Our 2020 calendar ‘The Moon is Trans’ is available for a limited time, so order now to get yours in January.
Complete with astrological seasons and lunar phases for Aotearoa, as well as national and regional holidays, important dates for trans folks, and a little bit of history.
Here is a sneak preview – featuring our diversity posters, as well as new designs.
You can pay by online bank transfer, and use the reference ”calendar”. Take a screenshot or photo of the payment, and email it to us with your details. Include the name and address to post it to. They cost $30 each, plus $3.50 post.
Our bank account details are:
Kiwibank
Gender Minorities Aotearoa
38-9018-0529990-00
”Trans people from their teens to their 70s were asked to identify objects of personal importance and to share the objects’ stories. What emerged was a quirky collection that is a testament to the diversity of trans experiences, and which disrupts established (and cis-written) narratives about trans lives.”
We are so grateful to Project Coordinator Will Hansen, and the team from Te Papa, for their enthusiasm and vision.
This is an event for anyone of any age who identifies as trans or otherwise gender diverse, including intersex, takatāpui, transgender, transsexual, and non-binary people. We encourage you to bring along an object of personal significance to yourself (regardless of whether you think it “counts” as trans history!). If you need inspiration, check out our inspiration at The Museum of Transology (link is external).
Bring along an object that is significant to you as well as the object’s story (50-200 words). We will photograph your objects and on Sun 17 Nov host a show-and-tell where everyone can gather together and share their stories. Finally, the photographs and objects’ stories will be published on our website.
Copyright
We take copyright very seriously! We will have someone onsite during the photography days to talk about any copyright issues that might arise from this project. Because we are photographing your objects and collecting your written stories, we need to ensure we are meeting our copyright obligations.
If you have your object selected prior to the day, we’d love if you could flick through a photo of that object via email to publicprogrammes@tepapa.govt.nz (link sends e-mail) so we can check on the copyright status beforehand.
For more info, or to attend the photographing session at Te Papa, please see their website here.
GMA says:
Your significant object could be hormones, a binder, a bra, a hairpiece, or it could be the blanket you wrapped yourself in that one time, or that Marina and the Diamonds CD that’s always on at The Gender Centre! It might be your dog’s leash, or the earrings that always feel amazing, or your fave spice that reminds you of home. It could be Anything that’s important to you. You can also write a description of it and why it’s important if you want to. 200 words is about three times as long as this paragraph. Come make history together!
Today we recognise women being discriminated against in employment, or due to their line of work, doing gendered labour, doing the same work as men and having that work valued less, being paid less, having less decision making power.
The women whose work is often stigmatised, or seen as less; the sex workers, the stay home caregivers, the women doing unpaid work in their communities.
Employment discrimination is especially common for indigenous women, neurodiverse and disabled women, women experiencing fatphobia, migrant women, and especially those who are also transgender women.
Discrimination against minority women is discrimination against women.
He waka eke noa, we all belong in this waka. Feminists leave no one behind in the fight against gender inequity.
The trans communities are warmly invited by the author, Caren Wilton, to attend the launch of her book My Body, My Business – New Zealand Sex Workers in an Era of Change.
The book is based on oral history interviews, and is full of colourfully told personal stories from 11 sex workers in Aotearoa NZ, including 4 trans sex workers.
Caren, on behalf of the late Dana de Milo, whose story is featured in the book, is donating a portion of every book sale to Gender Minorities Aotearoa.
The launch is at Unity Books 57 Willis St, Wellington, 6pm on Thursday 29 November. Nau mai haere mai, all welcome. RSVP to publicity@otago.ac.nz by November 27th.
My Body, My Business will also be available from Unity bookstores in Auckland and Wellington, university bookstores, Whitcoulls, and some Paper Plus, as well as online sales from Unity Books Online.
Transgender Awareness Week runs from November 12th – 20th, it’s purpose is to raise awareness about trans people, including intersex and non-binary people, our lives, our humanity, our struggles, and our joys. It ends with TDoR, Transgender Day of Remembrance, on November 20th – a day to remember the trans people around the world who have been lost to murder. It is also a day to affirm our resolution to fight for the living, and to end all stigma, discrimination, and violence against trans people.
This Transgender Awareness Week, we have a simple message for Aotearoa New Zealand: Trans people exist, and that’s a positive thing.
Thanks to our friends at RainbowYOUTH, OUTLineNZ, and Like Minds, Like Mine, our transgender diversity posters are up in Whangarei, Auckland, Tauranga, Rotorua, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin this week.
Invercargill and Hamilton can also expect to see them on November 18th.
Big shout out to trans folks in smaller cities, towns, and rural areas – let’s work together to make sure every local community embraces us fully and gives us the opportunities, respect, and love we deserve.