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.)

The present Management Committee is halfway through its term in office and in looking back we have come a long way in a remarkable short time. When we came into the Gender Centre it and the community were driven by mistrust, conflict and confrontation. Our two day conference seems to have brought an end to a major disjunction that had existed between the previous Gender Centre management, the Centre's Project Manager and members of the T.L.C. Group. The conference was also effective in discussing a number of issues that concern us all at some stage or other, such as discrimination, sex reassignment surgery, terminology, drug use, sexual relations, health and employment.

People came to these workshops with differing opinions but common experiences, which is a basis for unification, and unity is what we all want, don't we? The trany community is such a small community compared to other oppressed groups, such as women, blacks, gays and lesbians, yet we seem to suffer with as much, if not greater, divisions within our ranks. These other communities are large enough to absorb division and dissent, from which may emerge quite positive sub-groups with their own agenda. Our oppression is deeper and more individualised than any of these and we need all our strength we can muster collectively to combat the sources of our oppression.

For us, as a community of oppressed people, division is self-destructive. To turn on one another, which a few of us seem hell bent on doing, is mass suicide. You can just imagine what our oppressors are saying when they see the kind of recent mendacious nonsense published in the gay press's Letters to the Editor, in the street sheets that have been abroad of late, and, more recently, stickers with hate and false messages on them. Those guilty of such activities are self-hating individuals who wish to drag our entire community down to their own level of low self-esteem. Unfortunately, such individuals are too full of their own self-doubts to be able to put the energy they expend spreading gossip and lies to positive use serving our community.

If you know individuals responsible for these odious actions you should remind them that if they want to take us back to the dark ages before sex reassignment operations, passports in our chosen gender, anti-discrimination and anti-vilification laws, and funding for trany specific services then they are going the right way about it.

Now to more pleasant matters. As you know, the present Management Committee was elected on a mandate to employ more tranys at the Gender Centre. Well, I am pleased to report that the majority of the staff are now tranys who are well trained to meet your needs and service our community with their individual professional expertise. There will be more jobs advertised in the future, so if you feel qualified in any of the positions offered send in your applications.

Lastly, the Management Committee is here to serve you the community. So, if you have any ideas, suggestions or criticisms put these in a letter addressed to the Management Committee, The Gender Centre Inc., and we will do our utmost to act on these.

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.