Adrian
Forum Replies Created
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Nice quote at the end:
Quote:“Prejudice is born out of ignorance, ignorance is born out of a lack of exposure.”Certainly the trend in the media is that more more of us are deciding that the risks of exposure aren’t as great as we feared and are outweighed by the benefits of increased public awareness.
Well done Nate!
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Jeanette wrote:Of course it does. Why else would we Girls want to change ???
Perhaps because we don’t change our gender.
I don’t think my gender has changed since I was a child.
All that has happened is that I’ve become more aware/understanding of it over the years.
Over time I’ve changed my presentation to be closer to my understanding of gender – something that helps produce the outcome of “it all feels so comfortable and natural”.If indeed it were true that gender changes… then we would have to ask what are the factors that cause the change. And if we knew how gender changes then it wouldn’t be long before someone would suggest “a cure”. Why encourage someone with gender dysphoria to change their presentation or sex when we can fix their gender instead?
No… I’m happy with a constant gender – keeps the shrinks and doctors at bay!
But I’m the only person who really understands my gender.
So there has to be a possibility it is just a figment of my imagination and it doesn’t actually exist. Real or imagined I’m very happy being “me”!! -
July 2014
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Two more ways to enhance your reputations!
I’ve extended the “Like” system from the forums so it now works on blog entries and the comments to blogs.
If you like a blog entry, or like someone’s comments on a blog entry then hit like.
That way the authors will get a bit more reputation.
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I posted this article about Riley, because the circumstances did not seem to point to a lack of public acceptance as the most significant contributory factor.
“Even though everyone showed support and called him Riley….”
“The request met little resistance at Bucks County Technical High School, which has other transgender or openly gay students.”
She felt supported by friends and family and that’s why this has shocked everyone.”This just doesn’t appear to be a case of a transgender running up to a brick wall and deciding to quit out of frustration.
So if Riley wasn’t lacking support and acceptance we have to go to perhaps more uncomfortable territory to understand why she felt life was not worth living. Uncomfortable, because the transgender suicide narrative does have an elephant (or two) hiding in the cupboard – there is much we don’t talk about, probably because we don’t understand. As the article states, “it’s a complicated and understudied issue, particularly among youths”.
I have yet to see any data showing a relationship between suicide, societal acceptance, and the steps taken to reconcile gender identity and physical body. The few suicides I am personally aware were of people who had gone a long way down the reconciliation track but who also found lacked acceptance and support. But maybe this is an atypical experience, because 41% of the transgender people I have met certainly haven’t given in. Maybe the 41% refers not to transgender people, but to individuals who present at a gender clinic seeking SRS? I just don’t know., but everyone else is very much flying under the statistical radar.
The article states that the issues facing transgender youths include a lack of support, being bullied, and having trouble finding a job. Its a familiar story no matter what your age, but Riley at 17 doesn’t seem to fit this pattern.
So I am left with a big question.
How could Riley’s life have been different so that the burden of being transgender became less overpowering?
It is possibly an uncomfortable question, made difficult by the sketchy details we have of her life. But the answer might challenge some of the assumptions we all share. -
I have to admit this proposition left me scratching my head.
The aim “to build community awareness” is a very important one, and I don’t want to devalue any genuine attempt to make progress in this area.
But….
Quote:We want to run a workshop for people exploring their gender. In this workshop people will learn makeup skills, clothing and presentationI’m trying to make the connection between a workshop for the sex and gender diverse community focusing on makeup skills and clothing, and the awareness of gender diversity in the wider community. Why do we need makeup skills just to present to the world in the way we are?
And even more puzzlingly
Quote:The second part of our project is to run a performance night. This performance night will focus on gender diversity as a theme. It will feature burlesque, slam poets, drag queens, drag kings and any number of other performers.I’ve obviously lead a bit of a sheltered life because I’ve never associated burlesque and drag acts as saying anything about gender. Slam poets… maybe if the poems have to be about gender. But is this an effective way of increasing gender awareness?
There is something about this project that doesn’t connect for me. So I won’t be donating.
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The first reputation block for members from the old website has expired.
So, your reputation will have gone down a 1/3.
Please don’t email me asking “Why has my reputation gone down?” -
Christina wrote:Maybe it’s all been said AA eh?
We could be getting close…but there are always new miracle cures for hair problems, new shops to try and report as “TG friendly”, and innumerable answers to the unanswerable questions of life. Let the posting resume!
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Just an update on the reputation system – after having watched the first two month’s activity.
The system is currently reporting an average of 0.53 points being awarded per person per day. If we wish the average reputation score to be about 50 – then the points will have to expire after 3 months, not two as we had proposed. I’ve adjusted the configuration, and the expiry times in the summary posting above. This will not apply retrospectively, but all your future earned points will last a bit longer.
And with the two month mark approaching, be aware that the first of the fixed reputation blocks that carried your reputation over from the web site will expire. This means that all members who came from the old web site will see their reputations fall a bit.
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Michelle_1 wrote:. If you are interested I can provide introductions to the manager and the best waiter.
MichelleThis is a moderated forum so please include in your post useful information like the restaurant name. The post has no value without that information.
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I’ve moved this thread to the moderated public HAIR forum.
This is a forum where members have in the past posted to threads about their personal experiences with laser / electro / epilation / whatever. If you want to share your experiences – go ahead – but please choose an appropriate thread.
Hopefully others will be able to share their experiences in this thread about the need to grow stubble as mentioned by Carol.
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I’m closing this thread off, it has wandered far from the original post, and for so long people have started to post twice!
But more importantly we must acknowledge that being transgender can involve wanting to be a male (whatever that might mean). And so making comments about masculinity being repulsive is close to attacking the valid life choices others make. This is an unmoderated forum but that doesn’t mean it is not subject to the Acceptable Conduct Policy. By locking the thread now hopefully I can deter others from exploring in this forum their negative attitudes towards men. -
Here is the transcript for future reference when it has gone from the ABC website
Quote:SARAH FERGUSON, PRESENTER: Finding your identity during your teenage years can be challenging at the best of times, but it’s especially hard for young transgender people, working out their sexual identity in the face of bullying and discrimination. New referrals at Australia’s only clinic for young transgender people have risen from one in 2003 to 60 so far this year and it’s struggling to cope with the rise in demand. Now, a group of young people are taking part in a program to help out others in their battle to be treated as normal. Monique Schafter has this report.CANON: Riding BMXs and wearing boys’ clothes and playing football were natural things to me and not liking girls’ toys or giving them back ’cause I didn’t like them seemed, like, perfectly natural.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER, REPORTER: Growing up, Cannon always liked boys’ stuff, but he was born biologically female and felt pressured to fit in.
CANON: I’ve had to wear dresses at school. I think as I progressed and got a little bit older, I waited for a time where I would be this other person, where I wouldn’t be a tomboy any more or I would just have grown into a woman of some kind.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER: After many years searching for his true identity, Canon accepted that he was a guy.
CANON: I think if we lived in a community and a society where everyone is valued, the forming of myself and my identity might’ve happened a bit quicker.
ASHLEY: I grew up in Canberra in suburban Canberra. I hid away my own gender.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER: Raised as a boy, Ashley knew from a young age that something was wrong.
ASHLEY: Yeah, I think I battled with that for a long time and I ended up using a lot of illicit drugs and doing that for a long time. I never felt empowered, self-empowered to go out and to really be proud of my identity.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER: When Ashley finally found the courage to express her femininity, she became the target of bullies.
ASHLEY: They would, um, sort of prank call me, they would come to my home and sort of harass me there and when I was just doing things like shopping, I would get called names, I would – I got spat at.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER: Canon and Ashley now want to help other young people like themselves. They’re part of a team developing resources that will make it easier for 15 to 25-year-olds who are questioning their gender to find support.
JEREMY WIGGINS, YOUTH WORKER: Maybe we’ll just go round the table. I’m Jeremy and I prefer male pronouns like he and him.
CANON: Canon. He.
MARLEE: Marlee. He.
ROBIN: Robin. She.
SIM: Sim. He or they.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER: The project is being led by youth worker and transgender man Jeremy Wiggins.
JEREMY WIGGINS: About eight per cent of the population could be identified as gender diverse. Now, the reason why we use that term loosely is because not everyone decides that they want to go down a route with medical transition, so they might not want to have hormones or surgery; they might just identify fluidly.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER: Raised as a girl, Jeremy physically transitioned to male in his 20s. He too had a tough time growing up.
JEREMY WIGGINS: I would’ve been, like, I guess a bit of a tomboy and I was really bullied at school, I was verbally bullied, physically attacked. At times there would be groups of guys even trying to run me off the road with their car. … Young people that are transgender diverse are 125 times more likely to attempt suicide than non-trans people. So that’s a really alarming statistic.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER: Victorian Minister for Health David Davis recognises something needs to be done.
DAVID DAVIS, VICTORIAN MINISTER FOR HEALTH: Poorer mental health and well-being is caused by stigma, bullying, rejection by family and friends and difficulties associated with transitioning. …
… It’s very clear that transgender people may well feel isolated and this brings people together. It’s an opportunity for people to make friendships and to make connections in a safe way in a way that will improve their health.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER: Marlee is one of the growing number of young people questioning their gender identity.
MARLEE: This project is really important to me because as a young trans person, I’ve experienced discrimination in school and out and about and I just feel like if more people know about how to be an ally and how to be effective in supporting trans people, the world would be a better place.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER: Marlee, who identifies as a he, was fortunate to have the support of his family from a young age.
MARLEE: I’m doing my final year of high school. So, that’s a pretty fun time. There wasn’t a lot of knowledge around gender diversity when I first started coming out.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER: And when did you start coming out?
MARLEE: I suppose officially maybe when I was 14. To my mum, maybe when I was 12. … My mum doesn’t care what I am – whether I’m a boy, whether I’m a girl, whether I’m a donkey, she doesn’t really mind; she just wants me to be happy.
MONIQUE SCHAFTER: The diagnosis used to describe people born in the wrong body is gender dysphoria. Victoria has seen an increase in the number of children seeking treatment.
JEREMY WIGGINS: Young transgender people under the age of 18 who wish to medically transition currently seek treatment through the Royal Children’s Hospital. And in 2013, the Royal Children’s Hospital saw the same number of young people in that one year than the previous 10 years combined. The Royal Children’s Hospital expects a 50 per cent increase by the end of 2014. …
… In the last couple of years I think there’s just been a really great change socially. There’s more acceptance. And we’re in this really interesting time now where there’s more people sort of accessing services and affirming their identity and right now we need to sort of build some support services around them. … This project could literally save people’s lives.
SARAH FERGUSON: Monique Schafter reporting.
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I’ve now closed this discussion as it has run its course.
As Sally says – this clearly is a question that can get your thinking tied in knots.
But it illustrates the premise that feeling like a woman” is a hard concept to communicate.If you want a new question to ponder…try this thread
http://forum.tgr.net.au/cms/forum/F157/5909-does-gender-realy-exist#25527