Getting a Facelift (the blog, not me.)

On my way back from Vacation I decided that I was going to change my blog and have decided to move to a WordPress blog on my own hosting.

Having never touched WordPress before there is a bit of a learning curve, but it is coming together fairly nicely so far.

A new look for the blog will be coming soon…

Thoughts About Moving Forward

I’m on my way back to Ottawa and thinking about how I will be moving forward. I had wanted to do some of this while on vacation, but got sick for a few days with a nasty cold that still isn’t fully gone.
For my education I will be enrolling at St. Paul’s University so that I can complete my undergrad degree and move forward on that path. Politically I will be reaching out to others in the community, try and find out what, if any, organization has already been done and move forward from there with that knowledge.
I will also be looking at getting involved with one of the major political parties, most likely NDP or Liberal. Green might be a possibility, but in our first past the post system there is no reasonable chance that they will be able to elect a member near where I live.

Some of the more pressing issues that I see are:

  1. Human rights legislation, both federally and provincially.
    Bill C389 died in the Senate when the federal election was called and new legislation needs to be introduced in parliament.
    Provincially, a bill to amend the Ontario Human Rights code is on the back burner. The city of Ottawa already has this in place as does Toronto.
  2. Access to care.
    Currently there is one psychologist and one very part time psychiatrist in Ottawa. Many regions of the province do not have anyone who can provide care. The province of Ontario does fund SRS, but one has to go through CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) in Toronto. This can be difficult to impossible for people, travel to Toronto plus acommodation can be quite expensive, return trip by VIA Rail from Ottawa to Toronto, with early purchase is almost $160.
  3. Public education.
    This is an ongoing struggle and is a continuous process. I educate whenever I can one-on-one and there are a number of people I know in Ottawa who are very actively working to educate, provide seminars at colleges and universities etc.
    Transgender people still have problems with washroom access in many places – one friend in Texas was told she had to use the men’s room at work until she has full SRS. In other places people are being beaten up for using the washroom.
  4. Abuse, depression and suicide.
    Many transgender people suffer from depression, are abused by partners and families, and a very high percentage seriously consider suicide and many take that step and do kill themselves. Support is needed to help these people move forward and live their lives to the fullest.

I’m sure there are many other areas I haven’t mentioned here. I will be continuing to update my blog as issues arise. I will also be expanding on these points in the days and weeks ahead.

I am always willing to chat with people who are genuinely interested in learning, or who are struggling with their own challenges. There is a link to my IRC Channel in the sidebar of the blog. If I’m not there or don’t respond try back, I’m usually on IRC when I’m online.

Talia.

Becoming more active politically

While I’ve been in Toronto this week I’ve been giving some thought to a number of things, processing and relaxing.

One decision I have made is that I am going to get more actively politically. I am now at a point where I have some energy for it. My transition is going well, no real problems – life is moving along fairly well.

Many people who transition decide to go ‘stealth’. This means that the person completely leaves behind any references to their birth gender and prior life. Often moving to another city where nobody will know who they are. A fresh start.

Prior to applying for jobs I had a decision to make, about this blog, and how open I wanted to be. Did I want to keep the blog, hide the blog, delete the blog. Hide other references and posts I’ve made since starting transition. Or what. In the end I decided that I would not try to be ‘stealth’ with those. If a prospective employer were to do a search on Google for me, they would find my blog. If I don’t get hired because of a problem with it, do I really want to work there?

Over the past month or two I’ve also been thinking about political activity. I haven’t been active much, part of that has been lack of energy, part of it concern about CAMH and reports I’ve heard from a few people about them using political activism as an excuse to deny SRS to people transitioning. I have decided not to let fear of CAMH dictate my actions.

Monday was a great panel discussion on ‘trans rights’ and the work that still needs to be done in Canada and around the world. Tonight is the Trans Rally & March downtown as part of Toronto Pride. Being active and fighting for people’s rights is not just, in this case, an issue for ‘trans people’ or people who are LGBT+. It’s a fight for everyone. I support aboriginal rights, and will say something about it, but I’m not aboriginal. It’s the same with any fight for justice and rights.

If we stand together we can accomplish change.

If we don’t stand up for what is right, the current Prime Minister and his government will roll back the clock on us and we will be going backwards.

With the provincial election coming up in Ontario, we must be vigilant and active. I fear that if the “Progressive” Conservatives get in provincially gains that have been made will also be taken back.

Talia.