This article was originally published by QNews. You can find the original article here.
In just over two years, the Trans and Gender Diverse Blue Mountains group has attracted over 350 members and has just had its first ever Mardi Gras float. Convenor Drew Bowie reflects on the origins and role of the wildly successful group.
Trans and Gender Diverse Blue Mountains was created as people in the Blue Mountains area were coming out of a series of Covid lockdowns towards the end of 2022 and held its first picnic in October of that year.
The picnic had been posted to a Blue Mountains community Facebook page. It was expected that around a dozen people would turn up.
About 50 people attended that first picnic, far surpassing organisers’ expectations.
Building a community
Our group was initially created so that trans and gender diverse people could meet each other, find and help build community.
Real life connections in the trans and gender diverse community have always been difficult to find, particularly in a semi-regional area like the Blue Mountains.
As we all came out of the main Covid lockdowns, many of us were seeking more local connection. Starting a local Facebook group for the trans and gender diverse community has been a way for us to connect.
Today, that Facebook group, Trans & Gender Diverse Blue Mountains, has over 350 members, with a team of seven organisers who schedule and organise in-person meet-up events, and look after the group’s online presence.
Over the last two-and-bit years, we have held monthly events including picnics, clothing swaps and crafting days.
We have held major events such as an art exhibition hosted by the Blue Mountains Cultural Centre in Katoomba, with many of our members submitting their pieces to exhibit.
We held a bake-off contest that attracted more than 70 people attendees, with many baking an entry for one of several judging categories.
This year, on the 1st of March, we had our first entry into the annual Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, with our inaugural float bearing the theme ‘Free to Belong’.
Our theme reflected local Blue Mountains wildlife and flora, with an emphasis on connection to country.
Targets of hate
Our community has always been an easy target, particularly in the last few years, for those who want to leverage public distrust of us as a means to an end.
We are being targeted by bad faith politicians seeking what they see as an “easy win” to gain votes. Anti-trans extremists are lobbying governments to restrict us, pass laws against us and place our medical care beyond reach.
It’s a lucrative grift circuit by people who seek to gain fame at our expense.
Seeing such things in the news and our social media algorithms constantly telling us that we’re an “issue” or a “question” to be resolved is an extremely challenging thing for a transgender person to face every time we look at a screen.
This constant coverage seeps into our everyday lives. We’ve all experienced the questioning family member, the blunt work colleague and even hostility in public because of this negative and dehumanising coverage.
In the time our group has existed, our members have found people they can speak to about these experiences, form relationships with others and find that none of us are alone on this journey.
Members of our group have met new family, lifelong friends and even lovers.
We all come from very different walks of life. We have teachers, shop owners, retail assistants, bank employees, chefs, mechanics and just as much variety in our lives as any group of people you’ll find living in your neighbourhoods, just like we do.
Defiance
So as we entered Mardi Gras for the very first time, many of us reflected on where we came from and how we got here.
From picnics sitting in a park or around a barbecue, to clothing swaps where people have left with entirely new wardrobes more aligned with their gender identity, or a board games night at a popular Mountains café, we came together to stroll down Oxford Street with the rest of our LGBTQIA+ crew in a celebration that began as an act of defiance.
And we still must be defiant. We face a coming federal election where some are determined to turn our community into an election issue.
In the aftermath of the election in the United States, where the community faced an unprecedented saturation of anti-transgender propaganda in political advertising, we are also seeing our community emerge into public discussion where the most uninformed voices are often the loudest.
In January, the Queensland Government banned gender affirming care for children under 18. This includes puberty blockers which are safe, reversible and give a chance for a transgender child to pause puberty while other treatments are assessed.
The Federal Labor Government has also announced a review into the safety of hormone replacement therapy (HRT), with no consultation with the community or acknowledging that such reviews have been carried out previously, such as the review into the Gender Service at the Queensland Children’s Hospital in 2024.
That review found the care provided was excellent and that funding should be increased, in order to expand the service and make it more accessible.
And for some of us, this was also why we marched in Mardi Gras this year. Sometimes protest is a march down a popular street in colourful costumes. Sometimes it’s writing letters or attending rallies. And sometimes it’s gathering to share moments of joy, laughter and connection.
Affirmation
Walking up Oxford Street as part of a Mardi Gras float that many of us worked hard on – spending crafting afternoons cutting and sewing fabric, glueing sequins and placing feathers – has been one of the greatest acts of community I have ever been part of.
Hearing people cheer us on and applaud the fact we were there is something none of us thought we’d experience before we joined this group.
One of the most radical acts a community like ours can do is to come together and support each other. That’s how this journey started – and that’s how it will continue.
Drew Bowie is a convenor of Trans and Gender Diverse Blue Mountains, a social group for trans and gender diverse people and their families in Western Sydney, the Blue Mountains and surrounding areas. The group can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/tgdbluemountains.
