Retaired… and still busy

 It's been a while since I last wrote a blog here. During the time I’ve had some major changes in my life. The biggest of them has been my retirement.

Sini took me to the spa as a first action as a retired citizen

I’ve heard a saying there are three phases in being retired: Go go, Slow go and No go. Just now I live the first phase for sure. 

I still give some lectures in Metropolia University of Applied Sciences as an emerita senior lecturer. The totally new thing for me was when I started my entrepreneur career. I didn’t know a thing about the details in being an entrepreneur so it took some time to make all the arrangements. Everything didn’t go right, for example I paid estimated VAT beforehand instead of doing it afterwards.

Lecturing at Metropolia, this time also live.

Anyway, now I have a company named Havulintu (a conifer bird, meaning a capercaillie (metso)). 

The main business is education on equality of LGBTIQ+-people in workplaces. I’ve already given a lot of equality training based on my own experiences and what I’ve learned from my analyses on the inquiries I’ve made. Now I had to make material to cover a wider spectrum of aspects: What is discrimination and how does it affect, what is inclusion and why should it be preferred, what are the means for promoting it etc.   

And to be a credible entrepreneur I also had to build up websites. I also joined Linkedin and started to seek for contacts. It seemed to be easy now there are already more than 3500 contacts, many of them showing both interest and support. The need of such training is evident, for example very many companies lack a gender diversity perspective in the equality plan although it should be included by the law. However the number of commissions has been quite moderate. It seems especially the companies that would need the knowledge the most are the least interested in the subject.

Another major task has been a survey analysis on discrimination of gender minorities inwork places. The survey had been carried out in fall 2020 and I analyzed the results during the year 2021. A similar survey has been carried out in 2016 and the Finnish trans organizations wanted to find out whether there has been any improvement in the situation. The answer is yes, the situation is somewhat better. This doesn’t mean the situation is satisfactory: Although in many workplaces being a trans or intersex person is not a big deal any more, there is still very severe discrimination in other workplaces.

The third major task this year has been the history book of the 25 years old DreamwearClub DwC ry organization. To accomplish it I read all the old member magazines and organization documents and made quite a lot interviews - I’ve been a member and active follower only the last twelve years. 

During these years DwC has developed from a minor peer to peer organization to an esteemed national influencer. In fact the development was quite rapid, the position of a national political influencer was taken already in late nineties. Since then DwC has been very active in depathologization of transvestites and in including gender expression as a discrimination criteria in equality legislation.   

There was quite a lot work in finding persons who are in historical pictures: I didn’t want to use pictures of the people who are afraid of being “outed” because of the pictures. To get the layout fancier I used a professional editor to finish it. 

Pictures from the old days. Photos; Anne and Tiga

The fourth major task was coordinating TransHelsinki 2020 and 2021 happenings. Last year we had to make very rapid swifts to a mode to another: Covid situation got worse just in November 2020 and intended Transgender Day Of Remembrance TDOR happening and community seminar had to be changed to virtual mode in very short time. Luckily we had persons who could react fast enough and both events could be carried out. In TransHelsinki 2021 we prepared to the similar situation but this time the covid situation allowed us to organize streamed live events. We also had live evening event which turned out to be very important. People really wanted to meet each other after so a long period of isolation. Year 2020 we had a Habbo Hotel evening event and it was not a big success.

At the Trans Community Seminar

My tasks were combined when I organized a publishing event for the work place survey. The event included a panel discussion on the subject and I managed to get a member of employers, trade union, trans person and the Finnish Equality Ombudsman. The Ombudsman stressed the importance of the survey because his office doesn’t have instruments to get similar information. Al the members of the panel agreed there must be a lot of education made in all levels of work organizations - the activity I’ve already started.  

Panel after publication: Victor Brück /Nordea Bank, Susanna Viljanmaa(Transfeminiinit ry, me, Lotta Savinko/AKAVA, Jukka Maarianvaara/ Equality Ombudsman

Publicity has been one of the features of my last year. I have given some interviews after the 2016 survey and probably because of it my name has been known among the press. The first bigger hit was November 2020 when I was interviewed on MeNaiset, one of the biggest women’s magazine in Finland. The article was also published on a tabloid’s website with millions of readers.  The interview was followed by another by Finnish teacher organization magazine Opettaja on June 2020. In both articles I had an opportunity to tell about my own experiences in the work environment and about the problems and the solutions in public level. After publication of the survey the press releases was published in numerous newspapers and I was interviewed on the Finnish National radio (Yle) news.

Picture on Opettaja-magazine. Photo: Leena Koskela

Publicity also has its funny face... Dreamwear Club wanted to use Helsinki Pride website to advertise its event during the Helsinki Pride 2021 week. To do that includes a minor transaction, but in this case we got an offer to give a face to promote Pride themes. I thought this is not a big deal and agreed.

The project turned out to be in two phases. The first one was a video interview on how I have experienced my LGBTIQ+ history. The second one was a photo session by a famous photographer Meeri Koutaniemi. I was one of the four persons who gave their faces to the campaign. For the first time in my life  I had a personal professional stylist to take care anything I needed during the photo session.

The pink video session

Late June the result was seen in Helsinki region: Pictures of my face was seen along the streets of Helsinki City and the five stairs version was seen to everyone who entered Helsinki by train. The video interview was seen very frequently on Helsinki Pride website and once also on Yle TV broadcasting.

Mannerheimintie in June 2021 

But that was not the all I did with Helsinki Pride organization: I got an annual “Pridechanges the World” -award. The other entity getting the award was the City of Helsinki. The reasons to give me the award were a bit confusing: The merits that were mentioned were partly from the period other Dreamwear Club activists were responsible of them. So the award was for Dreamwear Club as well. The ceremony was also seen on Yle broadcasting. To celebrate the award me and Sini got a hotel night in Helsinki City.

The award ceremony. Photo: Helsinki Pride 

Swimming above the roofs of Helsinki

It seems some have talked about me in Helsinki Pride organization because this was not the end of the story. In September I was asked to give equality education under the Helsinki Pride education organization and I replied why not. So far I’ve trained some big organizations that are also partners of Helsinki Pride. There have been “basic training” and more specific to supervisors and managers. Next year I will continue with this, some even in English.

 

I hope the year 2022 will not be as busy as the year 2021 was. Yes yes, it’s up to me...! To make sure it will happen I’ve made clear I will not make any major surveys, I will end my career as the head of the Dreamwear Club, I will not coordinate TransHelsinki, no history books either...