Me wearing a T-shirt given to me by my ex-fianceé the day before (one of a couple of presents for house sitting while she and her kids took a holiday).
Alison is a current WA state upper house pollie for The Greens who I met yonks ago when she was convenor or something of a special committee with the State School Teachers Union. I was no longer a member of SSTU at that time but, along with another trans person, I was a committee member of B-Legits, an SSTU advocacy group for LGBTI teachers within the education department. I recall a gay man on the committee didn’t want transgender and intersex people or issues included in any way; somehow Alison’s powers of diplomacy won the day.
I knew Louise around that time, too, through all the advocacy work myself and many others were doing to get law reform. Now a Senator in Canberra, in those days she was a WA state upper house member (MLC, like Alison is now), for the Labor Party. What a smart and good-hearted person she is! If she ever writes her biography that will indeed be an interesting read!
Louise went to the same high school as me here in Mundaring (many years after me), and Alison just told me her family were living in Mundaring when she was born. I spent most of my childhood here and since 2011 I’ve been house sitting all around the Shire (and now also boarding). So there must be something about the water or air up here.
Around that time (turn of the century) I was an office bearer of TransWest: The Transgender Association of WA and the International Foundation for Androgynous Studies (IFAS). Both were self funded groups. As part of my committee involvement I met many intersex people in person and a large number online. Through this and literature searches I learnt a lot about intersex variations and the many issues intersex people face. Along with others I introduced the word and concept of intersex to the members of the WA parliament. We were told none of them, not even the openly gay or lesbian members, had ever heard of intersex people.
Despite lots of intense effort by many people to get law reform for LGBTI people the progress was slow. Nevertheless, important groundwork was laid, such as educating politicians, bureaucrats and police (see the link below for the history of that activity).
Three giant mannequins: enby, man, woman.The fantastic duo on stage is Gypsy Lou.
Sarah, a bassoonist, was in the second choir I founded, called Girls, Guys & Others: The GGO Quire. Over a period of eleven months in 2001 the membership included eight intersex or male-born or female-born transgender or transsexual people, among a membership primarily of cisgender people (ie. non-trans persons). The quire’s repertoire ranged through pop music, ninth century organum, sixteenth century motets, negro spirituals, and music composed by Sarah and myself, two of three members with a composition degree.
Sarah now works for Living Proud, LGBTI Community Services of WA, formerly GLCS. Which reminds me I went to a 22-week volunteer telephone counselling course with GLCS in 2002, though I never did take up counselling. I was the first trans or non-cisgender person to complete the course.
Here’s a link to a big page about those days, including stuff about the GGO Quire, TransWest, IFAS and other LGBTI activities in WA. http://mixmargaret.com/watgtsintersex-history-western…
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