The 2008 Pride Committee has chosen its patron, with the honour being awarded to Aram Hosie. Hosie was born female, came out as a lesbian at 15 and began transitioning to male in 2006 at the age of 23.
As founding president of the WA Gender Project, Hosie has been involved in a submission to review the WA Equal Opportunity Act to include the transgender community, challenged policy position of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade regarding passports and been instrumental in successfully lobbying the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission to conduct an inquiry into rights issues for sex and gender diverse people in Australia.
‘At first I was quite surprised,’ Mr Hosie told OUTinPerth about being named the Pride Patron for 2008. ‘I thought, I’m too young, what have I done that’s so special, other than being kind of noisy about being a transman? But on reflection, I do have a long and active history with the GLBT community for someone my age, and so it’s really a huge privilege to have that acknowledged.’
‘More importantly, I’m massively proud to be the first Patron to be drawn from the T sector of our community,’ Mr Hosie continued. ‘I think asking me to be Patron is a reflection of a slowly growing awareness within the Perth queer community that trans, intersex and gender diverse people, firstly exist, secondly need to be properly included in the community, and thirdly need to be supported in our fight to have our basic human rights recognised. My hope is that having me as Patron will in turn further help to grow that awareness.’
Hosie acknowledges that the overall situation for trans, intersex and gender diverse people is starting to improve, with the HREOC inquiry and increased media coverage of trans people and issues.
However more needs to be done. ‘Trans, intersex and gender diverse people in WA are frequently misunderstood and/or invisible – some people don’t even know we exist!’
‘We’re extremely marginalised, sometimes even within the GLBT community.’
This, in particular, is something Pride WA hopes to improve on by appointing Mr Hosie as Patron.
As Pride Patron, Hosie will have the opportunity to speak out, to the GLBT community and beyond, about the marginalisation members of the transgender community face.
‘Certainly, the lesbian community I was part of was marginalised, but it was also visible, connected and empowered. As a queer transman however, things are very different.’
‘We do not enjoy many of the basic human rights that our heterosexual, or even gay and lesbian, counterparts have access to. We can be legally discriminated against, have limited or no access to appropriate and necessary medical services and often cannot get our identity legally recognized.’
‘Without in any way detracting from the amazing work that other vocal gay and lesbian community activists do,’ Mr Hosie told OiP, ‘it’s a common phenomenon in the GLBT community here and elsewhere that the T references can kind of get dropped, or subsumed into the phrase gay and lesbian, which doesn’t always capture people who are trans, intersex or gender diverse. I think by virtue of my being both queer and trans, I’ll be able to talk about a range of issues, but in particular keep trans-related issues front and centre. Hopefully that will help people who are trans, intersex and gender diverse feel more included, and also mean that people who wouldn’t otherwise hear or read about the issues facing trans, intersex and gender diverse people, will be able to.’
Hosie is also aware his appointment as patron is of particular relevance to this year’s theme – Reinvention.
‘The entire GLBT community can relate to the theme of reinvention. We all have to face a certain level of reinvention when we come out, but the transgender community in particular know what it means to reinvent ourselves.’
Aram Hosie has been involved with Pride WA over the years, and was a committee member for the first half of last year. He has also worked as a counsellor with GLCS and is a regular contributor to Out in Perth.
Pride WA Inc. aims to encourage the cultural expression and celebrate, champion and support the rights and freedoms of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and other same sex attracted people living in Western Australia.
It is this history that drew the committee to him for Pride Patron in 2008, says Pride Co-President Andrew Baietta.
‘He may be young, but Aram has shown he holds the same values and commitment to his community as Pride WA. We look forward to working with Aram in both reaching out to the gender diverse members of our community, and educating our own community and the community as a whole.’
Fellow Co-President Sharlene Dixon agrees.
‘Pride’s mission is to “champion and support the rights and freedoms of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer and other same-sex attracted people”.’
‘Pride has, and continues to play a vital role in championing the rights and freedoms of gay and lesbian people – its success can be seen in WA having some of the best laws for same-sex attracted people in the nation – but it is time we actively sought to be more inclusive of the other sectors of our community we claim to represent.’
Hosie will be featured throughout Pride’s upcoming Festival, at its launch, the City of Perth Pride Fairday and in the annual Pride Parade.
‘My hope is that as Patron, working with Pride and the wider GLBT community, I can further help to educate and inform the entire community about some of the issues faced by trans, intersex and gender diverse people, and play a small role in championing our rights.’
And, of course, as Patron, Mr Hosie plans to enjoy the many festivities on offer when Pride month rolls around.
‘I’m not really privy to the details of what the Committee has planned… but I do really enjoy the opportunity to catch some great queer art, film or theatre, and so will be looking forward to that again this year. I think there will be an effort to make sure there’s some good trans* focused material, too, so that’s exciting. And I always enjoy Fairday.. and the buzz on the streets the night of the Parade when the queers take over Northbridge.. that’s probably my favourite, come to think of it.’
The 2008 Pride Festival runs from Sunday, 28th September to Saturday, 25th October.
