We’ll be posting the contents of his presentation over the next few weeks, in tasty bite sized morsels, and the full presentation (with all its references intact) will be available to download at the end of the series.

Todays post, is beyond the jump:

Introduction
It’s been very interesting for me to have spent the last two days at a “mens’ health” conference – where I’ve heard lots of discussion and debate about the definition of “health”. But I’ve heard no discussion or debate around the definition of “men”. The reason for this, of course, is that most of us tend to assume that the definition of “man” is completely self evident and unproblematic.

That’s not the only thing we assume. We assume, when we say the word “man” that all people are, categorically, either male or female. We assume that the attributes that make a man a man are clear, definable, biological, fixed, and that they are categorically different from those characteristics that make somebody a woman. We believe these things to be true to such an extent that we assume that every time we meet someone, no matter how briefly, we will instantly “know” whether they are a man or a woman. And having just met a complete stranger and decided that they are a man, we assume that they identify as a man, that they are happy with this identity, that they always have been a man, that they always will be a man. We assume things about the chromosomes in every cell of their body; about the hormones that are inside their body; and about what their very body looks like underneath their clothes.

None of these assumptions are true all of the time, and this is what I’ll be talking about in this series.

Terminology and Prevalence

Intersex people can be defined as people for whom the development of chromosomal, gonadal, or anatomic sex is not aligned with our notions of a sexually binary biology. That is, there are biological physical differences that “can be seen as both male and female at once, not wholly male or female, neither male or female, or other ways of being that are not captured by current sex binary”. Estimates of the number of intersex people commonly vary from 1:100 to 1:2000 depending on the types of conditions included.

Gender identity is an individual’s internal sense of being a man, a woman, or another gender. Trans people can be defined as people whose gender identity is outside or crosses the social norms of ‘man’ or ‘woman’. I use the term “trans” here to explicitly include people identifying as transsexual, transgender, or genderqueer. Accurate estimates of the number of trans people are also difficult to obtain – most research uses a far narrower definition of “trans” and suggests the prevalence as somewhere between 1:4,500 and 1:8,000. A Gender Agenda’s membership in Canberra suggests that even this figure is an underestimate, and that estimates of 1:500 is probably more accurate.

Virtually no data is captured for trans people who do not seek medical treatment for gender affirmation. The growing number of people who identify as gender queer are essentially unacknowledged in any prevalence statistics. Due to the intense level of stigma associated with sex and gender variance, many intersex and trans people are often invisible to the general population and service providers for fear of discrimination and ridicule.

Terminology is hotly contested and culturally variable. For the sake of brevity and clarity I will be using the term “Sex and Gender Diverse”. This term is used with the specific intent of being inclusive not only of intersex and trans people but also of anyone who ‘falls through the gaps” of our binary sex model.

There is a common misconception that sex and gender diverse people can be identified “by the way they look”. This is generally untrue, and paradoxically, much of the inappropriate health care offered to sex and gender diverse people comes about because they are not visibly identifiable.

Some specific examples health services need to be aware of are that:

Someone presenting as male, who you identify as being unquestionably male may:

• have functioning female reproductive capacity
• require regular pap smears and/or be at risk of ovarian cancer
• identify as a woman

Someone presenting as female, who you identify as being unquestionably female may:

• be at risk of prostate cancer
• be at high risk levels for other ‘mens health” issues
• want to be perceived as male

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!

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.

This is a copy of the speech that Peter presented.

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My name is Peter.
I am 36 years old.
I am a man.

Unfortunately, the Government disagrees.
The Government maintains that I am a woman.

Although I am a man, I have not always been a man. My birth was registered as female. And I lived the first 25 years of my life as a woman.

When I was a woman, my personal identity as a woman was unquestionably mine to ‘own’ without interference from Government.

Now that I am a man, my personal identity as a man is consistently interfered with by all levels of Government.

This is not the case in other countries. The United Kingdom for example, has provided me with a document stating that I am legally a man for all purposes under all UK law. Many other countries in the world also legally recognise me as a man. Which is great, and just, and right… but I don’t live in any of those countries. I live in Australia, I have done all my life, and my government, the Australian government, refuses to recognise me as a man.

I have lived in the ACT for almost 20 years, but the ACT will not recognise me as a man because I was born in NSW. And NSW will not recognise me as a man until I provide evidence that I have been sterilised.

I believe that I have a right to have my own identity recognised by my own government. I find it morally unjustifiable for any government to make my rights contingent upon my surgical sterilisation.

And so I am, officially, in no-man’s land.
Unofficially, the situation is even more complicated.

Without a nationally consistent, sensible approach, different agencies struggle to know how to deal with reality.

The taxation office recognises me as a man. The Family Assistance Office says that I am a woman. Centrelink not only refuses to recognise me as a man, but also insists that my heterosexual female partner is a lesbian. Medicare says that I am male – most of the time, but every now and then, they “turn me into a woman” so they can process specific claims that relate to procedures that apparently only women can have. My Australian Passport shows my sex as “male”, but was issued along with a letter stating that the Australian government does not believe that I am really male, and that I would be committing fraud if I ever used the Passport to identify myself as a man.

Whenever I have to provide ID – to open a bank account, to cash a cheque, or even to collect a parcel from the Post Office, the official documents that I can provide state that I am female.

Sometimes my ID is not accepted at all. The bank teller looks at me, and says “but that can’t be your ID – it says you are a woman!”. Mostly my ID is accepted – but only because I am prepared to cause a scene, to declare to the bank teller, and their supervisor, and the manager on duty, and everyone else waiting in the queue behind me, that “I am transsexual”. “Oh!, so he’s really a woman! I guess we should let her cash the cheque..”

Today is a very significant day for me – this report is the light at the end of the tunnel. It is the first step towards law reform that is long overdue. Law reform however, will only be achieved when governments actually act on these recommendations.

The day that government actually acts on these recommendations will be of even greater significance to me – because it will signal for the first time my government’s acknowledgement that I exist.

My story is not isolated – tens of thousands of other people with similar personal histories share these experiences. And there are hundreds of thousands more people out there, who are sex and gender diverse but have very different personal histories, who currently experience equivalent levels of hardship and uncertainty.

When governments act on these recommendations, the practical every day lives of all of us will be dramatically improved – forever.

Abbey is a well known face in the local Sex and Gender Diverse community, she has helped organise NewCTN for years, and has been instrumental in uniting the trans-boys and trans-girls, who until recently had not had much at all to do with one another. She’s heaps of fun, and I hope that she’ll go on to write many more things for our blog.

Here’s the review.

—

As Nature Made Him: the Boy who was raised as a Girl
by John Colapinto

Not heard of this book? Not heard of Dr John Money either?
Well you should go out and get this book a read it and read it you must for it displays a truth about not only the field of psychology but about humans themselves. Which is it that dictates a person, what is it that influences how a child grows up and become? Is it Nature versus Nurture?
I finished reading this book with a sadness. But was at first revolted by the level thinking going on in the field of psychology and still is going on now, as shown. I was appalled by the intensity and sheer bloody-minded personality of Dr Money to force things and people to his way of thinking, and his pettiness and childishness in responding to anyone attempting to argue versus him.
I was equally appalled by the gross sheepish thinking going on by people at the time and to some extent a thinking that still exists. They remain so unaware that their advisory status has the ability to deny true happiness and to destroy the life of the most youngest of children, a most vulnerable section of our population.
It makes you think carefully about the Nature versus Nurture statement. I was appalled by the unquestioning behaviours of people but buoyed by the words of Dr Diamond and his peers whom fight to stop the old ways in favour of a new approach to intersexed individuals.
This book is primarily not about intersexed people, it is about an experiment that should never ever have been allowed to take place, the background that led to the experiment being undertaken and the failure of this experiment despite it having been repeated more than once.
I won’t spoil the story for you but say this; Yes you will feel a range of emotions bought on by the contents, and yes you will feel a sense of relief too at the ‘time of print’ outcome for the experiments’ subject and his family, but at no time forget this happened to a real living person, not some fictional character. This family exists and so does the badness and the goodness too. Let the book fill you will an energy too; the urge to not let other people make a mistake of rushing into any decisions first without careful consideration and neutral consultations over extended periods of time. It reminds me to never just blindly accept the advice of any ‘one expert or experts’, and to acknowledge that who is it that knows your best, you or the expert!
It will also cause you to think about Nature Versus Nurture.
I’m a supporter of the Nature, its born into us, and no matter what Nurture does, Nature will always reveal a person for who and how they truly are. You can learn and yes be guided however ultimately you cannot overcome how you were always meant to be. Perhaps cold comfort but you can always find a middle ground without it and yourself being inflexible.

There is a copy of this book in the ACT Library Service, its catalogue code is 305.9066 Cola.

Cheers

AbbeyJane