victorian school building authority

I know of three Victorian schools all in metropolitan Melbourne which have felt mislead and or tricked by the Victorian School Building Authority's project management team into building "gender neutral" i.e. mixed-sex toilets. Each of these three schools - in two different school regions - have been told that they must install gender neutral toilets as part of the school upgrades (of varying sizes and budgets), and then told that when they get their certificate of occupancy they can revert to single-sex toilet provision in consultation with the school community. Three different leading teachers and or principals at these three schools have been sold the same line by the VSBA bureaucrats that they are required to install gender-neutral toilets so that the girls and boys and gender-neutral or trans-identififed children will be in adjoining cubicles with a common wash basin area. Two of the principals at schools in the same region conferred notes about the department's tactics in requiring them to install these unpopular toilets in their multi-cultural communities. These principals told the VSBA that Muslim girls could not go to the toilet at school if only mixed-sex toilets were provided and the VSBA both times pretended to have not previously heard this risk being identified, or to know about the discriminatory conduct being recommended by them. Fortunately for these two canny principles they cross-briefed one another and were able to convert the "gender neutral" toilets back into single-sex toilets as soon as they received the certificate of occupancy and before children returned to the upgraded area of the school. Anyone with any common sense or understanding of the difficulties of going through puberty would underestand that girls and boys need their privacy and dignity and safety from one another. If the VSBA want to fund gender-neutral toilet provision for students who are uncomfortable with their biological sex then they need to be additional to the existing provisions.

#australia #victoria #schools #buildingauthority #toilets #bathrooms #genderneutral

requesting a woman lawyer in a community legal centre

For many years now a lawyer who identifies as a woman has been working in community legal services in northern regional Victoria. This person seems well regarded by local magistrates' court staff and magistrates, and is an affable, pleasant individual. In various meeting with the local court that I witnessed, this individual struggles to hide his sex as he is a chronic mansplainer. But every one smiles and calls him 'she' and by his chosen name.

The thing that worries me most about this individual's transgenderism is its impact on women clients who come to see him, with their having to affirm "her" identity as a woman. Victims/survivors of family violence have often been subjected to the most extreme sexual violence by their male partners, and men's coercive controlling techniques always include a liberal dose of gaslighting by the perpetrator against the woman. It sickens me to think of these extremely vulnerable women, with no option to pay for private female legal representation, being forced to again kowtow and comply with this lawyer's belief that he is a woman.

What is worse is that the local magistrates and court staff are complicit in this coercion of vulnerable women and always refuse to mention the elephant in the room that the six foot something, huge-footed, massive-handed individual is and always will be male. If this is not a conflict of the rights of the man to identify as a woman vs. the rights of the most vulnerable women to access and receive justice in our legal system - I don't know what is.

[*Moderator's note: the author of this submission would like noted that this lawyer does not work for LegalAid, who are more sensitive to the needs of their female clients].

#australia #victoria #regionalvictoria #communitylegalcentres #legalcentres #law #legalrepresentation

women's facebook groups

I can no longer trust that a women's Facebook group, or a women's interests group, is all women, or that the topic won't get derailed by mods insisting on 'inclusion' of trans-identified men in the group or constantly referencing their issues. I didn't previously think trans-identified women caused problems in these spaces, as they tend to be lower profile (funny that), but increasingly there is insistence that we as women have to remember that 'not everyone who has a period/breastfeeds/has babies is a 'woman' and just one individual can suck up a lot of attention in the space, or just discussion of one individual, even. I've seen how men can respectfully enter women's spaces, and this isn't it. A man in a woman's dance class participates with everyone else to learn; a dad in a mums' group is generally trying to do the same things we are, work out parenting (and dads' groups aren't as much of a thing). But there are breastfeeding groups, mums' groups, even a witchery group that I no longer feel safe in. It sounds like a small thing - so what if your Facebook group 'includes' this focus, or there are a couple of extra men? But they're not respectful of the space, and I don't feel comfortable sharing or speaking in the group. And it matters, because I have chronic fatigue, I work fulltime and I have a toddler, so online socialising is important in my life. It's a way to get information, share information, and have a laugh. I'm pretty vocal and have been an activist for the better part of 20 years, so it's sad and disappointing that the places I go for support that were formerly women-focused and/or feminist, aren't there anymore. I can stay quiet and lurk, or I can speak up on behalf of women, for what I see as right, as I have always done, and be called a bigot. So inclusive - excluding women from their own spaces.

#australia #virtualspaces #onlinespace #facebook