Zoe Belle Gender Centre

Five years ago a group of people got together to talk about the ongoing need for a gender centre in Melbourne. That place would become known as the Zoe Belle Gender Centre (ZBGC). While an actual centre is still yet to be established, the ZBGC, for all intents and purposes, is up and running. Rachel Cook spoke with Andrea Waling, Gem de Marco and Tom Cho about what the ZBGC does, their plans for the future and the issues facing those in the sex and gender diverse (SGD) community.

Image: Left to right Gem de Marco, Tom Cho

How and why did the Zoe Belle Gender Centre begin?

Tom: The goal of establishing a community centre for Victoria’s SGD population has been nurtured within the local trans community since at least the 1980s, particularly by transgender groups such as Seahorse Victoria. ZBGC is the most recent and most sustained attempt to establish such a centre.

ZBGC emerged after a forum on transgender healthcare at Camp Betty, a festival of radical sex and politics that was held in 2007 in Melbourne. After the forum, a group of local activists met to discuss establishing a gender centre for Victoria. This group became the Zoe Belle Gender Centre Working Group.

Zoe Belle was an important figure in the GLBTIQ community, can you tell us a bit about Zoe and why the centre was named after her?

Tom: Zoe Belle was one of the original members of this group of activists that began working to establish a gender centre in Victoria. Zoe was not only passionate about transgender activism. She supported LGB rights, women’s rights, and many other social causes. She was also known for her volunteer work for Midsumma and Melbourne Fringe.

Zoe was funny, geeky and passionate about – well, practically everything! However, in 2008, much to the sadness of all who knew her, she took her own life. Zoe very clearly saw the need for a gender centre. Around the time that she passed away, we didn’t have a name for our envisioned gender centre and it seemed so right that this centre be named after her.

How did you all come to be involved in the Working Group and why did you get involved?

Andrea: I had done previous work with the sex and gender diverse (SGD) community in Ottawa, Canada during my undergraduate education between 2008 and 2010. I did research and development for a gender centre in Ottawa on SGD issues as part of a transaction initiative program. When I moved to Australia to pursue postgraduate study in gender studies, I got in touch with ZBGC about volunteering opportunities and expressed interest in joining the working group. I’ve only been with the group a few months but I’ve loved every moment of it. I got involved because I feel that it’s an important issue that needs as much support as it can get.

Gem: During my employment with The {also} Foundation I met quite a few individuals who were SGD, as well as a few members of ZBGC. From talking to them I became really excited about the idea of a physical gender centre as well as establishing support for the SGD community in Melbourne. My interest in the SGD community however is also a personal journey that ZBGC has also been a part of, so you could say it is also about a passion.

Tom: I was one of the original group of activists who came along to a 2007 meeting to discuss establishing a gender centre in Victoria. There shouldn’t be such inequities in support for trans people. It’s a problem that shouldn’t exist. I’m involved with ZBGC because establishing a community-directed gender centre is so vital in addressing this problem in Victoria.

You were awarded funding as part of a $4.5 million package for the GLBTI community. ZBGC will receive non-recurrent funding of $146,000 over four years. What will that money allow you to do?
 
Andrea: ZBGC’s youth project aims to reduce and prevent the high rates of self-harm and suicide among young people who are SGD and/or gender questioning. Our ZBGC Youth Project Officer will develop training and educational resources to up-skill Victorian health providers and agencies to educate them on SGD issues. By addressing the lack of knowledge and awareness about SGD, and advocating for more emotional and physical support for this community, we hope to reduce and prevent self-harm and suicide among young SGD people by increasing their access to the information and support they need. The youth project is funded by the Victorian Department of Health and it is auspiced by Western Region Health Centre.

I notice one of the main resources you provide is linking people up with reputable and ethical doctors; how hard is it for people who are SGD to negotiate the medical profession? What are some of the obstacles they face?

Gem: SGD individuals are seeking a health professional who respects them and recognises the role they as practitioners play in ensuring SGD people have equal access to the same health services as other members of our community. Among the listings in ZBGC's online Resources Directory, we include details of medical and mental health professionals who are known to respect the dignity of SGD individuals, hopefully making it that little bit easier for individuals to find someone who can help them.

It is hard to know individuals’ obstacles in seeking and obtaining professional medical help, however some of the anecdotal evidence includes SGD people avoiding or delaying seeking health services due to actual or perceived transphobia and/or lack of knowledge about transgender health and wellbeing. An obstacle we face as an organisation, and that SGD-friendly professionals perhaps face too, is finding and providing more services to the Victorian SGD community as it grows. We already have a few key referrals for SGD people to contact, however these services and professionals are few and sometimes have lengthy waiting periods.

It took a long time for the federal government to make the necessary passport changes which allow transgender and intersex people to travel without being unnecessarily ‘outed’ at airport security, and now there are concerns about the new full body scanners that may also out transgender and intersex people. Can you explain what the concerns are and how you think these concerns need to be addressed?

Andrea: Some of the concerns expressed by SGD people include the fear of being ‘outed’ due to these body scanners, and the consequences that may follow, including being perceived as a ‘threat’ based on identity discrepancy and any harassment that may occur. Some SGD people have reported very concerning experiences of fear and humiliation when questioned about their gender identity. Something as simple as using a chest binder can and has been perceived as a potential threat by airport security. Training is needed to educate both policy makers and on-the-ground security staff about SGD issues. Corresponding measures must be taken to address the concerns of SGD people and ensure not only safe, but non-humiliating and non-invasive security measures for all.

What is the most vulnerable time for people who may be transitioning, what sorts of issues can arise and what ongoing support do they need?

Andrea: Vulnerable times for individuals transitioning can vary from one individual to the other and are reliant on the social environment they find themselves in, so we cannot say that there is one timeframe that renders the individual at their most vulnerable.

A SGD person can be vulnerable at all stages of their life. SGD individuals face issues that are both basic and complex, such as access to public washrooms, facing discrimination in many areas of social life, education, economy labour force, housing and the threat of violence due to social stigma of residing in a hetereonormative society. SGD people need a holistic approach concerning support. Among their needs, SGD people should have access to emotional and physical support from their community, healthcare providers that are knowledgeable about SGD health, education, and appropriate housing.

Some people in the SGD community feel sidelined by the gay and lesbian community - is the more mainstream gay and lesbian community getting any better at being inclusive?

Tom: Since its inception, ZBGC has received strong support from some key organisations and individuals in the gay and lesbian community. We’ve run meetings and some of our events at facilities provided by The {also} Foundation. In 2009, we received a grant from Gay and Lesbian Organisation of Business and Enterprise. Some gay and lesbian organisations are also listed in our online Resources Directory. Such support has been encouraging and it may well reflect a growing interest from those not immediately within the SGD community in engaging with SGD issues.

Nonetheless, much work still needs to be done to ensure that SGD issues aren’t sidelined as an adjunct to “same-sex” issues. Furthermore, it’s important to recognise that SGD people, too, can identify as gay and/or lesbian.  

Can you explain the differences between TransGender Victoria and the ZBGC and how you work together?

Gem: The strength of TransGender Victoria (TGV) is in their lobbying and advocacy, especially in legislative reform and work with government and community groups in all aspects of human rights for the SGD community. ZBGC focuses on providing services directly to SGD people or secondarily via other agencies.

TGV and ZBGC share an objective of establishing and operating a gender centre that directly provides services to Victoria’s SGD community. We draw on our respective strengths to achieve this purpose and we’ve formalised our relationship with a MOU [Memorandum of Understanding].

I know there is limited research into how many people are gender diverse, but do you have any estimates?

Tom: We actually have a fact sheet on our website about how many people in Victoria are SGD. It’s difficult to quantify because SGD people aren’t easily identified or defined.

Drawing on a range of different studies, we prefer to provide three estimated ranges, based on different definitions of sex and gender diverse:

•    Narrow Definition (people who transition legally and medically): 1 in 11,900 trans women and 1 in 30,400 trans men = 466 trans women and 182 trans men or 648 Victorians in total
•    Broader Definitions (people who seek treatment for gender dysphoria but who may not medically transition): 0.24% – 2% of the population = between 13,310 – 110,918 Victorians
•    Broadest Definition (including all people who are gender diverse but who may not identify as transgender or medically transition): 8.4% of the population = 465,858 Victorians.
 
These estimates are presented here without the detail – for example, the studies that we based these definitions on, and other important factors – so we recommend people visit our website to get the full story!

From your website I saw this, ‘A more recent paper published in 2010 by the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society at La Trobe University in Melbourne cites a statistic that 1 in 11,900 adults transition from male-to-female and 1 in 30,400 adults transition from female-to-male’, do we know why so many more people transition from male to female (MTF) than female to male (FTM)?

Gem: There are perhaps a few reasons why more people transition from male-to-female than female-to–male, some of which may depend on the individual and some may depend on the definition of 'transition’ that ARCSHS ad Latrobe University were using.

For some people, transition involves genital surgeries. Genital surgical procedures are generally considered to be better developed for MTF people than FTM people. Some transmen forego genital surgery for this reason. So, if a definition of ‘transition’ involved undergoing genital surgery, this may partly account for the statistical difference.

However, it’s also important to recognise that, for other SGD people, ‘transition’ or simply ‘living out’ their gender identity might mean taking hormones, some surgery perhaps or maybe no surgery or no hormones at all. Also, many SGD people are unable to bear all of the costs of medical transition which, depending on one’s preferences and needs, can be upwards of $15,000.

It has been stated that the numbers of people going through the Southern Health Gender Dysphoria Clinic for MTF and FTM surgeries are roughly equal.

It has also been estimated that the suicide rate for sex and gender diverse individuals (particularly transgender people) is around 125 times that of the general Australian population; this is an alarming statistic, what work is being done by governmental agencies to address these concerns?

Gem: As has been mentioned, ZBGC was one of seven recipients of a $4.5 million package from the Baillieu Government to address suicide and self harm among LGBTI young people. In receiving $146,000 of this package, ZBGC became what is believed to be the first Victorian transgender organisation to receive government funding.

Some of the other money from the package will be dedicated to providing some additional, smaller grants to other groups. This is being done through the HEY! grants program, and it will hopefully result in further funded activities to prevent suicide and self-harm among SGD and gender questioning young people.

In addition, the Ministerial Advisory Committee on Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Health and Wellbeing is being re-established, which will be a further vehicle for addressing the needs of SGD people, including the rest of the adult SGD community.

Can anyone become involved with the ZBGC, and what’s the best way to go about it?

Andrea: ZBGC offers both casual volunteer opportunities and, where vacancies are available, the ongoing commitment of joining the ZBGC Working Group. The best approach is to visit our website to learn more about us and to email us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it about your interests and availability.

For more information: gendercentre.com