AusPATH, the Australian Professional Association for Trans Health is holding its conference in Fremantle today and tomorrow. The conference is an opportunity for health professionals to share the latest research outcomes and build strategies on how to deliver the best health outcomes for transgender people.
Addressing the delegates at the first day of the conference, President Michelle Telfer said the last few months has been a tough time for transgender people and for researchers who work in the field of transgender health.
“As our research starts to get published in high impact journals and Australian standards of care for both children, adolescents and adults are being described as the most progressive in the world, we feel the resistance that arises.
“The pushback that has come thick and fast through the conservative media over the last eleven weeks has been personal, and it’s been nasty.” Telfer said.
“Anything that is driven by fear and hate has to feel that way. Since early August this year we’ve seen article after article published in The Australian newspaper, not reporting the news, but spreading false and misleading information aimed to create and escalate fear, to progress a particular religious and political agenda.”
The national newspaper launched a dedicated ‘gender’ section on its website and has featured an almost daily article arguing against the current approaches to transgender health care.
The health professional quoted in the newspaper’s stories often carry statements from medical professionals who have no experience working in the field, or professional organisations that have just a handful of members and no public profile.
Telfer referred to a story that ran in the Saturday Paper that criticised the approach taking by The Australian, it said “They know this is going to hurt people, the cruelty is the point.”
The AusPATH President said there was one day in particular, ten days into The Australian newspaper’s campaign that was particularly hard.
“There was one day in particular, ten days after these transphobic newspapers articles started appearing across the country, where I cried for nearly an entire afternoon in my office. I cried as I made phone calls and while I typed email after email to people who are integral to our programs remaining funded and in existence.
“I felt the fear that is intended for us, the fear that everything has been built will be unjustifiably taken away. I did occur to me, is what I’m feeling a form of transference, is this the intensity of the fear we cause those who fear equality? Perhaps it is, and how excruciatingly awful, how unbearably unnecessary it all is.” Telfer said.
The AusPATH president said the sector has seen what great work could be done when professionals from different specialities worked together to create effective change.
“The trans community has been copping this hatred for years and years, for clinicians and researchers it’s new, and it’s really difficult to navigate in a professional context. It’s also unlikely to go away anytime soon, but now I feel, we are well and truly – in this together.”
Telfer said the sector should draw on their shared experience as a source of power.
“It is our power because together was can resist this unnecessary fear, this divisive hated, together we move closer and closer to equality.”
The carefully worded speech drew a massive round of applause and began the intensive conference which looks into a wide range of topics including mental health, surgery, counselling and developing effective information for clients and their families.
The AusPATH Conference continues today and through Saturday.
Graeme Watson
