Gender in schools
I CAN'T believe there is a new group that wants to stop Tasmanian schools from being inclusive of trans students (The Examiner, June 9).
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I can talk about this first-hand because I am a trans student at TAFE in Hobart.
The teachers and staff there are understanding that I'm not female and try to work around my dead and legal name to my preferred name.
Us trans young people need to feel we are being treated with equal dignity and respect if we are to get the most out of our education and go on to live full lives. As we are normal and human too, we aren't different, we were just born in the wrong sex.
The Tasmanian Education Department and organisations groups like Working It Out have been working for years to achieve this goal by promoting LGBTIQ inclusion.
I have been in a school that was proud of their inclusiveness. It made me feel safe when I was in grade 10 and then again in college.
I'm now at TAFE that's very inclusive as well.
Their work isn't "woke" or "radical", it's good for young people, it's good for schools and it's good for the whole community, as people would feel safe in going about their lives not worrying about discrimination.
To the people behind the new group, please stop dividing Tasmanians at a time when we need to support and help each other.
Have a heart and just let young trans young people get on with our lives.
Bert Anderson, Warana.
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What does it take to be Australian
TWO little Australians are about to be removed from their homeland. The minister has the power and has exercised it, when whiter than white, au pair girls were allowed to stay. But Kopika and Tharicca are not whiter than white.
Some citizens don't see themselves as Australians, but as Anglo Saxonians, living in Anglo Saxonia, who go home to England, allow a citizen of a foreign country, to be Head of State, allow the flag of a foreign country in our flag and celebrate the occupation of Australia, as our national day.
Australia is made up of First Nation people, immigrants and descendants of our occupiers.
The descendants of the occupiers have contributed to the development of Australia, providing democracy and the rule of law, but they profited from being the dominant paradigm in our society.
However the vibrancy, the enterprise and the widening of horizons came from Australians who resided here for some 60,000 years and those who came here from all corners of this planet.
It is their sweat, enterprise and cultures which make Australia what it is today.
It's time for everybody, including those who find it hard to tear themselves away from mother England, to join us the real Australians and rid ourselves of the foreign influence which still lingers in our body politic, our symbols and in our psyche.
Let us be Australians not Anglo Saxonians. Let's start by ensuring that those two little Australians who were born here Tharicca and Kopika are not deported.
