Trans action group takes shape
A new Australian trans health action group based in Queensland held its first meeting in Brisbane last week to discuss anxiety and depression problems linked to gender identity issues.
Organiser Melody Moore said she wanted to establish the action group to launch a nationwide media campaign to lobby the federal Government to reform Medicare to cover costs of life-saving
medical treatments and surgery for trans, sex and gender diverse Australians.
“Urgent action is needed because there are trans people in Australia living with extremely high levels of anxiety and depression who are driven by the despair and desperation of not being able to get funding to access surgical and medical treatments, and often end up harming themselves or turning to suicide,” Moore said.
“These issues often get swept under the rug and many of them eventually end up on disability support, like me.”
Moore, who works with the Cairns Transgender Support Group, also hopes the group can tackle misconceptions about gender reassignment surgery.
“There is a belief … that medical services and surgical procedures for transsexuals are cosmetic surgery for a lifestyle we choose, but the truth is these services are essential to the health and wellbeing of a trans person,” she explained.
Moore has been using her own story to help inform others of the realities of trans individuals in Queensland.
Having survived two suicide attempts, she was put on a disability support pension as the result of anxiety and depression as she continued to repress her gender issues until 2010.
She said she feared coming out because of the intolerance she witnessed in South East Queensland during the 1960s and 1970s.
Now two years into her transition at the age of 49, she said she is struggling to find funds to pay for her sex reassignment surgery.
“I don’t have a mental illness, however, I suffer from the same non-psychotic mental health issues as a direct result of having gender identity disorder,” she said.
“But there are many more trans Australians who have no choice but to rely on Centrelink for welfare payments that barely cover their living costs.”
INFO: Contact the Australian Trans Health Action Group at [email protected]
You May Also Like
Do not listen to Melody Moore’s input no further. It is a sham and an attention seeking, self grandisizing serial and has attempted to manipulate the major gay press for a long time. Enough is enough with the damage to transgender issues.
Sally obviously you have no concept of the difficulties I did faced trying to repress my gender issues and conform to societies expectations. Unless you have walked a mile in my shoes – who are you really to judge me?
Give me a job and I will gladly work for my money, but that has been easier said than done, especially when you have severe anxiety keeping you up all night like this that stands in the way of me being to hold down any sort of a regular job. But that is OK, I am quite use to it now after being this way for the best part of my life.
So I wonder how much more longer the government is going to be willing to keep paying for my long term suffering and palliative care? Over about 20 years the taxpayer will have shelled out around about a million dollars to ensure I suffer longer.
So maybe you and our government would rather I take my own life yeah?
Why would a post-op trans* woman want to see a group that is trying to work within the current guidelines with the current government subsidized health system fail? Why would she want pre-operative transwomen be unrepresented even more than they are now? I think this person is part of the TG umbrella and is shocked that someone other than the TG borg is willing to stand up and do something/anything to lessen the suffering of other trans women who aren’t fortunate as she was to be able to afford the costs of transition and find suitable reparative surgery in a timely and cost effective manner. I thought SRS was part of the cure under the current standards of care but obviously it isn’t for some people.
What a load of rubbish! Shelley Argent is not leading this group, she is only a spokesperson, the community itself runs this group and we will not allow anyone else to disrupt the group’s agenda.
Jade Wren was invited to our group, but we found out she has an controversial interpersonal/political agenda that just causes arguments and disputes, so therefore she has been banned from being part of our organisation because these issues are not part of our agenda at this point in time.
DRAFT ONLY – currently under development
TransCare – Australia (QLD) has the sole objective of improving the heath and well being of transsexual, transgender & gender diverse people in Queensland and Australia. Our aims are:
1. to build a national media campaign that will promote more education and awareness to the general public about health & well being of trans people.
2. to identify key issues that affect the health & well being of the trans community, such as anxiety & depression, self harm, genital mutilation & suicide, and to explore the best options to address these health issues.
3. to collect & share information about trans health & well being to support our sister groups in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia & the Northern Territory. Our aim to establish groups in all states of Australia.
4. to build better relationships & understanding between the trans community & service providers such as doctors, psychologists, psychiatrist & other NGOs.
5. to keep lobbying federal and state governments for reforms to healthcare systems that can satisfactorily address important health issues as per the WPATH Standards of Care & the Human Rights Commission recommendations
6. to appoint the most effective spokespeople to act for the trans community to act on our behalf with both state and federal government officials & the media.
It is unfortunate that the SSO is out of contact with the real trans* community that it publishes this as being an important statement from the Trans* community. When in reality it is a minority view that supports the continued pathologisation model and that trans*people are disordered. Time for the real Trans* Community to speak out and be heard. This is not a step forward rather a further marginalisation of the key issues impacting on Trans*people.
This health action group does damage to the broader trans movement. It is founded on separatist values and excludes and erases the issues of many trans people. There was no consultation with community, nor community input.
The group is being spearheaded by Shelley Argent, who, while being an influential GLB activist, has no experience with trans issues.
Access to surgery is only one of many issues trans people face and is not the only issue causing mental health issues and suicide. The trans health action group fails to take into account intersections of oppression such as race, class, ability etc. It also fails to account for the impact structures of oppression such as misogny, trans misogyny and cissexism.
The group seeks to secure a small area of health care for a small group of privileged trans people, while excluding and marginalising other trans people.
Now two years into her transition at the age of 49, she said she is struggling to find funds to pay for her sex reassignment surgery.
Interesting she spent 47 years as a male person and is begging for money for surgery, sorry but this doesn’t seem right as many others out there have been waiting for years and you put this story up and others out there have committed suicide so where is there story, this is revolting.
Enough talking about trans health, it is time for action!