Manager's Report

by Phinn Borg

(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.)

Hello everyone. Things are moving at the Gender Centre. This edition of Polare is a special one as it's the first time that we have dedicated most of an edition of Polare to the F.T.M. community.

What's been happening at the Centre?

This month we had a visit from Rainbow Sky, the Thai equivalent to ACON.

They were visiting Sydney for Mardi Gras and requested an information-sharing visit from us. It was originally thought that there were going to be only two members from Rainbow Sky but in the end there were twenty including norrie from SWOP and Kooncha from ACON.

It was a big gathering and all the Gender Centre staff were on hand to give an overview of the services that we provide to clients as well as explaining the history of the Gender Centre.

This was an important opportunity for the Gender Centre to develop Asia--Pacific transgender networking and it was also a great opportunity for us to build partnerships at an international level. The day was a wonderful success.

This month saw the Gender Centre enter into negotiations with the Office of Community Housing for possible purchase of a new residential property.

If successful this will bring us back to three medium term residential houses.

The Women's Housing Company also offered the Gender Centre another exit property, which brings us up to five exit flats in total.

The Gender Centre and the Livingston Road Health Centre have made a submission to S.S.W.A.H. to conduct research into cervical cancer in the F.T.M. community and we are waiting to see if we were successful (see page 12).

The Prince of Wales Hospital has offered to run a speech pathology group for the Gender Centre for the F.T.M. community.

If you are interested in taking part in this group please contact the Centre as the group will only run if the numbers warrant it. Contact Liz on 9569 2366 or by email on casemanager@gendercentre.org.au .

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.