I’m a woman.
That means I break hard.
And mend like a motherfucker; all sexy and full of heartbreakingly beautiful scars.
Staceyann Chin
Since 2006 I have been given many opportunities to share my journey as a transgender woman in ways that have influenced colleagues in their classroom practice particularly with students whose gender-identity, expression, and presentation differs from the mainstream. This works on many levels, some formal, others snatching random opportunities to piggyback on other goings-on, and, occasionally, via a collegial relationship evolved to the point where ‘questions’ can be asked.
Many of these opportunities have an evangelising tone because, at the heart of this kōrero, is attitudinal change via new knowledge and a modification of behaviour through engagement. This might involve a first meeting with a transperson, subsequent complex interactions around stereotypes, religion, cultural attitudes, whānau family dynamics, and the workplace.
In 2015, the biennial ‘Queers in Tertiary Hui’ was hosted at AUT to an audience of high profile, queer researchers, educators, and influencers. The theme was ‘Working Together: Understanding our Diversity, Celebrating our Unity’. Presenters were Edwina Pio (‘Je Suis Diversity’), Aych McArdle (‘Our Gendered City’), and Welby Ings ‘Why You Should Write with Pink Chalk’) and myself.
My presentation, ‘Wildflowers: A Political Battlefield?’, examined the concept of fairness in the tertiary learning environment, likening the notion to principles of equality, equity and the hypothetical legitimacy of ‘treating everyone the same’. Wildflowers grow in all the places people thought they never should.
Just like me.
Alongside AUT’s commitment to equity and diversity, my role as a leader has grown.
After years with ‘UniQ’, I spent a further decade as an executive member of AUT’s staff/student queer group ‘Out at AUT’.
In 2016 the university heightened its investment in equity/diversity by forming a high-level Diversity Caucus chaired by Professor Edwina Pio and Deputy Vice Chancellor Andrea Vujnovich. I was headhunted and am, as far as I know, the only LGBTQI+ person involved.
The Caucus produced a university-wide strategy and inaugurated a Vice Chancellor’s Diversity Award of which I was a foundation recipient.
In 2020 I will lead our major project entitled ‘Farmer to Consumer: Celebrating the work of Women & Gender Minorities in the Global Coffee Industry’ in partnership with The Lucy Foundation, Colab Hospitality Group and John Burton Ltd.
In 2015, The Faculty of Culture and Society established a Diversity Committee that functioned impressively for three years. While high-profile areas owned the spotlight, queer staff/students were also canvassed and some good resources created.
As a visible diversity activist, I was empowered to create a series of seminars entitled ‘Diverse Exchanges, Vigorous Conversations about Diversity in its Many Guises’. The first, ‘How Can I Help You?’ looked at what was needed, the second assessed what already existed. Both were popular.
Between 2014 and 2017, the AUT Diversity Manager organised a ‘Brown Bag Lunch’ series’ focusing on diverse identities sharing narratives over lunch. I presented twice on the highs and lows of my transition (audience 100+) and later shared a panel with others from our diverse communities.
I am often invited by the Education Minister to visit secondary schools and to work with staff, students and parents around the needs of transgender girls enrolled in single-sex schools. This involves workshops and seminars, sharing stories, and paving the way for decisions around toileting, participation in sport and regular classroom practice. At Marlborough Girls College, Hauraki Plains College and King’s College, the positive effects have been long term.
In 2017 I was invited to join a Women-on-Campus panel that included Marilyn Waring, Pani Farvid, Rachel Cleary and Camille Nakhid to discuss gender diversity.
In 2018 I again presented to WoC colleagues at a forum on transwomen in sport and ways that WoC might intersect with non-traditional female identities.
In 2018 I was invited by the Education Department to audit tertiary programmes of Wellington-based Co-Ed Coffee Educators. Co-Ed provides hospitality training for profoundly deaf students and finds them employment. While there, I spoke to staff, students and Department auditors about gender diversity and, in particular, the importance of engaging with a contemporary use of pronouns. This was important as the school has two trans-masculine students. I am told that my narrative encouraged a deeper understanding among the team.
On four occasions I delivered my lecture ‘It’s a Queer World – Like It or Not! Human Rights as a Contemporary Tourism Issue’ to tourism students. After the final lecture, my colleague shared that her children identify as queer, a transman and a young lesbian, and that my sharing helped her come to terms with major changes in her family.
Early in 2019 I was invited by ZONTA’s Auckland chapter to speak about my journey and to make suggestions for projects this group of influential women might undertake. The women were smart but most had no idea the challenges a journey like mine occasioned. They didn’t understand that transwomen are always at risk, that safety is constantly an issue, nor did they understand intersectionality beyond what they’d read in white, cisgender, feminist literature. It was a wonderful evening and good projects will result from our kōrero.
In my school we have a tradition of Learning and Teaching Seminars.
I’ve presented at all of them and this year I’ve spoken at two. The first was on the use of appropriate pronouns in classroom practice in particular those preferred by gender non-binary students. This was daunting. My colleagues run the gamut of society, some accepting, some not, and, as the push back against LGBTQI+ kicks in internationally, some have changed their stripes. I found myself wanting to say no, but that would have been an opportunity lost.
The goal was to empower colleagues to move into an area of classroom practice that, while uncomfortable for them, would significantly benefit a group of otherwise marginalised students. Colleagues were attentive and it took me back to when I was first at AUT. A colleague was anxious to know what to call ‘Carl’, a young man on her class roll as Jennifer. All my colleague really wanted was permission to do what she already knew was right.
This started me on a journey that has resulted in students able to self-identify/use preferred names on official forms and to choose from a wide range of unique gender-identifying options in our enrolment system.
I also instigated the successful roll-out of the gender-neutral toilet project. The university has been magnificent in sorting through the ‘what’s legal, what’s not’ miasma to come up with options that are student, staff and disability-friendly.
The second seminar presentation was with Steve Cox on the use of self-assessment and theory-modelling as learning tools in the Leadership paper we co-teach. This was effective and generated considerable discussion, engagement and ongoing interest.
Ka pai!
dykiegirl 