly dress up party, a craft-a-noon, going bowling, or just meeting up for another coffee. We’ll also be adding a mailing list for the youth group to use for discussion and organising, so no doubt things will start to happen.

I’d like to finish off this post, by thanking Robyn and Gabrielle for taking over the task of organising the Youth Group. You are both AWESOME!

This picnic is intended to be a fun day out for the entire alphabet soup. You don’t need to be trans to attend, you don’t even need to know a trans person. If you are gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans, genderqueer, intersex, asexual or questioning your gender or sexuality, or know someone who is, you are more than welcome to come along and join in the fun.

Remember that you can bring your whole family, parents, partners, kids, and pets. Its a day out in a park, and there’s a playground for youngsters to play on. There are also BBQ facilities for those who want to cook food.

We try to be as inclusive as possible, so if you have a disability or other special requirements that we might be able to help with, please shoot us an email, and we’ll do our best.

WHAT: A Picnic

WHEN: 10th of October 2009, 12.30pm

WHERE: Glebe Park in Civic

WHO: You, and your family

WHY: To get to know other people of diverse age, sexuality, gender identity and expression, in a fun and family friendly environment.

Another reminder will go out closer to the event, but pencil the date into your calendar now!

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.

From Transgender Day of Action 2009

June 26 saw our first ever Transgender Day of Action fundraiser. I have to admit it, I was nervous in the lead up, terrified even! However, on the night, things went incredibly well!

The venue was HUSH Lounge, and the price was right. People started rocking up well before we opened the doors. I’ve never seen Canberran’s looking so queer and fabulous. There were queers that had come all the way from Sydney and Melbourne because it seemed like such a novel event.

There were several main events. We had stage performances from the Canberra Kings, and a belly dancer who left all the ladies drooling for more. We also Auctioned off volunteers, including a Bondage Rope master, a Photographer, a Chef, and of course all the Drag Kings. One of the local dykes fetched the hefty price of $500 in return for one dirty dance!

We departed from the usual trans event policy of Unisex toilets, and split the bathrooms at HUSH along another binary. Head and tails! Our polite Toilet Valet would toss a coin, and tell you whether you were allowed to use the Heads or the Tails bathroom. Most people took this with good nature, in the spirit it was intended, but unfortunately one person took offence, and verbally harassed our valet. I find it utterly remarkable that anyone would come to a trans event, thinking that they can cause a fuss about being asked to use the men’s toilet! At least surrounded by trans folk, and our allies, she would have been thoroughly embarrassed for being the one scolded by the MC’s.

By the end of the night, I was exhausted. I’d MC’d with Mr Rocco Hardness, and staved off disaster when the Auctioneer called to say he couldn’t make it, 15 minutes before the Auction was due to begin. One of the local dykes, who usually Drag Kings but hadn’t been on stage that night, kindly volunteered to run the Auction for us.

We made about $2000 in donations, and it was truly a community effort. We couldn’t have done it without the support of the Canberra Kings, HUSH Lounges staff, and all the volunteers from A Gender Agenda who faithfully ran the Toilet stall, took donations at the door, and generally made sure the night ran nice and smoothly.

Our Entry in Mardi Gras was a raging success. We had 22 people show up on the day to march with us. We wore fantastic green t-shirts, had awesome placards, and made waves with the crowd, the other floats, and the commentators alike!

It was my first ever Mardi Gras, and the feeling of marching with 21 other trans people, genderqueers, and our friends and families while being cheered on by the crowd, was an incredibly empowering experience. We handed out hundreds of stickers that said “Gender Rights are Human Rights” and lollipops with “Trannies are Sweet” written on them. Trans people and their supporters in the crowd screamed “I love trannies too!” at us from the sidelines, and we had post op FTM’s flash their scars at us.

I was thrilled to see the level of support for our community from other LGBT organisations, and from the wider community. Some people were obviously confused by our marching group, and our placards gave more than a few cause to pause and think about their preconceived notions of what a trans person looks like, and what they experience.

So, maybe next year YOU will be marching with us too! :)