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You are on Saturday Magazine, Joy, 94.9, Macca and Fiona. Now who's our next guest fee? Well, we have a very exciting to have Son Vivian, CEO of TVG, that's transgender Victoria. And we're here to talk about an incredible event that you have coming up. Welcome to the studio for Trans Awareness Week, Son. Thank you very much. Yeah, it's been a big month and the week ahead is an even bigger one.
It's exciting. I was opening the opening of the MQFF the other night. And of course, the marvellous Sorese Howard reminded everyone that there is, we all might be sitting next to a trans person and we don't know. And there was some wonderful hilarity around that. It was just a really fun event. And such a stunning opening night film too. It was. It really was. He was there. Oh, it was amazing. I really had a great time.
So, tell us what's happening for Trans Awareness Week. Well, so as we know, historically, Trans Day of Remembrance falls on the 20th of November, so that's always been one of our kind of keystone points in the year. It's a very sombre event. It remembers and recognises the disproportionate amount of violence and stigma and discrimination targeted towards trans people.
Internationally we see a large number of trans women of colour in particular and we know that the numbers are not proportional to actually how many people die because we don't necessarily count people as trans when they die. In Australia, suicide is also a really large problem for community and something we work throughout the year in terms of advocacy and acceptance on.
So outside of that, we've got a lot of other things that we'd like to talk about about being trans. And some of those things are celebratory. We started the month with a gala, which was fantastic. You've already missed that one, so I probably won't tell you too much more about it. I certainly think that we talked about it on the show with you when you were here last. So that was a really delightful way of just empowering, recognising being together, really, and recognising our strength and our joy.
This week we've got a full suite of activities. I think there's something on every night. There's today we've got channeling the rage here at Victorian Pride Centre. So tell you a bit more about that. That's from 11 till 2. So when you leave here you'll be trying to channel my rage. So tell us about that and it's a public event. It is a public event. Right.
and I don't believe it's sold out so if you can get yourself here quickly then you'll be welcome to join us. It's not a 101 event I would say, this one is very much around acknowledging the intersections of trauma that we carry in our bodies and really looking at proactive and sustainable ways that we can either channel that or let go of that or
um, you know, find ways of being our, uh, activist selves that are, that are not routinely damaging and harmful and, you know, impact down mental health. So yeah, it's going to be a big day. Um, tomorrow we've got black and bold, which is a collaboration with Vaka and your community health over at Thornberry Bowls, which would be really lovely, you know, really, I guess, giving opportunity to celebrate the intersections of gender diversity and First Nations identities. That'll be fun.
That'll be fun, yes, and I think it's going to be less hot than today, so better for barefoot and standing in the weather to have fun bowling. We've got the Delightful 2GC hosting that as MC and DJ as well. They are fun. They are fun. I've been to a lot of events, but they're amazing.
Monday night, we've got trans men's health, which Harriet Sheng is going to be opening for us with Joe Ball, which will be an opportunity to really talk, you know, I identify as non-binary, so you know, where do I fit in the spectrum of trans men's health, for example. You know, I've also birthed two children, what does that mean about trans men's health?
So, yeah, good opportunity to really get into some of the nuance and detail there on our terms in terms of trans voices talking about the challenges that we've faced. And we've also got participants in that panel who represent disability as well as being a trans man who's a birth to child.
So that'll be fun. We have trans femme practice, a practitioner workshop on I think Thursday or Friday. And what else have we got coming up in the rest of the month? We finished the month with Picnic, which will be, yeah, just a lovely opportunity together with all allies and all of the organisations that support and work with trans communities as well.
Well, what, what an action pact. It is. It is. And where will the picnic be held? Oh, that's the one thing that I keep forgetting. You have to go to our website for that. That's a good, good thing. It's a part that starts with E. I think. But yeah, you can find all of the details on tjv.org.au. Now we've got a listeners question and I know
It's actually a little bit of a political question. So you can, you can love a political question. Press guy question for questions for your guest. What impact does the Trump Trump administration have the trans community in the USA? And now Laverne Cox said she's planning on either leaving the USA or moving to another state to feel safer. Yeah. Yeah.
you know, it's easy to chuckle at that. But we know from our friends and peers in the states that there are people actually actively getting their passports organized and preparing to move. Parents of trans children are often moving into state for safe school environments or safer school environments. But we actually saw a trans person elected to Congress.
There's two Americas, isn't there? There are, yeah. And even within states, there are... Absolutely. There's some interesting maps of how blue and red fall across. And I think last time I checked, there's a don't travel guide internationally for Texas and Florida.
In Texas, there's a $10,000 bounty for you dubbing me in for using the bathroom that is not the one that was my sex assigned at birth. So it's really, look, the thing is here. We might hope that it's a bit better and we might hope that some of that toxic vitriol doesn't end up coming out of the words of our leaders.
You know, just last weekend I gave an interview around Anti-velification speech and it's just you know, it's gobsmacking to realize that actually Trump is speaking and campaigning actively like they were $320 million or something I know advertising platforming anti-trans hate and you think you know, look I understand You know, I don't agree, but I understand people Let let's be charitable
a challenge by this discussion sometimes. But the amount of money that was spent and the content of some of those ads, I really wonder.
seriously about the sanity of some of these people. Like, it's really, because it's not logical. It's not logical. I sometimes just go, why do you care so much? Like, just get on with your life and let us have ours. You know, we see the ACL here actually have just started a letter drop campaign again across the country. Yesterday we had people sending in media, you know, grabs all. That's the Australian conspiracy league.
And as I like to always say, it's not all Christians, it's a very loud minority and they have the era of many people in power and you know the impact of those letter drops on gender diverse kids and families and you know the broader community on it, it's no wonder that we have a disproportionately high suicide rate and poor mental health and
you know, people don't want to go back to school or continuing education. If this happens in our workplaces, we get misgendered, then you don't want to go to work. So the trickle on effect is, yeah. It's really, son, it's why this month, but this week is so important. Why these events are so important? And it's actually so people
can take part, can contribute. And actually see, there isn't really anything to worry about here. And on a really positive note, we have, still have Australia's only minister for equality, who's of our community.
the commissioner for LGBTQI communities and trans men. Every speech they say how proud they are to identify as a trans man. And really that makes a difference. It is important for us to remember that, but not to forget or not to disregard the forces that are working against logic and against equality, isn't it?
And it's not new. I think that's the thing trans people have been around forever, and whether or not we've had legal rights is still very variable culturally. There's still a enormous amount of work to do, and legislation forms the basis of change.
generations to change people's views in some cases. But the legislation underpins that. Yeah, we need both. We need both protections. In that interview last week, it was really highlighting the social impact of legislative change, because if you are worried about what hate speech is, and you're talking about it, and you're thinking about how your words actually might cause harm,
Then you know, that's the piece that actually is more profound than whether or not it gets prosecuted. Hmm. Yeah, it's um Just to reiterate that yesterday. I was seeing on social media there was it Thursday the the images from when we got the legislation on marriage equality passed and just that flood of emotion important tier to my eye to remember that day because
You're right when those things happen we didn't actually believe it was going to happen you know we wanted to everyone thought it was going to happen but you can't have this since the granted and i was amazed how emotional i got just reliving that day and that day yeah remember we're broadcasting live we were and we didn't know. Which was the outcome so we're actually had.
the live feed from the ABC on air. Yeah, so emotional. Yeah, it was. So tell us a little bit about today, because a lot of people listening, they're out and about. There's the other events coming up during the week. So channeling the rage. Tell us about it. It goes from 11 till 2 at the Pride Center. Tell us what people can expect.
So we have a panel to start with that's about an hour and then we're really getting into deep kind of workshop territory after that. There's lunch which will be a nice little talking point and break in the middle. What we're really exploring is and we have five panelists across intersections of people of colour, disability, Arab identity,
Aboriginal, actually we're missing our beautiful Peter Wables Crow who's not going to be here with us today. But people who have experienced, I guess, multi-generational or different intersections, ways that we carry pain and, you know, anger, grief, all of the things in our bodies. And what we're really looking at, I guess, is the way we can unintentionally sometimes contribute to that milestone of
of pain and you know the discussions around Trump every time we get kind of sucked into that you might have noticed I got you know visibly more you know I sat up higher my heart started racing and so we do this every day of our working lives in terms of trans people who work in in health or in the you know gender diverse sector so how do we as peer workers manage to kind of carry that and acknowledge that let go of it
The work-life balance is not a thing. You don't stop being trans when you clock off. Those embodied...
pieces of self are things that we need to be really mindful of and really present to how we can either carry them or let them go or settle them in different ways. Because those those built-in stresses that are again laid on each day and sometimes we're so we come so used to them that we actually don't even recognize them for what they are.
So being able to remind the participants that are coming today on how to recognise, you don't even notice it half the time. So that could be incredibly beneficial. I think it will be a challenging kind of discussion because even thinking or talking about these things can be quite tricky. They're not comfortable things. We prefer to just pretend it's not here and make it go away.
Are you going to make recordings of all the sessions so that you can utilise these conversations ongoing and then share them? Yeah, we will be recording the panel. The workshop component will keep just private because I imagine there will be many private moments in that. Again, it's really encouraging people to monitor what they're comfortable to bring to the table and engage with.
Yeah, I hope that we'll also be using the Quiet Reflection Room here at the Pride Center, which is a lovely space just to take a deep breath and, you know, be yourself and, you know, think about how you're going to go into the day and be at peace with the world. We're out of time, Son. Thank you, Son. Thank you for coming in. I know it's a big day, you know, for you and for everyone at TGV and the guests. I encourage people to come along.
can't have it in a better place than the Pride Centre. And, you know, it's an important event as are the other events during the week. So thanks again. Thank you very much for having me. Cheers. Thank you, Simon. See you next month. Cheers. You are on Saturday magazine, July 94.9, with Macca and Fiona and Paul. When we come back, Mr. Kechel, editor of the conversation will join us. Stay with us. There's plenty more.
Thanks for listening to another Joy podcast brought to you by Australia's LGBTQIA Plus Community Media Organization. Joy, help us keep joy on air. Head to joy.org.au. Joy, a diverse sound for a diverse community.
