New Events Page and other Web Updates
I’m sure that no one else cares nearly as much as I do about each and every little thing I do to the website, but I like to keep folk in the loop.
You can see our new events page layout now. We have a lot of events coming up in the next couple of months, and now they are displayed in style. Remember, if you are hosting a trans friendly event, we are more than happy to advertise it for you on our website.
The other addition to the website in the last couple of days, is the Legal Information section. There’s not much there yet, but there is a couple of bits of legislation that are handy for people that are changing their name, or sex documentation.
I think I’m finally getting the hang of this website biz.
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!
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.
Transmen and Transwomen Unite!
Trans Women and Trans Men can be Friends Too! The art is from Sleazo Sketch Town's talented writer/artist.
There seems to be a massive cultural and political divide between trans men and trans women. Trying to get us all to work together can be like herding cats at times! There are naturally vastly different perspectives on what is important, and what needs time and attention. There are different ways of communicating, and different ways of organising. All of these differences need to be acknowledged and compromised on.
I know that on the trans-masculine side of the divide, there are a lot of boys who have significant passing privilege, and want to just fade into society. On the trans-feminine side there’s a lot of girls that just wanna have fun! And when we are all thrown together, we can throw one hell of a party, but getting political work done is more of a challenge.
A Gender Agenda has always had a mix of trans men and trans women, but somehow we still developed a reputation for being an organisation by and for trans men. Recently we’ve been making an effort to dispel that myth. We are for all trans people, and not just those physically transitioning.
We think its very important for people questioning their gender identity to be able to contact us and speak to someone who they can identify with. Our organisation has a variety of people actively working with us, and with people that contact us looking for advice, and support.
Peter Hyndal is available for gender-questioning people, and trans men to speak to. He’s been working with the trans community, and in trans politics for years now, and was a founding member of A Gender Agenda.
AbbeyJane is our new contact for Trans Women. She’s the founding member of NewCTN, and over the past few years NewCTN has grown into a flourishing social organisation for trans people and crossdressers. We are very pleased to have AbbeyJane on board with us.
Robyn Grafkin is the person I jokingly call our ‘Pride Officer’. Robyn’s job is to collaborate with other queer and pride organisations such as Tranny Panic (who we are attending Mardi Gras with), and the SpringOut Committee, who organise Canberra’s local Pride Festival.
I publish the website and research political actions and events that are happening around the place, to keep us all informed. I’m the person to contact if you want to get involved in organising stuff with us, want to write for the website, or have a gender-related event you want to promote.
Obviously, in our society where gender related hate is so commonplace, not all of our members are comfortable being openly associated with us. We are extremely accepting and facilitating of this. We have people that attend our events, and help out with other projects but who’s names will never be mentioned on this website. If you think that you would like to get involved, but want to remain stealth… don’t let the few of us that choose to be openly mentioned on the website intimidate you!
We hope to see many more talented individuals get involved with us in the near future, so don’t be shy. Drop by one of our events and say hello, or shoot us an email. :)
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