Editorial

by Katherine Cummings

(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.)

There seems to be more to write about than usual, this time around.

The Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Fair has come and gone and there has been a lively discussion of the appropriateness of T in G.L.B.T. The situation of married couples, one of whom transitions but both of whom wish to stay married, has been clarified. We have also been made aware of the problems of same sex couples who will in future (after July 1) be seen as having a relationship similar to hetero couples, resulting in a reduced income for those on pensions, or receiving the benefits of the Commonwealth Seniors' Health Card.

In fact there has been so much going on that some interesting and useful material will need to be deferred to the July-September issue. A paper by Catherine Wilson which she gave on transgendered women at a women's conference will need to be held over, and presented in two or possibly three parts, in order not to overload one issue with a single topic, and several other regular items have been dropped from this issue to make way for new topics.

But first, a Christmas story. Christmas, I hear you mutter, what planet and time of year is she on and in? Well, the January - March Polare had to be rushed out before Christmas, as there were time-sensitive items which needed to be sent out before the end of the year. So the story of the Gender Centre Christmas Party could not be told until now. What was different about it? Two things. First, it was held at the Joseph Sergeant Community Centre in Erskineville, not at the Centre itself, and second, the clientele who attended did something I have not heard of in the time I have been around ... they formally recognised the work of Rusty Nannup and her colleague, Cindy Edwards, who had organised the food, drink and venue. Rusty is one of the Living Treasures of the Gender Centre. She is our front-line, as Reception, and copes with all kinds of visitors, sane and insane, incursions, alarums and things that go bump in the night. And she does it nicely, gently, politely and with good humour. She is also one of those (as is Liz Ceissman, another treasure) who look after the Wednesday night drop-ins, which make for long days and all the pleasures of a kitchen clean-up when everyone else has gone home. But at Christmas, Rusty felt all her care and hard work was appreciated when those attending spontaneously gave Rusty and Cindy a standing ovation, and thanked them making Christmas a time of good cheer and warm friendship for all. Rusty, your colleagues at the Gender Centre also appreciate all you do and the grace and efficiency with which you do it.

To deal with some of the other events I foreshadowed ...

The Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras Fair was held on a windy, rain swept day but still attracted the Usual Suspects.

The Gender Centre shared a booth with the Inner City Legal Centre and formed an enclave with Centrelink and the Police as our neighbours. I was disappointed with the smaller numbers of booths overall and felt that the Fair as a whole was more commercial than it used to be. I wonder if this is true of Mardi Gras as a whole? Is there less spontaneity in order to make more spondulicks?

There were still sporting groups, clubs and organisations in evidence but there was no evidence of the "garage-sale" type booths which used to front up to sell whatever they didn't need in order to fund a good cause. I used to bring an empty back pack to the Fair and go home with a swag of second-hand books, DVDs and videos, but the only things on sale this year were mass-produced commercially ... t-shirts, jewellery, posters, food and so on, the less interesting substrata of every suburban market. I have been told the Mardi Gras Market in Surry Hills was more fun, but I didn't get to it. The weather was not conducive to bringing many passers-by to the Gender Centre booth either, despite our handing out candy and balloons as if they were going out of style. Maybe they have gone out of style.

Undoubtedly the most exciting event for the Gender Centre during Mardi Gras was The Great Debate on the topic of whether the T still belongs in G.L.B.T. The genesis for this debate was a mini-forum held at the Gender Centre where we tried to find out what the main concerns of the Gender Centre clientele might be.

Two major concerns came out of the mini-forum. One was the need to do something to help people gain, and retain employment, of which more later. The other was the growing feeling that transgender is confused too much in the public mind with sexuality and that in our own interest we should try and stand on our own feet.

Liz Ceissman organised a debate at the Sydney Mechanics' School of Arts in the City and two teams of fine minds were recruited to argue the toss. I will not deal with the event further as I have received material on the debate and its results from Tracie O'Keefe, who was one of the debaters, from Phinn, the Manager of the Gender Centre and from Liz Ceissman, our Case Management Worker and general organisational genius.

Suffice to say I was impressed by the venue, by the numbers who turned up and participated and by the calibre of the arguments ... and I don't impress easily, stranger.

I would, however, like to put my point of view on the question under debate (not for the first time). It seems to me that there is a good argument for separation. There are matters we have in common with the Gay, lesbian and Bisexual armies of the night, including, but not limited to, inheritance, next-of-kin status, same-sex marriage, superannuation rights and so on. On matters such as these we should be prepared to support the G.L.B. movement and stand shoulder to shoulder with them. This does not suggest, of course, that we need to identify with them even in the informal sense of endorsing the G.L.B.T. acronym, any more than we need to identify in any formal way with asylum seekers, single parents or victims of domestic violence in order to support them against bureaucratic lack of compassion and populist prejudice.

There are also areas where our needs diverge from those of the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual communities, where we need to make the running and be prepared to defend a point of view. Typical of these areas are the right to self-define, the right to have surgery or not, as we choose, and the right to have our documentation (birth certificates, naturalisation, passports, driving licences, degrees, diplomas, credit cards, etc.) amended to reflect our new names and newly affirmed gender roles. These are matters which do not concern Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual people in any way and they are not obliged to help us in our struggles for common sense and a fair go. Many of them will support us, and for that help we should be grateful, but it is not a right we can assert with any realistic hope of automatic acceptance.

There will also, regrettably, be times when Gay, Lesbian or Bisexual people turn out to be the enemy. There is, for instance, the recalcitrant attitude of some feminists who refuse to admit transgender women to their functions, and take refuge in bad spelling to restrict their spaces, meetings and festivals to those who are "womyn born womyn". I wonder how they classify F.T.M.s? Are they "men born womyn" or can they still be admitted as "womyn born womyn" despite their beards, male-pattern baldness and masculine voices? I wonder how they treat women born with syndromes such as C.A.I.S. which often result in a very feminine soma despite a full complement of XY chromosomes? Are they "womyn born men"? This silliness is something we must resist when we encounter it or we will find, once more, that there are times when we are denied access to spaces on both sides of the gender border, and consigned to an intermediate limbo born of prejudice, ignorance and stupidity.

And now to employment. One of the problems common to many transgenders is finding employment, or holding employment after transition. The unemployment rate for transgenders in Australia is at least twice the national average and may be much higher. The Gender Centre intends to make courses available in résumé writing and interview techniques. We also hope to speak to some of the larger employers to try and persuade them to earmark positions for transgender employees, just as positions are set aside for Aborigines and other disadvantaged sectors of the nation. Watch this space!

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.