Coordinator'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.)

This year has again seen a number of significant developments and events for the transgender community in NSW. Some are detailed below.

The Gender Centre has undergone significant change, particularly in relation to staffing. Sean Taylor resigned as the Social & Support Worker in August 2000 after working at the centre for four years. Sean touched many people's lives during this time here and his efforts were greatly appreciated. He has moved on to new endeavours and we wish him the best for the future.

Craig George Andrews, the Resource Development Worker, also resigned on 21 May 2001, again after having been at the centre for about four years. During his time here Craig took Polare to a new standard of quality and presentation and developed our website, also to a very good standard.

While it is always sad to see workers move on, we were delighted to welcome Jack Powell as the Social & Support Worker in place of Sean, and Katherine Cummings as the Resource Development Worker in place of Craig. Jack, along with all the usual social and support activities, has added an employment emphasis to his role and Katherine, in a short space of time, is already stamping her individual qualities on Polare. We look forward to new and exciting enhancements to our service delivery with the blossoming of these roles.

Transman Exhibition

In February and March of this year the Stills Gallery in Paddington held a photographic exhibition. The work of three photographers was featured and two of these dealt with aspects of transgender lives. One, Photographer Tiet Ho, followed the lives of a group of transgender sex workers in Malaysia and carried clear messages of the discrimination that they encounter daily. The second, "Transman" by Photographer Ella Dreyfus, illustrated the surgical and spiritual journey of an FtM, our very own Gender Centre President, Col Eglington. The Gender Centre General Manager, Elizabeth Riley was honoured to be the guest speaker at the exhibition launch.

The opening night saw some 400 people in attendance and hundreds more would have seen the exhibition during the following weeks. The reception for the works on show was extremely positive and an opportunity was provided to draw the attention of the wider community to the lives and lifestyles of transgender people.

The Fifth International Conference on Sex and Gender

A reminder that the fifth international conference on sex and gender will be held in 2002 in Perth WA. The conference is being organised by the International Foundation for Androgynous Studies and will draw many speakers and participants from around the world. This is a great opportunity for transgender people from all over the world to meet, share ideas and learn about the issues as they exist around the world for our community. Stay tuned for details on the conference in the coming months.

The Transgender Working Party

The transgender working party under the auspices of the NSW Department of Women had it's final meeting in February this year, having successfully completed it's review of the Employer's Handbook aimed at achieving access to employment in the NSW public sector for transgender people. As reported last year the working party comprised permanent representatives from the Anti-Discrimination Board (ADB), The Office of the Director of Equal Opportunity in Public Employment (ODEOPE), The Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC), NSW Department of Education and Training (DET), the Department For Women (DFW), the Gender Centre, NSW Health, NSW Department of Corrective Services, NSW Police Service, NSW Department of Community Services and the NSW Public Sector Management Office.

On behalf of our community I would like to thank all the representatives on the working party for their efforts and commitment to social justice, access and equity for the transgender community. Their efforts are much appreciated. The working party remains on call should there be future issues needing to be addressed over which it may have some jurisdiction.

In the meantime, if you are transgender and wish to apply for a position with a NSW Public Sector agency, policy is now in place to ensure that you will not meet with discrimination in the process.

Employment Equity Specialists' Association (EESA)

The Gender Centre is now maintaining an active involvement with EESA to keep transgender on the agenda for EEO practitioners. Due to time constraints, the Gender Centre no longer has a representative on the executive of EESA but we continue to be ordinary members and will continue to attend meetings where issues being addressed are of relevance to us or where there are issues that we may wish to draw to their attention.

Through our work with EESA we seek to achieve strong support from the EEO practitioners in the public sector in advancing work opportunities for transgenders.

More on Employment

Part of the work being undertaken by the new Social & Support Worker is to further the employment prospects for members of the transgender community. To this end we have begun networking with employment agencies and are keen to work with transgender people interested in finding work. We have initiated some programs at the centre to help facilitate this project including programs designed to identify the types of work to which our people might be suited. We are also looking at running workshops with a 'getting a job' focus that would look at such issues as resume preparation, interview techniques and interview presentation skills. Interested people are invited to contact the Social & Support Worker at the centre.

NSW Police Service

The NSW Police Service is close to completing its policy in relation to transgender people. I reported on this in last years Annual Report which is an indication of how time consuming and complex policy development can be. We expect the policy to be implemented soon and will publish details in full in Polare as soon as possible. We expect this policy and it's implementation will go a long way to improving the relationship between the transgender community and the police in NSW.

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.