President's Report

by Roberta Perkins

(The Gender Centre advise that this article may not be current and as such certain content, including but not limited to persons, contact details and dates may not apply. Where legal authority or medical related matters are cited, responsibility lies with the reader to obtain the most current relevant legal authority and/or medical publication.)

This is the first of many of my reports to you in the trany community. I intend keeping you informed of events from the inside and let you know what we, the new Management Committee, is on about. Firstly, though, I think it right and proper to introduce you to the elected members of the Committee, beginning with me, Roberta Perkins, as its President, followed by the Vice-President, Rochelle Evans, the Secretary, Nadine Stransen, the Assistant Secretary, Sharon Stolzenberg, the Treasurer, Kymberleigh Kovan, and Ordinary Members, Jean Noble and Max Zebra-Thyone. We hope to serve you well in the twelve months we will be in office.

I'm sorry to begin our first communication on a negative note, but I'm sure you haven't failed to notice the factionising, backstabbing and slandering that is dividing our community at present. After some years of being distant from the trany community I was shocked and dismayed at the extent of hatred and spite that exists between trany groups and individuals. I would have expected the community to have matured somewhat from the childish mud-slinging of 20 years ago when it was fragmented by its rejection by the gay community and feeling unloved and unwanted. In those days the chief antagonists were the showgirls versus the street girls. Then it evolved into the pre-ops versus the post-operatives in the 80's, and now it seems to be fractured almost beyond repair into various factions based on ideological and political differences, and just simply good old fashioned individual bitchiness. When are we going to grow up and learn to debate our political differences like responsible people striving for co-operation and compromise instead of resorting to the kind of gutter tactics being displayed at the moment? When are we going to realise that we have no one else for support but each other and that the real enemy is out there beyond our community? That enemy must laughing its head off at our antics and no doubt there are those who are sniggering to one another: "There, I told you so, they're all mad!" Next we will have one of those conservative ministers raising the issue in parliament: "Take away their funding. They are too divided for the Gender Centre to do any good. Close it down!" Then, we will be exactly back where we were 15 years ago: alone, despised, misunderstood and discredited.

Right! Let's stop the nonsense now and show some unity and nurturance, for God knows nobody else will.

This Committee and the staff at the Gender Centre are going to make it our major objective to develop a self-determining supportive trany community over the next few months. We want to see elitism and snobbery based on appearance, occupation and/or intellectualism eradicated and for the community to work together, learn from each other regard­less of where you come from, or whether you are employed or unemployed, whether you have a tertiary degree or not, whether you pass well in public or not, or whether you have had a genital operation or not. But we can't do any of this without your help. The staff in particular are pretty well battered by the last 12 months of in-fighting, and now the new Management Committee is coming under fire even before we show our colours. We now need your help and support to combat bigotry and prejudice based on hearsay and vicious rumours.

The first step is to write in and express your views in Polare as your open forum. But, be warned we will not print slander, bitchiness nor unsubstantiated comments about identifiable persons or groups. Send that sort of shit to the gutter press which seems to revel in our divisiveness. We would like to see healthy debates and communication that will dispel misconceptions, not create rumours.

The second step will be a public seminar which will be well controlled by professional facilitators where you can come and have your say, make accusations if you will, but be prepared for those you accuse to reply. We will present various topics which will be dealt with in a debate forum of questions and answers and workshops where everyone will be invited to speak out on issues that most concern them. We plan to hold this in January, and we invite you all to participate by speaking frankly and openly but also listen to what others have to say. So, let's clear the air once and for all and begin anew as the united community we should have always been supporting one another trying to survive in a basically trany unfriendly society.

Polare is published in Australia by The Gender Centre Inc. which is funded by the Department of Community Services under the S.A.A.P. Program and supported by the N.S.W. Health Department through the AIDS and Infectious Diseases Branch. Polare provides a forum for discussion and debate on gender issues. Advertisers are advised that all advertising is their responsibility under the Trade Practices Act. Unsolicited contributions are welcome, though no guarantee is made by the Editor that they will be published, nor any discussion entered into. The editor reserves the right to edit such contributions without notification. Any submission which appears in Polare may be published on our internet site. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor, The Gender Centre Inc.I, the Department of Community Services or the N.S.W. Department of Health.