November 12, 2020

Transgender Awareness Week

Tomorrow marks the start of Transgender Awareness Week, which runs from 13 to 19 November 2020.

Transgender Awareness Week is a one-week celebration leading up to Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR), which memorialises victims of transphobic violence.

“This is the first time Northern Health is running a session specifically for Trans folk. It’s another step we are taking as a health service to create safer care for our community in the north,” says Electra Ulrich, Co- chair LGBTIQA+ Working Group at Northern Health.

To commemorate Transgender Awareness Week, Northern Health is hosting guest speaker, Starlady, Program Manager at the Zoe Belle Gender Collective to run a ‘Transgender Awareness Education and Inclusive Practice’ session on Tuesday, 17 November. The virtual session will run from 12 to 1 pm and we encourage staff to join.

Starlady is an activist, artist, educator, youth and community development worker who has been a long-time advocate for the LGBTIQA+ community.

To join the session, please click here.

Elisha O’Dowd (trans ally), Emergency Department ANUM & Strengthening Hospital Response to Family Violence Clinical Support Nurse, is also holding a ‘Trans Education’ session targeted to patient facing staff (clinical and non-clinical) on Friday, 20 November from 2 pm to 2.45 pm. To join this session, please click here.

Chrissy Nicolaidis, Co-chair LGBTIQA+ Working Group at Northern Health, explains, “Recent Australian research highlights significant disparity in health outcomes between transgender people and the wider population. Transgender people aged 18 and over are nearly 11 times more likely to attempt suicide in their lifetime, and 18 times more likely to have thoughts of suicide.”

“Also, there is an over representation within mental health statistics disproportionately affecting young transgender people, with 74 per cent of transgender and gender diverse people aged 14 to 25 have been diagnosed with depression in their lifetime,” states Chrissy.

One of the initiatives of the LGBTIQA+ Working Group is improving awareness and implementing strategies to improve health outcomes for the gender diverse community in the North. This has been outlined as a priority area – in the Workplace Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2020-2024.

The Transgender Pride Flag represents the transgender community and consists of five horizontal stripes: two light blue, two pinks, and one white in the centre.

The Rainbow Flag represents Pride for the LGBTIQA+ community, with the black and brown stripes added to acknowledge the intersectionality for people of colour who identify as part of the LGBTIQA+ community.

Featured Image: Andrew, Elisha and Chrissy from the Northern Health LGBTIQA+ Working Group