A Quality of Life Issue

by norrie mAy welby

(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.)

Indeed, many of us see ourselves as quite comfortable with our identity and note that any "troubles" others have with our identity are a result of their "gender issues".

Afew years ago, a few social workers declared the Gender Centre's target population to be "people with gender issues". This was done without consultation with the transgender community, as many things were in those days. But it was thought necessary because the Centre's services were for a broader group than just "transsexuals" and the term "transgender" was not commonly understood or legally defined.

Times change, however, and "transgender" is now a legally defined term and in popular use around the world as a term descriptive of the broad trans community that includes transsexual (pre-operative, post-operative or non-operative), intersexual, intergender, transvestite and other transfolk.

As a community, we have also become much more empow­ered and less comfortable with the idea that as transfolk, we are the ones with gender problem's or "gender issues". Indeed, many of us see ourselves as quite comfortable with our identity and note that any "troubles" others have with our identity are a result of their "gender issues".

It should also be noted that to those outside the transgender community "gender issues" is a term that refers to such things as equal pay and sexual harassment.

How then, should we address our "target population"? "Transgender" has been legally defined, yes, but that fact alone limits its application.

A transgender person in N.S.W. law only applies to someone who lives as a member of one sex or the other, and thus excludes people who identify in intergender ways. It also excludes people who may just be thinking of changing their gender, a group as needing of the Gender Centre resources as any. Perhaps a term that includes "transgender", but is obviously broader than the legal concept, and a term that does not see us as being always the ones with "problems" or "issues".

People with transgender qualities.

"Transgender" is the adjective, a descriptive rather than a defining (limiting) term.

"Transgender qualities" is interpreted liberally to include all those things we once meant by "gender issues". For example, it is a transgender quality to be questioning your gender identity, or have a partner or family member who is transgender, or to have changed your anatomical sexual topography.

A "quality" can of course be positive or negative or neutral. (For example, freezing is a quality of water.) And indeed, some people, particularly when they first approach the Gender Centre, may see their transgender quality (for example, uncertainty of gender) as a negative thing. Using the term "quality" does not negate their experience, but does (thanks to our positive cultural associations) suggest the possibility of transgender qualities being a good thing. "Qualities" invite more positive outcomes than the patho­logical diagnoses of "issues", which seem to invite a lot of wallowing and not a lot of movement.

Because I was sick of being told that as a transgender person I had "gender issues", I proposed the term "people with transgender qualities" to this year's Health in Differ­ence conference, which had a high proportion of transgender people from all over Australia actively concerned about our community's health, welfare and well-being.

This conference overwhelmingly voted to adopt the new community-coined term in favour of the old social-worker ­coined phrase.

We also discussed this issue at the Gender Centre's general meeting in April. The Gender Centre Coordinator suggested that if we adopt the new term, it would be useful to put "people with gender issues" in parentheses, in case other social workers are using the old terminology. I think this is a good idea, for it is useful for our community to use terms social workers understand.

However, I think the time has come for us to use for ourselves, as a term that describes ourselves, a term that allows our "transgenderness" may be an assert, or at best, not necessarily an "issue" that we poor things need help with.

As I said, "people with gender issues" was foisted on us without any broad community consultation. I'd like to see us a community consider the terms we want to be used to describe us. I am obviously in favour of "people with transgender qualities", for the reasons outlined above, but more importantly, I'd like us as a community to think about this and reach a decision.

That's why I raised the issue at the Health In Difference, and at the general meeting, and in this article, and why I'll be formally proposing an adoption of the term at the Annual General Meeting in September.

And while I'm at it, how about renaming the Gender Centre, the "Transgender Community Resources"?

This makes it clear that the Gender Centre is not the centre of authority in our community, but a set of resources for us as a community to make use of as best we collectively and individual decide to.

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.