Gay and Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review Editor Damien W. Riggs The Australian Psychological Society Ltd. ISSN 1833-4512 Editor Damien W. Riggs, The University of Adelaide Editorial Board Graeme Kane, Private Practice Jim Malcom, The University of Western Sydney Liz Short, Victoria University Jane Edwards, Spencer Gulf Rural Health School Murray Drummond, The University of South Australia Gordon Walker, Monash University Jo Harrison, The University of South Australia Kirsten McLean, Monash University Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, Deakin University Suzanne McLaren, University of Ballarat Christopher Fox, La Trobe University Vivienne Cass, Private Practice International Advisory Committee Esther Rothblum, San Diego State University, US Jerry J. Bigner, Colorado State University, US Meg Barker, The Open University, UK Darren Langdridge, The Open University, UK Todd Morrison, University of Saskatchewan, Canada Elizabeth Peel, Aston University, UK Sonja J. Ellis, Sheffield Hallam University, UK Victoria Clarke, University of the West of England, UK Peter Hegarty, University of Surrey, UK Gareth Treharne, University of Otago, NZ Fiona Tasker, University of London, UK Jeffery Adams, Massey University, NZ Aims and scope The Gay and Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review (‘the Review’) is a peer-reviewed publication that is available online through the Australian Psychological Society. Its remit is to encourage re- search that challenges the stereotypes and assumptions of pathology that have often inhered to re- search on lesbians, gay men, bisexual, trans and queer (LGBTQ) people. The aim of the Review is thus to facilitate discussion over the direction of LGBTQ psychology both within Australia and abroad, and to provide a forum within which academics, practitioners and lay people may publish. 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Indexing http://www.groups.psychology.org.au/glip/glip_review/ The Review is listed on Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory: http://www.ulrichsweb.com/ The Review is indexed by: EBSCO (LGBT Life database) Directory of Open Access Journals International Information Centre and Archives for the Women’s Movement Pandora Archive NLA ProQuest (Genderwatch database) The Review is eligible for DEST points and is recognised on the Australian ERA journal rankings as a level C journal. Gay and Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review Volume 7 Number 1 Contents Editorial: Trans bodies, lives and representations 1 Damien W. Riggs Articles Psychoanalysis needs a sex change Patricia Gherovici 3 He did it her way on TV: Representing an Australian transsexual celebrity onscreen Joanna McIntyre 19 A ‘gender centre’ for Melbourne? Assessing the need for a transgender specific service provider 33 Andrew McLean Trans digital storytelling: Everyday activism, mutable identity and the problem of visibility Sonja Vivienne 43 Contributions of biological psychology to understanding the social construction of gender identities 55 Jessica Choplin The evolution of A Gender Agenda : The psychology of how Canberra’s sex and gender diverse individuals are growing a community organisation 68 Gabrielle Hitch, Heidi Yates and Jennie Yates Book Reviews HIV treatment and prevention technologies: An international perspective Peter Todd 78 Speaking out: Stopping homophobic and transphobic abuse in Queensland Prathiba Nagabhushan 80 Community Information Pinnacle Foundation 83 Gay & Lesbian Issues and Psychology Review, Vol. 7, No. 1, 2011 EDITORIAL: TRANS BODIES, LIVES AND REPRESENTATIONS DAMIEN W. RIGGS I am very pleased to present this latest issue choanalysis actually has a long history of be- of the GLIP Review featuring papers that ing supportive of trans people, and that the speak about the lives of trans 1 people. This is work of both Freud and Lacan, as reformu- a topic that the gay and lesbian issues and lated by Gherovici, holds considerable poten- psychology interest group has been increas- tial for developing a non-normative under- ingly focusing on, in recognition of the vital standing of gender, particularly as it pertains importance of moving beyond a sole focus to the lives of trans people. upon the lives of cisgendered 2 people. As such, it was heartening to receive such a In the second paper, Joanna McIntyre focuses strong and varied response to the call for pa- upon media representations of Australian pers, and that the issue as a whole represents transsexual celebrity Carlotta. In so doing, something of the true diversity of trans com- McIntyre highlights both the normative func- munities as it is captured via the perspectives tions of the media - which have consistently of (primarily cisgendered) researchers. provided a very limiting framework through which viewers can understand Carlotta’s life In the paper that opens the issue Patricia (even if the framework overall may be charac- Gherovici takes to task psychoanalytic writings terised as positive) - and the transgressive since Freud that have appropriated his work to and transformative potential that Carlotta’s the disservice of trans people. Gherovici’s writ- own narratives provide. ing is a timely reminder of the fact that psy- Andrew McLean then shifts the register in his _________________________________________ paper from representation to narrative, in his exploration of interviews undertaken with 1 I use the catch-all term ‘trans’ here with consider- trans people in Victoria, and their views on the able caution. As is noted throughout this issue, non-gender normative people themselves (i.e., utility of a gender service aimed at meeting those people whose gender identity does not the needs of trans people. McLean’s partici- ‘match’ their natally assigned sex - a match that is pants speak both of the problems with current demanded under the sex/gender regime of het- services, as well as the specific issues that eropatriarchy) employ a range of descriptors when would require attention if a new service was referring to their identities and embodiments. A developed. McLean’s findings emphasise the catch-all term, then, can never adequately refer to need for this service and signify the impor- a category constituted by people whose standpoints tance of supporting trans people to take the are often incommensurate. With this in mind, I use lead in determining what such a service would the term ‘trans’ by way of introducing this journal issue that, in its breadth of coverage, signifies the look like. impossibility of relying upon catch-all terms. 2 ‘Cisgendered ‘ as a term is slowly growing in The next paper by Sonja Vivienne also reports useage, and refers to gender normative people - on the experiences of trans people, this time those individuals whose gender identity to at least in terms of three South Australian transpeople a certain degree ‘matches’ what is expected of their who have made a digital story telling their of natally assigned sex. The term is useful as it places experiences. Similar to the paper by McIntyre, transgender and cisgender people within a shared Vivienne speaks of both