Craig and myself attended the 5th
International congress of sex and gender in
Perth 24-27 October 2002. It was fantastic.
We stayed with Felicity Haynes, the
co-convenor of IFAS and one of the organisers of
the conference in her amazing 4-5 bedroom house
with a spa. So we talked sex and gender with all
of the other people, staying up into the nights
and early mornings.
The conference was great. I attended keynote
presentations from people all over the world.
Professor Milton Diamond presented his
information on the John/Joan case. John/Joan
(David Riemer) was the case of a young boy who
has his penis burnt off during circumcision and
was then raised as a girl. You may have seen a
interview with David on 60 Minutes.
Milton then spoke about treatment of intersex
people and the work that he has done around the
world. Milton was interested and extremely
supportive of FTM Australia and would like to
stay informed on FTM Australia and what is
happening here in Australia.
Tony Briffa spoke about intersex people in
Australia and his own personal journey. This was
an incredibly powerful presentation and it
certainly increased my knowledge of intersex
issues. I spent some time talking with Tony
after the conference and feel that my knowledge
of intersex conditions has increased. So thanks
Tony for the chats.
Stephen Whittle opened the conference and
spoke about the Law and Gender Diverse people.
It was great to see Stephen again, unfortunately
he couldn't come across to Sydney before flying
back to England. James Green spoke about
effective transgender education. This was a very
practical presentation and will certainly help
me any of the education that I continue to
do.
Craig presented information about setting up
FTM Australia. He talked about the ideas,
commitment and struggles of running a network,
unfortunately I didn't attend this presentation
as there were others happening at the same
time.
I gave a paper on mental health and
transgender people, this went well and all the
participants in the workshop were enthusiastic
and gained some knowledge to take away.
There were many other presentations that I
attended throughout the 4 days and hopefully we
will be able to get copies of some of the papers
and publish them sporadically through the future
issues of Torque.
On returning to Sydney, we attended the
Health in Difference Conference (HiD4) at
Sydney University. Again, there were attending
keynote speakers from all over the world. One of
the most powerful was the opening speech from
Amber Hollibaugh.
Amber is an amazing woman from American who
has written several books, made films and spent
many, many years as an activist in GLBT
communities. Hopefully we will be able to get
some of her writing to publish in Torque.
I spoke on Mental Health and transgender
people again. James Green spoke several times
throughout the conference and we also did a
panel presentation.
Alex, James Green, Craig and myself did a
panel on our experiences. This panel went really
well and it brought us into contact with several
new important people.
It has take a couple of weeks to settle down
and for life to go back to normal. I had a great
time and met many exciting people form all over
the world, so I am staring to save my money for
the next conference.
The 6th International Congress on Sex and
Gender will be in Manchester, England in
2004.
Cheers Jack
Board Member FTM Australia
