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Gender Dynamix in the news .... find out what others have to say about us
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If your child insists that he or she is the opposite gender and you need support to deal with the issue, Gender DynamiX has a monthly support group for parents of children with gender issues in Cape Town.
How does one integrate your child's behavior and certain sense of self within one's family and how does one protect your child from the extreme prejudices society has about transgender issue? Is this just a phase or is there some intervention a parent should make?
 Gender identity issues are often apparent in early childhood, when such a child may express behavior incongruent with and dissatisfaction related to his or her assigned gender. Many of these children experience rejection as a result of their differences and quickly attempt to repress them or develop self harming behaviors.
Families are most often at a loss about how to deal with a child who expresses gender in a non conventional way. There is intense shame attached to cross gender tendencies and very little support on how to deal with it.
On the last Tuesday evening of every month at 19h30 Gender DynamiX will host a support group for parents with gender variant children. This month it will be on Tuesday the 31st of August at the Saartjie Baartman Centre where Gender DynamiX is based.
Parents and guardians can come once or regularly and sessions are absolutely confidential.
Parents are welcome to just arrive, no booking is necessary and the group will always be there at the same time every month. For any enquiries call Caroline Bowley at 021 633-5287
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BISHOP DAVID RUSSELL VISITS GDX OFFICES
By Charl Marais
Anglican Bishop David Russell (Retired) recently visited the offices of Gender Dynamix , where he met with the staff and engaged in discussion which included the churches' attitude towards homosexual and transgendered persons, as well as the view on the prevailing mindset of society from the transgendered perspective.
Bishop Russell, well-known political activist and champion for LGBT rights, initiated the contact with Gender Dynamix, which is in line with his history of proactive intervention. Bishop Russell shared his experiences with political activism, especially his contribution to lobbying for gay rights and most recently , his involvement in Malawi after the sentencing and subsequent release of Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza earlier this year.
When the discussion turned towards religion, Bishop Russell described the Church as disapointingly dogmatic in its position on homosexuality and harsh and rejecting in it’s treatment of lbgt people. As a result, the vast majority of people who are gay or 'different' have become alienated and understandably negative in their attitude of the church.
“In South Africa where 85% of the population is Christian many gays en lesbian would have internalized the Church's rejection as well as the prevailing cultural rejection."
It creates an inner conflict when a relationship is viewed as a sin. This results in a level of self rejection which is destructive to any person. They are made to see that, something which is natural for them is somehow conflicting with their faith”
The churces attitudes which fosters such negative and rejecting attitudes is something which urgently needs adressing. An example of such an attitude is the highly questionale assumption that gays and lesbians are actually heterosexual persons who need to change and should be changed.
Gay activists are fighting for their rights as a human rights issue.
Bishop Russell believes that in addition to this we need to deal with these issues theologically. Where people suffer and are rejected they should rather be affirmed and accepted in the spirit and example of Jesus Christ.
“So we are all called to heal harmful and rejecting attitudes” he added.
The discussion expanded to include transgenderism. Robert Hamblin, Advocacy Manager at Gender Dynamix, offered a collective perspective. He said that transgender people are seen as a derivative or extreme form of homosexuality, yet many homosexuals see transgendered people as just pursuing heterosexuality and that is why they change their gender. In reality, transgendered people are transgender because they change their gender. "The first thing we teach people is to separate sexual preference and gender and this is a very hard struggle. But our biggest challenge is the assumptions about us and the exclusions that follow,” he said.
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In August the Navy asked Gender DynamiX to participate in their conference on gender equity. Various aspects of gender was explored to unpack complexities for employees in this traditionally masculine environment. Robert Hamblin spoke them about his own gender transition, which had taught him that society does not afford a person humanity when one’s gender cannot be read. He appealed to the audience to see gender as a powerful tool with which one could reach the most ideal aspects of being a human, spirituality, creativity, consciousness and the appreciation of beauty. The presentation was well received.
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Date: Thursday 05 August 2010.
Time: 09h30 to 12h00
Venue: Artscape Theatre Centre, Foreshore, Cape Town
Real Women, Real Beauty at Artscape Women's Festival - Gender DynamiX partner event
Through the camera lens, photographer Jodi Bieber confronts the notions of: ‘Real Beauty / Real Women’.Amongst other she has photographer transgender women in context of their lives. During this workshop there will be a discussion about the perceptions people have of what constitutes a real woman. Is it about what you do, about how you dress, who you love or what body you were born in? What is real beauty? Is it what the media tries to portray, is it just skin deep or is their more to real beauty than meets the eye? We will discuss the impact of these things on women and how these stereo types keep us from achieving our full potential. We will also turn the gaze to question what is the meaning of an ‘African woman’? Who is she? Who qualifies to be called woman... and who not and why? Other great women on the panel will be poet and media person Pamella Dlungwana and Professor Jane Bennett from the African Gender Institute at UCT.
Date: Friday 06 August 2010
Time: 09h00 to 12h00
Venue: Artscape Theatre Centre, Foreshore, Cape Town
Who is In, Who is Out?
Gender DynamiX will facilitate a dialogue discussion about access to shelters. Who is in? Who is out? aims to address the challenges of sheltering and prejudices around the matter. We aim to look at it from many angles, I.e. what are the challenges for the women and minorities who need to access shelters. What are the challenges for the shelters themselves, what are the funding challenges? The session will start with screening of “The bad side of the Paradise” a short documentary about hate crimes, setting the background on how many marginalized people are in situations of homelessness. Funeka Soldaat, grassroots activist and founder of Free Gender will speak about these challenges first hand. There will be further screening of stories of women who needed to make use of a shelter at some stage in their lives.
Liesl Theron, director of Gender DynamiX will share insight from interviews collected while she was researching access to shelters as experienced by LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex) people. The research was later published in a book by Jacana, called “A Tapestry of Human Sexuality in Africa”. Synnov Skorge, director of the Saartjie Baartman Centre for Women and Children who runs 2 shelters, will also speak about her experiences of running a short stay and a long stay shelter. Residents from the Saartjie Baartman Shelter will also be present and engage in the dialogue. We hope and aim to have interactive discussions and audience participation.
When: Saturday 7 August 14h00- 17h00
Where: Artscape Theatre Foyer, Artscape Theatre Centre, D F Malan Street, Foreshore, Cape Town
This is my Story:
Come onto a journey of experiences of various women and men who have challenged victimisation and gender discrimination in their own lives and the lives of their loved ones. Combined workshop by Sonke Gender Justice, Gender Dynamix, Wheat Women’s Fun, Zanele Muholi.
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Monday 2 August 2010
GDX board member Simone Heradien is the guest presenter every week on the radio show “Outpsoken” The show deals with LGBTI issues and Ms Heradien is there to keep the Transgender news high on the agenda! The programme will be aired at 21H00. Ways to listen: DSTV audio channel 169. AM channel 1485. Livelstreaming at http://www.1485.org.za (CAT). Podcasts available later in the week.
Tonight Simone will interview Christene Ehlers, the transgender woman who took her employer to court when she was fired after she anouncing her transition from male to female. Simone will also interview Liesl Theron Gender DynamiX director about this week's activities at Artscape Womens Festival.
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AIDS CONFERENCE TO FOCUS ON PREVENTION AND TREATMENT STRATEGIES
Caroline Bowley of Gender DynamiX will be attending the 18th International Conference on HIV/AIDS to be held in Vienna, Austria, which will take place from the 18th to 23rd of July this year. Although it’s main focus will be on Eastern Europe, prevention and treatment strategies in all other parts of the world will also be put under the spotlight. The conference will be co-chaired by Julio Montaner from Canada and Brigitte Schmied from Austria.
“The AIDS 2010 Conference Programme seeks to promote scientific excellence and inquiry, encourage individual and collective action, foster multisectoral dialogue and constructive debate, and reinforce accountability amongst all stakeholders,” the Programme Committee says on the AIDS 2010 website.
The programme includes sessions on the political costs of AIDS in Africa, global partnerships in AIDS vaccine research, conditional economic incentives for HIV prevention in the developing world, a new agenda for HIV prevention for young people, a human rights-based approach to prevention, the promise and perils of ARV-based prevention, the hidden crisis of HIV among street youth, optimising care for women and children to prevent paediatric HIV, and HIV-related stigma and discrimination.
A number of young people will also be at the conference to participate in a youth programme. The aim of the youth programme is to work to strengthen the participation of young people, and the profile of youth issues at the conference.
“Young people are greatly affected by AIDS. At least half of all new HIV infections in the world are among people under 25. Estimates show that more than 7,400 become infected with HIV daily, 3,300 of who are young people. Globally, 5.4 million young people are living with HIV of which 57.5% are young women under the age of 25,” AIDS 2010 says on its website (http://www.aids2010.org)
The 2010 Programme Committee, co-chaired by Diane Havlir from the United States, Robert Zangerle from Austria and Adeeba Kamarulzaman from Malaysia, is an international committee of experts and professionals with exceptional experience in their respective fields.
There will also be a session dealing with HIV/AIDS in the LGBTI as well as a discussion group on Transpolitics. Also of interest is an LGBT networking zone which will hopefully be created.
During the conference an international team of rapporteurs will prepare summaries of all sessions. Community leaders will also share their perspectives. Session reports and daily summaries in each track will be available online.
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