AVP: an unmissable opportunity

ACON’s Anti-Violence Project (AVP) supports GLBT people affected by harassment, abuse and violence. We work to prevent violence and abuse from happening and contribute to building and maintaining safe community environments.

The newly established Transgender Anti-Violence Project (TAVP) at the Gender Centre is a welcome addition to this area of work and we congratulate TAVP on this exciting initiative.

Motivations behind violence directed at GLBT people, or those perceived to be, include homophobic or transphobic attitudes and beliefs. This is why the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO) is so important.

This year in Sydney, for the first time, IDAHO was the catalyst for a packed community forum focusing on transphobia within our communities.

The forum was an inspiring collaboration between community groups and organisations including the Gender Centre, Still Fierce and ACON. It included a panel of passionate speakers from Organisation Intersex International, the Gender Centre, Twenty10, Wear it Purple and Still Fierce.

The forum reminded us that the ability to create spaces for conversations and perspectives on sometimes difficult and delicate issues is incredibly important and essential to effectively addressing important community issues.

With initiatives like ACON’s This Is Oz campaign — www.thisisoz.com — offering online spaces which recognise and celebrate sexual and gender diversity in the broad Australian community, it’s good to remember that values of inclusion and difference are valid for our communities too — that homophobic and transphobic attitudes exist within our own GLBTIQ communities also.

Camp Betty — a Melbourne initiative, in Sydney for the first time over the June long weekend — is ‘a festival for the thinking queer’. It’s a series of workshops and community events. ACON’s AVP, the Inner City Legal Centre and community members are running a community discussion and workshop on violence, harassment and bullying.

Camp Betty offers an ideal place for revisiting discussions raised at the recent IDAHO forum and provides a great opportunity for exploring the issues further.

The Transgender Anti-Violence Project at the Gender Centre can be reached on 02 9569 2366. ACON’s Anti-Violence Project can be reached at [email protected] or 02 9206 2116 or on 1800 063 060. Report all violence to police. Police Assistance Line: 131 444, or in an emergency call 000.

For Camp Betty, visit http://2010.campbetty.org

info: Robert Knapman is AVP coordinator.