(triggers: grief, loss)
Just over 24 hours ago, I lost a friend of 10 years. Maria Kastoras, with whom I had worked for 10 years at Thalassaemia Australia (previously Thalassaemia Society of Victoria) passed away just after 11 pm (AEST) on December 25th.
Maria had always been supportive of me through the tougher times in my life (and in times when it was generally much harder for any openly trans person to get work) and I will always have gratitude for that support. In a way she was a pioneering “cis ally†but it was more; she was just an outright good person.
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(From me as an individual; not on behalf of any organisation I represent).
There are many perspectives to the debate about Tropfest winner (sic) "Bamboozled" ; I add mine as a person who among many other facets is transgender and an occasional stand-up/spoken word performer.
I run by the guideline when doing stand-up of “unless a person identifies as part of that group, they don’t make jokes about it.†As someone who is a person (emphasis) with many facets including transgender and performer, I can - and do - take the Michelle out of myself on those facets. I also used to sit and watch people who didn’t identify that way and who thought they had incredibly funny material about trans that I knew wasn’t funny at all. The good thing was - virtually no one else laughed at their material either.
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