Our TDOR event, by all accounts, was a great success. We had six times more people attend than we have ever had in the past, and we’ve got lots of very positive feedback about our approach of “doing it differently”. The venue, catering, Gab’s speech, the flowers, and the general ‘vibe’ were all the subject of positive feedback. This year we recorded the proceedings so that those people who couldn’t attend could still get a sense of the event. You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvBQ-aUdj6g

Now, we all know that raparative therapy doesn't cure homosexuality, and in fact administering electric shocks or administering non-consensual medical treatments to homosexuals is generally frowned upon these days, even if it was not 30 years ago.

That said, raparative therapy is still a technique used on gender variant children with terrifying frequency.

Andrea James, a Canada based trans activist recently gave a run down on one of the worlds most well known 'gender clinics' and their raparative therapy techniques.

In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) decided that gay people were no longer mentally ill, but that changed nothing for trans and gender-variant people. In fact, "experts" led the push to create a new disease called "gender identity disorder," which they successfully got added to the APA's big book of mental illnesses, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). Though trans activists have been protesting to get this mental illness removed in the 2012 revision, these Toronto "experts" hold key positions among the people doing the revising.

Even worse is a sub-disease they created called "gender identity disorder in children." They have made a lot of money claiming to "cure" hundreds of children who are "too feminine." While they also treat kids who are "too masculine," in most clinics which have adopted their methods, 5 to 30 times more children assigned as males are treated. The methods? No playing with dolls, no drawing with the "wrong" colors like pink or purple, and no playing with or drawing pictures of girls. The anxious parents who bring their children in to be "cured" are expected to enforce all rules. They are sent home with instructions to make the child go through all their possessions and remove anything "inappropriate," as well as ways to use reinforcement to "correct" their child's thinking and behavior. How did nonconformity become a disease? And how did Toronto become infamous for this? It's a textbook case of pathological science with roots in the 20th-century eugenics movement, and it shows how a few misguided people can have impact all over the world.

Read the whole post here

Over at Accepting Dad, the news is that there is a new study that has found supportive parenting practices to be good for the mental health of our gender variant children.

He says:

This is what I take from the study; I’m not a scientist and I can’t speak to the statistical analysis, I’m just looking at the text of the study itself:

1. Supportive parenting which acknowledges and accepts a child’s gender non-conformity is good for kids; even when this non-conformity leads to awkward social situations and various degrees of peer disapproval. Taking the good with the bad, supportive parenting is associated with better outcomes than suppressing these behaviors completely ‘for the child’s own good.’
2. Accepting and affirming a child’s impulses and deeply held feelings, while monitoring and limiting a child’s gender expression to lessen a communities negative response works well for the children in this sample.
3. Higher levels of pathology in the Netherlands sample does not invalidate early transition or hormone blocking but it suggests that early social transition and blocking is truly a last resort. Everyone knew this anyway, but for parents who are moving slowly and cautiously and feeling guilty about that, this study would seem to validate this approach.

Sounds good to me!

I hope that everyone is having a great summer. Here at AGA we've not been online much over the past month, but we're back now, and gearing up for 2010.

A few housekeeping matters:
- The Blog is now fully integrated into our website. You can see the new blog here. Remember to subscribe to the new RSS feed. This is the last post that will appear on the old feed!

- We're still in need of donations for our community space. We are unfunded, and run completely on volunteer time and donations. We have recieved a few small grants, and continue to apply for more, but we desperately need funds if we are to continue to grow. If you can afford to give, please do.

- Our end of year report from 2009 is available now. You can download it now if you'd like to see an overview of everything we have achieved in the last 12 months.

- Memberships are still open! If you would like to get involved in one of the fastest growing queer organisations in the ACT, check out our membership page for details.

I'm looking forward to seeing you soon, so remember to keep an eye on our Events page and we'll hear from you soon!

Cheers

Ryan

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.

This is my Speech

First of all, I'd like to acknowledge the Ngunnawal people, who are the traditional owners and custodians of the land we meet on today.

Every year, all over the world, thousands of transgendered people gather on the 20th of November to memorialise those of us who have fallen prey to violence in the last 12 months. Every year hundreds of transgendered people are the victims of hate crimes, and have their names added to the ever growing List of the Dead. Every year, hundreds more die unnamed, and are not remembered, because their status as gender diverse was unknown, or was never reported by the mainstream press.

There are segments of the transgendered community who are more vulnerable than others. As a middle-class, white, able bodied non-sex worker, living in one of the most affluent cities in Australia, I have a massive amount of privilege that keeps me safe from being attacked and slaughtered on the street or in my home. I acknowledge that privilege, and ask that everyone here please think for a moment about the structural oppressions that lead to the list of the dead being predominantly sex workers, and people of colour. We also recognise that the violence perpetuated against the most vulnerable members of our community is an expression of the same transphobia that all sex and gender diverse people experience every day.

One of the issues we face with gathering data is the underreporting of discrimination and violent crime against transgendered people. Both in the media, and the trans people themselves approaching authorities. However, there have been several studies of the health and well being of transgendered people that have provided us with invaluable insight into the situation of transgendered Australians.

Beyond Blue have pointed out that 90% of transgendered people have faced discrimination for being trans. A study conducted in 1994 found that 49% of transgendered people have been raped in their lifetime. One third of trans people face discrimination more than once a week. Even though trans people have above average education, most of our community subsist on an income of less than $25,000 a year due to employment discrimination. With statistics like that, Is it any wonder That more than half of us suffer from clinical depression? That the suicide rate of the trans population is 300 times that of the general population?

Thats right. THREE HUNDRED TIMES that of the general population.

We are not trash! We are not garbage! We are not alone! We are fierce, stronge, resilient, brave, proud and beautiful people. We are special, and loved when we are alive, and mourned by our friends and families when we are dead.

We know we're worth more than the systematic destruction of our lives would indicate. We deserve human rights. We deserve to be full and included citizens of this nation, and fully included members of our community.

We call on the ACT Government to change the legislation that discriminates against trans people, and makes them a target for transphobic attack every time they have to produce identity documents. We demand the right to equality and recognition before the law. We demand the right to privacy. These are basic rights recognised internationally, and supposedly enshrined in ACT Law in the Human Rights ACT. We demand access to marriage, and to civil partnerships. We demand effective anti-discrimination legislation.

We call on the police force to protect and defend the trans population of Australia. We demand that our deaths be investigated, and we be taken seriously when we are assaulted. We damand that we are not outed as trans to violent predators, as happened in NSW and Victoria last year, or laughed off as happened to A Gender Agenda members when reporting a violent crime, just this year!

We call on the medical establishment to stop discriminating against gay and lesbian trans people. To provide much needed medical care and sexual health care to transgendered people. To stop acting as gatekeepers, and start acting as the 'medical professionals' you are supposed to be.

We call on the Gay and Lesbian community to start including us as more than a letter on the end of an acronym, but as unique and valuable members of the community in our own right, and on the wider Australian community to open their hearts and minds to the trans people who are your children, parents, friends and coworkers.

Organisations like A Gender Agenda often feel like we are facing an insurmoutable task. Our to do list seems to get longer every day, and the number of people who have heard of us, and contact us requesting help keeps on growing. We call on the government to acknowledge and fund the valuable work that we perform.

The thing that makes our hard work so worthwhile is the strength and resilience displayed by our community. The support offered by organisations that sponsor our events, and help us hold fundraisers. The new friendships that are formed, the young people who will grow up strong, the older people who have finally embraced their life and decided to live to the fullest.

We rest assured in the knowledge that even if we never achieve the legislative changes we so desperately need, we'll have made a difference for a handful of people, and that the number of demoralised, disheartened, lonely, and depressed is reducing, and that the list of the dead is a few names shorter, because of us.