Back To the Main SiteTransgender Day or Remembrance 2009
This year A Gender Agenda held a candle lit memorial in Glebe Park to commemorate Transgender Day or Remembrance. The event was well attended, and we had a speaker from Amnesty International, and a local transsexual/intersex activist to read the List of the Dead.
Last year I spoke calling for unity among the Sex and Gender Diverse community. This year, I looked outside the community to government, community and medical institutions, calling for them to include and accept sex and gender diversity as a natural part of life.
My speech is behind the jump.
Gender Rights Art Exhibition Opening!
The Gender Rights Art Exhibition opened on Monday the 16th of November. The opening was a huge success, with about 70 people in attendance, and some of the art being purchased by other community organisations.
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.
QWIRE YOUTH PROJECT
The Canberra Qwire is a non-auditioned choir, welcoming all members of our community, in a safe, social environment, and works together to performing music for our community, Canberra and the ACT, Australia and internationally.
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
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.
SpringOut 09!
Fairday at Westlund house is on this Saturday, from Noon until 5pm. A Gender Agenda will be there setting up from 10am.
Hope to see you there, or at one of our upcoming SpringOut Events.
October Picnic Fun
We had our October picnic on Saturday. The weather was beautiful, the food delicious, and the company fun! We had some new faces there, so it was nice to chill out and make some new friends.
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!
The AGA Youth Group
The A Gender Agenda youth group met for coffee this evening at Tosselini’s. I fucking love our youth group! Its for people under 30 who are trans, intersex, gender questioning, queer, genderqueer, and the friends and partners of any or all of the above. We’ve only had two meetings so far, but each one was heaps of fun, and we’ve already made four new friends, who I hope keep coming along.
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!
Community Picnic: October 09
A Gender Agenda love our picnics. They are laid back, family friendly, low pressure, and tend to be lots of fun. Our last picnic attracted close to 70 people across the afternoon, and everyone seemed to have a ball!
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!
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.
Volunteers Training at the AIDS Action Council
A particularly transphobic debate took place on ACTQueer, the local queer email list. In the aftermath of that the AIDS Action Council of Canberra requested that A Gender Agenda and New CTN provide some basic trans101 style training for their volunteer base. We agreed, as a favour to them, and worked hard and pulled together our first basic training program, and presented an hour long workshop to a group of about 15 people.
The evening was excellent practice, and gave us plenty of new ideas on how to improve our training strategies, and ways of explaining things. In particular, it helped build our ongoing relationship with NewCTN. AbbeyJane helped us write the package, and present it, and one of the other CTN Regulars was in the audience and provided us with invaluable feedback at the end of the evening.
We also had the unique and pleasurable experience of being trans people sitting by while a non-trans person goes into bat for our rights. One of our non-trans members spoke eloquently about what being a trans ally meant to her, and where she sees the LGBT Communities shortcomings in being inclusive of transgendered people.
So thankyou to all the attendees of the training session, and Abbey, Peter, and Gab for being excellent presenters!
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