Spring 2019 briefly

The spring after the winter holiday has gone somewhat fast. There’s nothing much to tell about my normal life and this is just amazing: The way I live now was beyond my dreams just some years ago.

    Dancing with dear friends

               

 Relaxing in the Rhododendron park

I just go to work either by bus or by bike. Thanks for the new metro my way to work takes 15 minutes longer than it used to take. Luckily there is an alternative by train that is the fastest. My gym is near the metro so I still use this way as well. When I work at home I usually go there by bike.

On my way to gym

Lately the weather has been quite warm so I have had an experience of working in bikini – not bad, either… 

My work outfit

Today was the last day at work and I feel I definitely earn my long holiday.

Aside the work I’ve been busy with political issues as well. I’ve been a vice chair in Seta trans political committee and full of things with the Trans Act campaign. We had a parliamentary election and before it we had very conservative government with no good for trans people. After the election the situation turned around: Despite of the victory of True Finns we got a new government with more progressive views on the issue. In the program the government declared that juridical and medical gender reassignment should be separated and the juridical should be based on the individual’s own decision. The sad thing was the religious part of the coalition demanded it should be allowed only for over 18 years old citizens. It seems that the people who demanded this restriction didn’t really understand what was it all about – or actually it seems they didn’t even want to understand. So after the new program has been declared we have campaigned very intensively for the rights of young trans people.

Demonstrating for the rights of the trans kids

One thing that divides Finnish nation is the climate issue. Especially our young people are very anxious about the situation and on the other hand the right wing populists want to neglect the issue and say we have already done more than needed for it. This one together with trans act immigrant issues has created sort of “enough is enough” thinking which has increased their popularity.  

Demonstrating again, this time to stop the man made climate change

One of my many issues has been the work against hate crimes and hate speech. It seems that there’s a campaign going on for blurring the meaning of hate speech. And the same people who seem to act in the campaign very easily seem to get to the blurred zone and even further. Their argument is mostly the freedom of the speech and they want to ignore the responsibility of one’s sayings and writings. The other problem is many LGBTI people won’t report the crimes they face in social media or in real life. The reason for that have been either their experiences or impressions of officials who ignore their reports because the deeds have been so minor! I attended in a discussion in the Ministry of Justice about the problems the minorities face in such cases. There is an emergency help organization for the victims of crime and we try to encourage LGBTI people to use it.

With Kerttu, the head secretary of Seta

The wonderful detail of the meeting was that I used Anukatariina for the first time as my official name in the Ministry security control.

One meta-political case also took place. As I was polling in the EU election the lady behind the desk stared at my brand new ID card with three male names before the name Anukatariina. Then she stared at her screen and again at the card. After doing it some while she said: “Excuse me, I have to check one tiny thing...” and disappeared. It took some minutes before she came back and looking somewhat relieved said: “Now, where were we...”  I replied that as a citizen I have the right to know the cause of the delay.  She asked if I really want to know and I answered I definitely did. So she told the reason: “You look so much like a woman...” I asked didn’t my fourth name ring any bell and she explained this was the first time for her. I told her to be sure it will not be the last one either.

An unhappy citizen after the poll

The regular Hauho meeting in May was a bit different this time for me because I was the chair of Dreamwear Club and I had to lead the annual meeting there. 

The chair has something to say...

The chair wants to have fun as well

 I also made an interview of the Finnish transvestite Icon BB about the old days and about the ladies of the sixties and seventies. I will edit it to Youtube when I have a little time.

With BB

Now I’m still busy because of Helsinki Pride preparations. How did it go I might tell you in my next blog.