Back To the Main SiteTransAction! Vs TransAwareness!
TransAction! is held on February 27, and Trans Day of Action is held on June 27 this year. I think that those names are far too similar – Its confusing! TransAction Day has never been held before, but Trans Day of Action has been running in New York for 4 years, so I think if either is going to have their name changed, it will have to be TransAction Day.
I’m not asking for GLSEN to change the name of their event, but I think that Australian organisations could hold an event with a name that sounds a little less like a day when you do your banking. I think that “Trans Awareness Day” is an excellent title, and one that as far as I can tell isn’t taken. (Gendered Intelligence in the UK ran a single Trans Awareness Day back in 2007, but it hasn’t been held since). However, it is very trans-centric. Perhaps “Gender Diversity Day” would be a more inclusive and appropriate name?
A preliminary survey of my friends revealed a strong leaning towards Gender Diversity Day. What do other folk think? Suggestions for other names are also welcome!
Language Wars: Whats in a name?
I have a great love of movies, books and other media that is aimed at children. Not long ago I went and saw The Tale of Despereaux at the cinema. I quite enjoyed it, although it had a heavy dose of body fascism, and sexism, I felt that its attempt to discuss quite serious political themes in language that a 5 year old can understand was quite impressive. Towards the end of the film the narrator talks about how names can become swear words. She asks us how we would feel if our name was a terrible insult, if our name was a very bad word.
Unfortunately most people who are part of the sex and gender diverse community know only too well what it feels like to have our names and identities be a very bad word, to have our identity thrown at us as if its a grave insult. I’ve had emails get caught up in my spam filter, I’ve had Google Mail step in and refuse to send an email because it was suspected of being offensive. Just because my identity is also a dirty, filthy, spam-trap-triggering keyword.
I think that this is one of the key reasons that identity labels are so hotly contested in the sex and gender diverse community.
The Gender Centre defines Transgender as:
Transgender means anyone who lives, has lived, or wants to live as a member of the opposite gender (sex) to their birth gender.
In the past, the common term for transgender has been transsexual. However, in general, people who are transgender prefer to use the term transgender as this is a more accurate reflection of their identity or behaviour – that is, that they want to live and behave as a member of the opposite gender to their birth gender, not the opposite sexuality, sexual preference or sexual orientation. A transgender, just like anyone else, may be heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual.
However, under the Discrimination Act 1991, a “transsexual” is defined as meaning:
a person of one sex who—
(a) assumes the bodily characteristics of the other sex, whether by means of medical intervention or otherwise; or
(b) identifies himself or herself as a member of the other sex or lives, or seeks to live, as a member of that other sex.
That to me sounds like a very similar definition. Sometimes even when someone is asked what the difference is, its still not clear. FTM Australia says that the difference is quite easy to understand:
“A transgender individual takes hormones to appear as one gender or another; a transsexual person takes hormones and undergoes surgery as rehabilitation for a physical condition.”
I still don’t get it though.
Even the psychiatrists can’t decide who is transsexual, who is transgender, who is a transvestite, and who is just a filthy pervert with a fetish for ladies lingerie. The medical industry also draws lines between ‘primary’ transsexuals and ’secondary’ transsexuals. Harry Benjamin himself had a scale of transsexuals, TRUE transsexuals, and everyone else.
I find the idea of categorising someone elses identity extremely problematic, and it is often used as a way of privileging one identity over another. Doctors like to withhold treatment from those people they suspect aren’t ‘trans*whatever enough’ and because its thrown as us constantly by everyone else, sometimes we end up turning on each other and saying “So and so had surgery, but she’s really a ‘post-operative transvestite’ not a TRUE transsexual/real woman/whatever”. Its just not cool.
You wont see the words transsexual and transgender used as much as would probably be expected by A Gender Agenda. We prefer to cut off the end, and refer to people being ‘trans’ or someone being a ‘trans person’. It helps us stay clear of the debate, and be inclusive, without having to define terms that no one can agree on anyway.
What is most important, is how you define yourself. If you define as a woman, or woman of transsexual history, then you are a woman to us. If you define as third gendered, intersex, or genderqueer? No worries. We’ll respect that too. If you define as a ‘trans identified FTM’, we can respect that. Respect is important, and there is no place for being judgemental about other peoples identities within A Gender Agenda, or at any of our events. We want to be warm and welcoming, you need not worry about not passing, or not being ‘trans enough’ to join. We even welcome woman-identified women, and man-identified men, if they respect our cause, and want to work for change along side us. Its not only people that transgress gender boundaries as radically as those who transition that experience discrimination for expressing their gender differently.
Names are important, they help us communicate. In the end though, its the communication thats important, not the name itself. Labels are only useful when we are free to apply them without judgement, and express ourselves freely no matter what label we have claimed for ourselves.
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!
Annual Report 2008
2008 was a great year for A Gender Agenda.
We had lots of new members join, including yours truly. We also made friends with the New Canberra Transgender Network, which means that we shall be more aware of trans women’s issues, and they shall be more aware of trans men. We held a combined Christmas party in December that saw record numbers of the Canberra sex and gender diverse community get together and socialise. We all had an awesome time, at a very pleasant restaurant. We even had visitors from Sydney and Wollongong come all the way down to hang out with us.
We made a submission to HREOC’s Sex and Gender Diversity project, and participated in their community consultation. Although we were disappointed in the decided focus of HREOC’s project, we look forward to seeing the recommendations that are made to the Federal government. We will be continuing to lobby the ACT Government to improve things in the ACT for the sex and gender diverse community.
A small delegation of our members attended a workshop in Sydney called “Gender Dysphoria to Gender Euphoria: Working Towards Gender Belonging”. (Leaflet can be downloaded from here). The workshop was held at the AIDS Council of New South Wales, and was conducted by Esben Esther Pirelli Benestad & Elsa Almas from Norway. The workshop was extremely inspiring, and we hope to hold something similar here in Canberra later this year.
In November we participated in SpringOut, the Canberra LGBTIQ Community Pride Festival. We had a stall next to NewCTN at the Fair Day, and held several events during the festival, including a film night, a Picnic/BBQ and a candle lit ceremony for Transgender Day of Remembrance. At the end of the festival, our Co-ordinator Peter Hyndal won an ACT Pride Award for his work with AGA, and contribution to forwarding trans rights and building a vibrant gender diverse community.
November also saw us launch a community survey in an attempt to learn more about the face of the ACT Sex and Gender Diverse community. We had 93 responses, which was far more than we expected, especially since we know that not all members of AGA or NewCTN actually filled in the survey. This has increased our estimate of the number of sex and gender diverse people in Canberra and the surrounding region to several hundred. It is clear that medical and other services are not nearly adequate, and we hope to be able to use the data we gathered to apply for a Health Pact grant to allow us investigate further how services in the ACT can be improved for the Sex and Gender Diverse community.
2009 looks to be an even bigger year, and I hope to see new faces at our events. If you would like to get involved in A Gender Agenda, or be notified of our events, don’t forget to subscribe to the Blogs RSS feed, or send an email to events-subscribe@agenderagenda.org.au to our join our email list.
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