Co-Ordinator's Report

by Elizabeth Riley

(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.)

Annual General Meeting

The A.G.M. is coming up on September 30th. However, since only members will receive copies of the Annual Report, I thought it might be appropriate to reprint the preamble to the Annual Report as my report for this edition of Polare. Apart from the regular services provided through The Gender Centre the preamble outlines some of the other initiatives that The Gender Centre has been heavily involved with over the 1998/99 year and may be of interest to non members and others who receive our magazine.

A Year of Significant Development for The Gender Centre

A number of new and ongoing initiatives/events have occurred during the year that The Gender Centre is pleased to report on:

The Third International Conference on Sex and Gender

This conference was held at Oxford University's Exeter College in September of 1998. The conference was attended by representatives from many countries around the world and provided an enormous opportunity for exchanging information and gaining awareness of the disparity of rights experienced by transgender people in different countries. It remains one of the significant challenges to the transgender community worldwide that such disparities exist and that our rights as individuals in traveling to different countries can be seriously compromised. In this alone we do not enjoy equity with the majority of Australian citizens.

Having said that I am pleased to report that transgender people living in N.S.W. arguably enjoy the most advanced recognition of rights anywhere in the world. These achievements have been hard won and we all need to protect them diligently.

The conference saw many presenters delivering interesting, informative and exciting papers and produced a wonderful cross fertilisation of ideas and philosophies. Australia boasted a strong contingent of representatives from The Gender Centre, S.W.O.P., The Intersex Society and The Western Australian Foundation for Androgynous Studies. The Gender Centre and The International Foundation for Androgynous Studies are collaborating to host the Fifth International Conference to be held in Sydney in 2002. We will keep you informed.

The Transgender Working Party

The Transgender Working Party under the auspice of The Department for Women is continuing its work to facilitate social justice and equity for the transgender community. As reported last year The Working Party comprises permanent representatives from the Anti-Discrimination Board (A.D.B.), The Office of the Director of Equal Opportunity in Public Employment (O.D.E.O.P.E.), The Health Care Complaints Commission (H.C.C.C.), N.S.W. Department of Education and Training (N.S.W. D.E.T.), The Department for Women (D.F.W.) and The Gender Centre. Other government departments now represented are, N.S.W. Health, Department of Corrective Services and N.S.W. Police Service. The Working Party continues to address, and devise strategies for dealing with the many issues facing transgender people in their everyday lives. The Working Party has now adopted a policy of focusing on key issues and addressing these sequentially. Some of the issues that may be on the agenda in future include employment, health and safety, public awareness campaigns, human rights, access and equity and G.R.S. I continue to be optimistic that in time the efforts of the Working Party will improve conditions for all transgender people.

Workplace Transitions

The Gender Centre has delivered training to employer groups where an employee has decided to transition on the job. In general these have proved very successful and the employee's transition has proceeded smoothly. Transgender entry into employment still remains problematic and we are working closely with the Employment Equity Specialists Association (E.E.S.A.), to try and address some of these issues. A two day conference is being held in November of the coming year and transgender issues feature prominently on the program. Employment remains a major issue for the transgender community and it is an area The Gender Centre is committed to improving.

N.S.W. D.E.T.

Sustained training has been conducted through the N.S.W. Department of Education and Training. The Gender Centre has provided training to teachers, student counsellors and students within the system on transgender issues and gender in general. Particularly exciting has been the production of a video with them - "Valuing Diversity".

The video dealt with a range of subjects around the question of diversity and featured a transgender component. The video, along with a training package, is intended for distribution across all N.S.W. government schools, approximately 2,400 of them in all. We hope that this will create a greater awareness of diversity, and a capacity to value difference, in our future generations.

Transgender Prison's Policy

We have continued to work closely with Corrective Services to ensure the effective implementation of the Transgender Prison's Policy. The policy was implemented on October 23, 1998 and training on the policy was subsequently delivered to key personnel. The policy allows that transgender people be granted accommodation in the gaols of their gender identity.

While the policy has had some teething problems the spirit of the policy is welcomed by the transgender community as a major step forward in human rights and transgender recognition. The policy is due for review in the near future and we hope to be able to solve the problems that have arisen.

N.S.W. Police Service

A committee was recently set up to develop a policy on police treatment of transgender people. Details of the policy are not yet available but we are confident that once implemented transgender people will enjoy better and more respectful relations with members of the police service. We will publish the policy in full in Polare when it is finalised so that all transgender people can be made aware of their rights.

Hunter Area Health Service

We have been working closely with the H.A.H.S. over recent months to assist in the development of a policy in regard to facilitating appropriate medical care to members of the transgender community accessing health services in the Hunter area. The policy involves issues around access and equity, medical records, respectful treatment in the recognition of a transgender persons chosen identity, treatment of intersex infants, counselling for transgenders and their families and so on. It is hoped that once the policy is effected it will become a model for other area health services across the state.

Women's Services

There has been strong debate over the last year around access rights of transgender women to women only services. The Anti-Discrimination Board reports that in this year they have delivered more training on transgender discrimination to women's services than to any other organisations.

Many women's organisations have worked to develop policy around this issue and the outcome has ranged from total acceptance into the service from some organisations to acceptance only if one is post operative. I have been in a number of situations where women from fully accepting services have championed the transgender cause with women from services that limit access to post operative transgenders only and I think this is very encouraging. Just a matter of time perhaps.

Summary

The long term significance of the above, and other ongoing initiatives, will be to change cultural attitudes towards transgender people and create an environment where we can expect the same levels of respect and dignity that the majority of people take for granted. This paragraph appeared in the last Annual Report and I repeat it here because it has continued relevance.

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.