Gender Centre – seeking our place in the sun
ACON hosted a community forum on transphobia and related topics at its Commonwealth St venue on May 18. This made it one of the last functions to be held by ACON, as they will be moving to new quarters in the near future.
The meeting was monitored by Siri May and the panel of speakers included representatives from the Organisation Intersex International, Still Fierce, Twenty10, Wear It Purple, and the NSW Gender Centre.
A lot of ground was covered in a relatively short time, ranging from suicide prevention to trans-childcare to terminology. The recent gathering of the clans in Canberra was mentioned several times.
A lot of sense was spoken, and some less sensible views aired. To suggest that ‘homophobia’ is a relatively unknown word and that we should use some more easily assimilated words such as ‘heteronormative’ and ‘cisgender’ seemed to be pulling a long bow.
Apart from the fact that unless one has had a classical history education and knows that the Romans divided Gaul into cisalpine (this side of the Alps) and transalpine (the other side of the Alps), the prefix ‘cis’ is likely to evade anyone who is not a professional chemist or enrolled in gender studies where itis used.
It was generally agreed that the golden pathway to tolerance is by way of education in all forms and that, although great progress has been made in the past 40 years, there is still a long way to go.
My own feeling was, however, that despite the value of joining hands with other groups who have overlapping interests in the dismantling of discrimination and bigotry we were, nevertheless, preaching to the converted. More of our efforts should perhaps be concentrated on gaining access to politicians and senior public servants who will need to be convinced before significant changes are made to our social, legal and medical rights.
The fact that this would not be a fruitless exercise is demonstrated by the successful development of the Transgender Anti-Violence Project through the organised cooperation of advocacy groups (ICLC and the Gender Centre) and administratively powerful executive organisations such as the Sydney City Council and the NSW Police.
The presence of NSW Police Chief Superintendent Donna Adney, (who was active in the creation of TAVP) at the ACON-sponsored meeting suggests that we are on the brink of a new era of understanding and cooperation that can only be of benefit to our various communities as we seek our place in the sun.
info: Visit www.gendercentre.org.au or call 02 9569 2366.
By KATHERINE CUMMINGS, Gender Centre
