Support Where?

by Country Queen

(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.)

Who said living in the Blue Mountains was or is boring? Well maybe people who think that and they live here should look beyond what goes on the surface. Then again, maybe people should go on believing Katoomba is boring. I wish I could forget what I know and go back to how I was living a year ago.

What support community based groups give to the gay community is great. We have a P.L.W.H.A. group and an H.I.V. / AIDS clinic which provides counselling and testing. However, people with gender issues have either very little or no support at all. I have recently been told that people with gender issues would be welcomed at the P.L.W.H.A. group, so would anyone else. Personally I would feel really uncomfortable because the whole group is mainly gay males and I have never really gotten on with all that many gay males.

At one point, I thought I found some support through counselling at a Community Centre in the Blue Mountains. I realised how wrong I was when on the second visit to the counsellor I decided to tell her I seriously thinking of going back on female hormones. Her reply was "you don't want to ruin your body like that". I told her where to go and left rather angrily.

I finally found support in two friends in December 1994. They didn't understand at first, but they realised that I don't change, only my appearance does. They now support my decision and back me 100%. However one person said that when I change my appearance, I shouldn't advertise the fact, I should do what a few other queens do. A lot of queens up here either don't go out, or when they do look at the ground. Be buggered if I'm going to be like them. I am proud of who and what I am. I'm going to walk down the street with my head high. If people don't like that, that's their problem.

However, if people want to bag me, for being me, I'll bag them back. I've always been like that. I'll never change either, as I'm not one to back down from an argument. It may never come, but I hope that one day there will be a group for transgender people in Katoomba. It would be nice to mingle with other sisters rather than a pack of Gays or Lesbians.

As for the opening paragraph, I'll leave that for your interpretation. See you soon.

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.