Gender: what that word really means today is a complex issue. To help examine the complexities of the concept, an upcoming lecture series will explore what gender means for individuals and within our society.
Gender Identity: Understanding Trans-Identities begins November 2 at the Lansdowne campus.
Camosun College Student Society Pride director Daphne Crossman and Camosun student Jesse Fraser will discuss a range of topics over the three Wednesday-evening lectures, including social etiquette and the scope of gender, social acceptance of trans-identities, fashioning our own self-identification, and the need for medicalization and endocrine pharmacology.
“This is stuff that is near and dear to my heart,” says Fraser. “Daphne, being a trans-woman, has a fairly different experience from me being a trans-man, so I wanted to offer that perspective as well.”
Gender is more complicated than it seems. In fact, for some people, gender is something they deal with all day, every day. One of the biggest problems is that the difference between sex and gender is rarely recognized in our society.
“When we speak of male or female, we are speaking of sex,” says Crossman. “When we speak of masculine or feminine, we are speaking of gender. Gender identity is how you self-identify and gender expression is how you identify other people.”
In Canada, the Northwest Territories is currently the only place that recognizes gender identity and gender expression.
Esquimalt-Juan De Fuca MP Randal Garrison, also an instructor in Criminal Justice and Political Science at Camosun, wants to change that. He has reintroduced Bill C-279, which gives human-rights protection to transsexual and transgender Canadians.
Garrison says that lectures like these are a great idea to help with gender issues in society. “Public education at any level and any place is really essential to getting acceptance for trans-Canadians,” he says. “And if we don’t have that, people will continue to suffer from both discrimination and violence.”
The timing of the introduction of Garrison’s Bill C-279 lines up perfectly with the gender-identity lectures being held on campus.
“We have a lot of support in the community,” says Crossman. “But, that being said, there’s also a lot of opposition to these bills being passed.”
Gender Identity: Understanding Trans-Identities
6pm, Monday November 2, 9, and 16
Young 310 Lansdowne
$5 or donation of a new pair of socks
[Correction: we inaccurately reported in our November 2 issue that Randal Garrison was speaking at this event.]