Volunteers Needed in Wellington

Volunteers Needed in Wellington

We’re always up to something, and we’d love for you to join us as a volunteer!

We run monthly Raw Sugar sober socials at Newtown Community and Cultural Centre – a mobility accessible community lounge in Newtown. We also run other events throughout the year, or hold fund raising stalls at PRIDE and other community events.

We need folks to help with things like:
Help set up (tidying, set up food, etc).
Greet people as they arrive, bring them in.
Cook/bake/bring some finger food.
Plan a social game or activity.
Facilitate a game (eg. bingo, a word game, etc).
Bring tarot/manicure/another creative setup.
Help pack up (wash dishes, vacuum, tidying).
Something else we haven’t thought of!

We would really appreciate your support – if you have time and want to help out, please fill the form below.

Dec 15th Raw Sugar and End of Year Social

Dec 15th Raw Sugar and End of Year Social

This month on Sunday 15th December 2019:

  • Our volunteer and staff get together is from 2pm
  • Raw Sugar is on from 4pm, with kai downstairs till 5pm, and a film screening upstairs from 5pm till 7pm

Kei reira (location): Aunty Dana’s Op Shop, ground floor at 130 Riddiford Street, Newtown, Wellington, and upstairs level 1 The Gender Centre social space.
Homai (bring along): some kai to share for our end of year potluck
Waea mai (contact us on): genderminorities@gmail.com, 04) 385 0611

*Tatataapui * Trans * Intersex * Queer * Rainbow * Plus friends and whaanau*

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Raw sugar is a FREE event, a SOBER event, and has GENDER NEUTRAL BATHROOMS with hand rails. Aunty Dana’s is not currently wheelchair accessible, it is up two steps, it has a hand rail. The Gender Centre is up a lot of steps. We hate that too. One day we will get a ground floor situation going.

Raw sugar monthly sober social
Health Navigator Pages Up

Health Navigator Pages Up

We’re delighted to announce that Health Navigator pages for transgender patients and their healthcare providers, with co-design from GMA, are now live!

Below is an excerpt from one of the pages. Visit healthnavigator.org.nz for the full experience.


Understanding gender diversity

When you are born, you are assigned a sex – male, female or indeterminate – depending on the appearance of your external genitalia. You may feel that the sex you were assigned is correct. This is called being ‘cisgender’. You may feel that the sex you were assigned is incorrect. This is called being ‘transgender’.

Key points

  1. Gender identity refers to an innate sense of who you are. This may be the same as or different from the sex that was assigned to you at birth. How you choose to express your gender identity varies from person to person.
  2. Gender dysphoria is a term used to describe uncomfortable or distressing feelings that some people experience because the sex they were assigned at birth does not match their gender. Read more about gender dysphoria.
  3. If you are transgender, or experience gender dysphoria, you may want to take steps to be recognised as your gender, rather than the sex you were assigned at birth. These steps may include changing your name, wearing clothes that affirm your gender, taking hormones or having surgeries.
  4. Sexual orientation is different to gender. It refers to who you are attracted to and may be described as heterosexual/straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, takataapui or using other terms.
  5. Gender diversity is a term to cover the range of possible gender identities, such as female, male, transgender, intersex, non-binary and takatāapui.
  6. If you are unsure about your gender, or your child is unsure about theirs, there is support available to help you.

What is gender identity?

When you are born, you are assigned a sex – male, female, or indeterminate – depending on the appearance of your external genitalia. You may feel that the sex you were assigned is correct. This is called being ‘cisgender’. You may feel that the sex you were assigned is incorrect. This is called being ‘transgender’.

A transgender person may identify as a binary gender such as a transgender woman (who was assigned ‘male’ at birth) or a transgender man (who was assigned ‘female’ at birth). Or a transgender person may identify as a non-binary gender – this includes any gender that is not male or female.

‘Intersex’ is an umbrella term that refers to people born with one or more of a range of variations in sex characteristics that fall outside of traditional conceptions of male or female bodies. For example, intersex people may have variations in their chromosomes, genitals or internal organs like testes or ovaries. If a person has an intersex condition, they may be cisgender (agreeing with the sex they were assigned at birth) or transgender (not agreeing with the sex they were assigned at birth), or they may simply identify both their sex and gender as intersex. It is important to not make assumptions about this, but instead to let people define their own experiences.

What is gender diversity?

Gender diversity refers to a diversity of genders in addition to cisgender people.

Some people think of gender as a spectrum that includes female and male at either end and other genders in between. However, other people may think of male and female as two letters in an alphabet of other genders. Defining non-binary genders is like defining all the other letters of the alphabet, in every language. Genders are so many and varied across different cultures and throughout history.

Some people have a consistent gender throughout their life, and for other people their gender changes. Some of the words that people might use to define or describe their gender, include aikāne, akava’ine, fa’afafine, faa’atama, fakafifine, fakaleiti, genderqueer, intersex, māhū, non-binary, palopa, takatāpui, tangata ira tāne, trans, transgender, transsexual, and whakawahine.

What are some of the issues faced by people who are gender diverse?

As a population or demographic, trans people experience significantly higher rates of mental health issues compared with the general population, such as depression and suicidality.

Research shows that the disparity in mental health outcomes is a result of experiencing elevated levels of minority stress, due to discrimination in education, housing, healthcare, employment, access to goods and services, participation in public social life and input into policy and legislative decisions which affect their lives. These factors also create significant barriers to healthcare in general.

How can I support transgender people?

It depends on your relationship to them. For example, an employer has legal obligations to provide a safe workplace, a clinician has a legal obligation to provide safe and appropriate healthcare, and for whānau, support is more about accepting, respecting, learning and caring. If this is the beginning of your journey to support transgender people, there are many resources available to assist you in learning.

The first step in any case, is to use the name and pronoun (eg, she/her, he/him, they/them) that the transgender person is comfortable with, and to respect their privacy by not telling others unless they give consent


Visit Health Navigator here for their list of links, as well as other pages related to transgender health, links to regional pathways, and resources.

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Trans Awareness Week Photo Project – BYO Object to Photograph!

Trans Awareness Week Photo Project – BYO Object to Photograph!

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Te Papa says:

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!

Transgender Awareness Week 2019 Gala in Wellington!

Join Gender Minorities Aotearoa’s Youth Team as we celebrate Trans Awareness Week with a gala and host the Wellington launch of Counting Ourselves.

Filled with food, fun, and stalls featuring everything from handmade goods to zines to trans flag bunting, this event at the Newtown Community and Cultural Centre is family friendly and mobility accessible. Entry is FREE but donations are welcome.

Come along to have a good time and celebrate Wellington’s trans community.

To register as a stallholder or performer please see this link for more info.