Trans Dilemmas: Living in Australia’s Remote Areas and in Aboriginal Communities

134 Pages·2018·0.76 MB·English

by  Stephen Kerry

Trans Dilemmas
Trans Dilemmas presents the findings of a three-year research project which
examined the lived experiences of trans people in Australia’s Northern Ter-
ritory. The book argues that whilst trans people who live in remote areas
experience issues which may not be distinct from those living in urban areas
and the inner-city, these issues can be aggravated by geographic and demo-
graphic factors.
By conducting online surveys and in-depth interviews, Stephen Kerry
brings to light the issues for transgender people which are compounded by
living in sparsely populated, remote communities. Namely social isolation;
maintaining relationships with friends, family, and partners; and the dif-
ficulties accessing health care. The book also includes significant findings
on the experiences and treatment of Australia’s trans Aboriginal people,
also known as sistergirls and brotherboys. An analysis of first-person narra-
tives by sistergirls and brotherboys reveals the racism within predominantly
white trans communities and transphobia within traditional Aboriginal
communities, which they are uniquely faced with.
Trans Dilemmas represents an important contribution to contemporary
research into the lives of transgender Australians. It gives a voice to those
transgender people living in the more isolated communities in Australia,
which up until now, have been largely unheard. For students and researchers
in Queer Studies and Gender Studies, this is valuable reading.
Stephen Kerry is a sociology lecturer at Charles Darwin University and is
a queer activist, focusing hir academic career on intersex and trans wellbe-
ing. In 2015, Xie was keynote speaker at the Variant Sex and Gender, Reli-
gion, and Wellbeing Conference at the University of Exeter.
Trans Dilemmas
Living in Australia’s Remote Areas
and in Aboriginal Communities
Stephen Kerry
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Stephen Kerry
The right of Stephen Kerry to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted by hir in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 978-1-138-50594-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-14675-1 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
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For Paniscus and Chakotay.
You are loved. You are missed.
Contents
Foreword viii
Acknowledgements xvi
List of abbreviations xvii
1 Introduction 1
2 Trans relationships 17
3 Being transgender 36
4 Sistergirls and brotherboys 60
5 Being transgender, being Aboriginal 82
6 Afterword 96
Bibliography 104
Index 113
Foreword
It is likely that trans people have lived in the Northern Territory (NT) for as
long as there has been human occupation (Bayl is, 2015, p. 12; Curt is, 2015,
p. 37; John son, 2015, pp. 28–29). However, there has prevailed throughout
most of the NT’s recorded history either uncomfortable silences or regret-
table distortions about trans people (Dunn- Holland et al., 1994; Hodge ,
2015).
In the early 1980s the first biographical profile appeared (Kibble white &
Bonney, 1981, p. 32). The wider Territory community was beginning to
acknowledge and respect trans Territorians. In the 1990s these sketchy
details morphed into a growing presence as life stories and reports were
published (AFAO, 1994; NTAC, 1998). The exigencies arising from a pub-
lic health crisis meant the health profession needed to engage with trans
people (Kerry , 2014; Lee, 1996). By the early 2000s trans citizens had
acquired the skill-set for self-advocacy, and they began to articulate their
experiences and needs to policy makers and service providers (Johnso n,
2015, pp. 29–31). During the first years of the new millennium, trans people
across the Territory have been exercising agency in their lives, advocating
and negotiating directly to have their needs recognised and met (Curtis,
2015, pp. 45–47; Johnson, 2015, pp. 31–34; Sisters & Brothers NT, 2015).
Information about the lives of trans Territorians began to appear in the
final decades of the twentieth century. The book Did You Meet Any Mala-
gas? A Homosexual History of Australia’s Tropical Capital mentions the
first Territorian known to identify as trans. In this book the Larrakia man
Gary Lee recounts:
The first Aboriginal man to come out was actually one who came out
full-on [during] the late-1950s . . . and he started wearing women’s
clothes. The thing which was hard for a lot of people to take was that
he looked very, very attractive. In fact, he . . . looked like a very attrac-
tive, sexy woman from all accounts. . . . He came out when he was quite
young, about eighteen, which was a very brave thing to do, I would
Foreword ix
think. He was working in Darwin and was here for a good ten years
before he went down south and lived as a woman.
(Hodge, 1993 b, p. 57)
The book Darwinites: Portrait of a City (Kibblewhite & Bonney, 1981)
offers a snapshot of the second Territorian known to identify as trans. Dar-
winites presents profiles of residents who ‘make the character of our fair
city’. Phylis Victoria Burns describes her achievements as ‘having gained
the love and understanding of the people of Darwin. Also, being able to be
accepted as a human being, and live a comfortable and healthy life’ (cited in
Kibblewhite & Bonney, 1981, p. 32). She aspired to ‘create a better under-
standing between naïve people in relation to the other person’s outlook on
life’ (cited in Kibblewhite & Bonn ey, 1981, p. 32).
Burns was born in Christchurch, Aotearoa, New Zealand, on 22 April
1943. She was working in Sydney when the hospitality entrepreneur John
Spellman persuaded her to relocate to Darwin in the post–Cyclone Tracy
1970s. Spellman invited Burns to work as a DJ and entertainer in his
renowned venue, Dix. He recalls:
We brought up Phylis . . . with the Les Girls show. Now she’s living in
the community. She did the DJ-ing thing for Dix for me for years, and
now she’s working for Telecom as a real girl – telephone switch bitch,
yeah, Telecom directories enquiries officer. . . . I think Phylis is moulded
very carefully into her community. She’s working, basically, I think in
an all-girl environment on a switchboard. She is a respected member of
Telecom, working quietly. Got a flat in the northern suburbs. Even in the
bars . . . she’s not loud about it; she’s just one of the girls playing pool.
(cited in Hodge, 1993b, p. 115)
The 1970s and 1980s were not without difficulty. Spellman employed
another transwoman (whom he refers to as a ‘drag queen’), and comments:
We were fairly shocking. We actually had a topless barmaid that was a
drag queen, and the police actually came in to tell me to cover up the
girl – and I said, ‘Why can’t a boy walk around without his shirt on?’ –
which confused the police no end. They didn’t have one for that! We
slapped people in the face with sexuality there a bit.
(cited in Hodge, 1993b, p. 108)
Spellman add s:
The business was mostly a casual bistro, bar attached, and the gay-
ness was – I don’t know – it wasn’t like your Sydney gay pub where