This spring
I have been politically active in many ways. Firstly I was appointed to commission
for transgender affairs in the national LBGTI organization SETA.
There have
been some important issues. For us the
most important has been the preparation of new legislation for equality. The
proposal contains the prohibition for discriminating the expression of one’s
gender at work. That means the employer could not stop the employee wearing the
clothes even if they are meant to be for the other gender. In fact they have
such a law already in Sweden, where the train staff has started to wear skirts
because they were not allowed to wear shorts when it was too warm. (Just now the pressure has changed the
employers’ minds and now they are also allowed to wear shorts…)
And of course
there are many other important things in the bill that is in preparation. But
the right for gender expression is the most radical and most strongly opposed
by the employers. Hope we are better lobbyists than they; the bill is still in
process in the parliament.
Another
issue in the commission has been the treating of transsexual people in process.
According the current law they must be castrated before confirming the gender.
The law has not changed despite of numerous official international claims for
the Finnish state due to discriminating and even torturing the transsexual
people. We have tried to affect the ministry of social and welfare affairs but
it was very hard to make some officials change their head. Now the minister has
changed and the situation looks more optimistic.
The other thing
concerning the transsexual people has been the collapse of the quality of the medical
process. There have been some doctors that have even demanded the right kind of
walking or looked how the face looks like to judge whether the person is
appropriate for the process! So there’s a lot to do just now!!!
And talking
about medical things, we have been active in international classification of
diseases updating process. There have been some major anomalies in current version
ICD-10. The closest for me is there’s still a disease class for transvestites.
The other is transsexualism is still regarded as mental illness. We have succeeded
in removing transvestites from our national legislation (yes, it was our club
that really made the minister in charge to do it!!) and it seems there’s no
classification for us in new version ICD-11, either. But you can never be sure,
so we have been active to make sure it will stay that way, too. The situation of
transsexuals is not that clear, though we have tried to lobby the classification
not as a disease (…and definitely not the mental one!!) but the condition
demanding medical support – just as for example having the baby is.
My first “high
level event” was the publishing of the European survey for violence and
discrimination experienced by LBGTI-people. It took pace in Parliament house
and there were a lot of high officials from many juridical and human rights and
equality offices. Sadly there were no members of parliament nor any representative
of ministry for education. The results strongly suggest the things must be done
in different branches of education to make the situation better.
For me It
was the first time in Parliament house, and of course I did it in my dress. During
the congress I heard a silent repetitive sound and noticed a blinking red light
above the fire alarm signs. You may see me staring to it in the picture.
Luckily it turned out it was just a call for mps to go to the main hall to vote!!! The second picture is taken at home after the long day of politics, shopping, music in the park and nice chat with some glasses of wine and nice friends.
Outside our commission I have been active in citizen initiative for equal marriage. We have a new law that says if t least 50 000 names are collected for some initiative, it must be taken at least to some process in the parliament. In that case we have collected 150 000 so it has a good opportunity to pass the process. There has been another address (not the official initiative) against that organized by some fundamentalists and it has 36 000 names so far. There’s a discussion forum in that context and I have been very active arguing against the insulting homophobic and one eyed religious comments these ..erks write. At least it seems I have managed to stop the wildest claims about homosexuality as a disease, as a pre stage for pedophilia and so on. And of course I’m not the only one who has made it…
And
combining my artistic tendencies (no, I didn’t say skills…) and politics I have
designed a banderol for our national crossdresser society DreamWearClub. It is promised
to be ready for Helsinki Pride at the end of June so we can use it in the Pride
march.
Hi! I have been following you in City.
VastaaPoistaNice to see this blog, and to notice that it is in English, as I keep my Facebook.
Here is something I found; I am a history buff...
http://transpedianews.com/?p=338
Well, it seems there has been some tolerable eras before....
PoistaActually I have found amazing (later) examples when I have studied "brave women" of the past. Also have first hand knowledge of an "accepted" transman who lived, as a respected, ab 1915-2000. In Yli- Ii, of all places!
VastaaPoista