EXPLORING WHAT MAKES US MALE OR FEMALE

Article appeared in Polare 40, May 2001

On a frozen winter evening, Dr. Anne Fausto-Sterling, a professor of biology and women's studies at Brown University, sat in a restaurant nibbling on a snack and talking about her favourite subject: the application of ideas about gender roles to the formal study of biology ...

KYLIE: TATTOOED, LEATHER WEARING, MOTORBIKE RIDING, BUTCH BEAR AND MOST-OP M.T.F. TRANSSEXUAL

Article appeared in Polare 29, February 1999

Kylie describes herself as a tattooed, leather-wearing, motorbike-riding butch bear who is also a most-op M.T.F. transsexual. Each of these facets make the whole of who she is, yet as she explains, it was a case of not knowing exactly where she fitted into a gendered world ...

TAKING MATTERS INTO MY OWN HANDS

Article appeared in Polare 5, November 1994

Rather late in life I learnt by reading an article on transsexuals that I was not alone in rejecting my male identity. Having grown up being scornfully called a sissy, I thoroughly hated my male identity so much that I decided to get rid of my male appendages myself ...

APPEALS COURT RECOGNISES “SEX NON-SPECIFIC” ANNOTATION FOR BIRTH CERTIFICATES

Article appeared in Polare 96, July 2013

Emily Christie, a Pro Bono lawyer with DLA Piper, the firm of solicitors that represented Norrie explains the legalities of the recent momentous Appeals Court decision allowing recognition of a 'Sex Non-Specific' annotation for birth certificates in New South Wales ...

THEY JOINED THE WARRIORS ON THE WARPATH, BEHAVED LIKE WOMEN IN ATTENDING TO THE FOOD AND HAD MAGICAL POWERS OF HEALING

Article appeared in Polare 2, December 1993

North American Indian gender-crossers often held a high status within their tribes,treated as wise, sacred, holy and respected for their shamanism, nothing could be decided without their advice. However not all were treated with respect, some were outcast, others killed ... 

SOMEWHERE, JUST SOMEWHERE IN-BETWEEN

Article appeared in Polare 7, May 1995

Throughout his childhood, Nicky couldn't freely express his feelings to his parents who thought he was a tomboy like his sister. As his breasts began to develop and periods began, his obsessive compulsion to wash became worse, he became deeply depressed and moody ... 

INTRODUCING THE GENDER-QUEER SUPPORT GROUP

Article appeared in Polare 103, April 2015

Gender Centre Counsellor, Anthony Carlino explains the increase in young people confident enough to define themselves as transgender, to those seeking support for their gender-queer identities ...

THE VARIETY HUMAN SEXUAL REALITY

Article appeared in Polare 20, August 1997

Recent attempts to deny marriage to all but culturally defined males and females is doomed to failure because a binary system can never encompass the variety of human sexual realities with perhaps millions of XX males and XY females living in the United States today ...

Article appeared in Polare 22, February 1997

Once upon a time, a baby named X was born.This baby was named X so that nobody could tell whether it was a boy or a girl. Its parents knew, but couldn't tell anybody else, not even Baby X at first. You see, it was part of a Scientific Xperiment known as Project Baby X ...

NORRIE'S EVER EVOLVING UNDERSTANDING OF HIR GENDER IDENTITY

Article appeared in Polare 53, August 2003

Norrie had previously come to the conclusion that hir own (trans)gender situation was the result of circumstances of hir early childhood, but zie has recently been swayed to the opinion that it is the result of pre-natal or genetic circumstances, explains norrie ...

REPRESSION OF QUESTIONS ABOUT, BEHAVIOUR ASSOCIATED WITH, OR SELF-IDENTIFYING WITH A TRANSGENDER IDENTIFICATION

Article appeared in Polare 22, December 1997

Atype of child abuse that affects transgender people is Gender Identity Developmental Repressive Abuse. It forces children to repress questions about gender identity, cross-gendered play-acting and behaviour, or from self-identifying with a transgender identification ...

EVEN A SINGLE ACT CAN HAVE A MASSIVELY DETRIMENTAL EFFECT TO SOMEONE'S MENTAL HEALTH

Article appeared in Polare 93, October 2012

While bullying is often thought of as an experience most likely to be encountered by children and adolescents, it is also a reality in adult life for those unfortunate enough to encounter adult bullies. We know that bullies exist everywhere - in our school system, in universities and workplaces ...