The Queers of Melbourne. (original) (raw)

Hi folks,

Just spreading the word re the newly formed Still Fierce Melbourne crew.

Cheers,

Ash

.................................................................................................

This is an introductory letter from Still Fierce! Melbourne, a newly formed collective of intersex, sex and/or gender diverse people and our allies and supporters. We are writing to you to say hi, and to let you know what projects and events we are working on and to invite you to participate in our collective or in our events, or both, or to voice our interest in networking with your organization!

Still Fierce Melbourne was formed a month or so ago, inspired by the work of Still Fierce Sydney, a similar collective. While we haven't fully established our manifesto we have established that we are an open collective, and that we are interested in working on political lobbing for ISGD rights at a national level, in creating stronger social and political networks for ISGD people and in doing consciousness raising work in the community about ISGD people and our experiences and issues. We have yet to establish the details of our relationship to Still fierce! Sydney, right now all that is in concrete is that we are using the same name and are supporting their list of demands for the rally in Canberra.

What is ISGD?

If you haven’t heard this acronym before, don’t worry, neither had most of us up to a year ago. It stands for Intersex, Sex and/or Gender Diverse. We decided as a group to use this new term instead
of transgender, transsexual, intersex, cross dressers etc etc because we are interested in moving away from the border wars that we have seen happen between different sex/gender diverse identity groups in the past, and to overcome the generational differences in what language people use
to describe themselves, and basically just to encompass all sex and gender diverse people when we are lobbying for rights, when we are talking about discrimination and when we are talking about our peers.

Here is a brief rundown of what we are working on right now:

The first major project we are working on is getting a 45 seater bus to take to a rally for ISGD rights in Canberra on the 11th of May. The tickets are on a sliding scale basis (starting from $20 to as much as each individual can afford). The bus will be leaving approximately around 1 am
on Friday morning and departing that evening after the rally and driving through the night to arrive back in Melbourne late that night. We will make the bus times public as soon as we know!

To confirm a seat on the bus or find out more information about the rally please email: stillfiercemelbourne@gmail.com

We have been meeting fortnightly but have yet to find a regular venue, so if you are interested in coming to our meetings (all welcome!) Email us at still-fierce-melbourne@googlegroups.com and we'll met you know the details!

We are very excited about networking with other trans/ ISGD groups in Melbourne and Victoria and learning more about what other groups are doing and exploring the possibilities of how we can work together!

We look forward to meeting you soon,

Much love,

Still Fierce Melbourne

To find out what’s going on and to stay in touch about events join the Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_195648087132139

Or to get involved in some of the behind the scenes stuff join the Still Fierce! Melbourne Google group:

http://groups.google.com/group/still-fierce-melbourne?hl=en

Details about the national Intersex, Sex and/or Gender Diverse Rally:

This is a video about the rally in Canberra on May 4th 2011:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BitN38AuKMc

The rally is supported by Still Fierce Sydney, Still Fierce Melbourne, and Sex And Gender Education Australia, Australian Health and Education Centre, Australian Federal Greens Party, Australian Socialists Alliance, Femme Guild Sydney, Scarlet Alliance, Equal Love Canberra, Young Lawyers Human Rights Committee (NSW), CRAVE Metropolitan Community Church (Sydney), Community Action Against Homophobia (CAAH), Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) Student Union Queer Department [RUSU Queer Department], The University of Melbourne Student Union Queer Department [UMSU Queer],
WA Gender Project, The Seahorse Society of NSW, University of Sydney Queer Students, National Union of Students [NUS]

Still Fierce and Allied Organizations are calling on the federal and state Governments to implement the recommendations of the 2009 Australian Human Rights Commission’s Sex Files Report, review inequalities in the law for ISGD people and to outlaw unethical medical practices forced on intersex
Children. We invite other groups to join us in rallying for the rights of ISGD groups of people and we are open to suggestions for further addition to our demands.

We are calling for equal rights for ISGD People; our Memorandum of Demands
follows:

1/ Implementation of the AHRC Sex Files (2009) recommendations

2/ Legal protection against enforced medical treatment of ISGD children

3/ Federal antidiscrimination laws protecting all ISGD people

4/ Full Medicare funding for medical and psychological procedures needed by any ISGD people

5/ Full Marriage rights for ISGD People.

6/ Enshrinement of the right to establish ones’ own sex and/or gender identity in federal law.

For more info on the Sex Files Report:

http://www.hreoc.gov.au/genderdiversity/sex_files2009.html

<3 Stay Fierce! <3

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