2006 MELBOURNE TRANNY AWARDS: NOMINATIONS NOW OPEN
Nominations are now open for Melbourne’s first annual Trans Revolutionary Achievement and Non-Achievement Awards (TRAANAA), otherwise known as the Tranny Awards.
We call for nominations of
• local community organisations
• bureaucratic institutions
• community leaders
• films
• events
• performers
• health professionals
• random personal moments of revelation
• people we love, or love to hate
The Trannys are about celebrating the joys and difficulties of trans/queer existence with a dash of glamour, an ounce of piss-taking, and the serious need to out the crappy transphobic institutions that make our lives hell. We challenge the conservatism of the pink champagne
circuit, where the same ‘community leaders’ parade around, year after dull year. We challenge the skewed representations of the queer media, for whom the latest Anthony Callea single is more important than trans and queer people living with poverty, discrimination and violence. We challenge the fallacy that there is a GLBTQI community in which we are all equal.
By awarding prizes for transphobia, tokenism, unprofessional psychiatry and bureaucratic nightmares, we draw attention to the everyday discrimination many people in the ‘GLBTIQ’ community experience because of their gender presentation. We’re not afraid to laugh at ourselves, either. By awarding prizes for supportive healthcare, gender-neutral bathrooms, gender-messy events and improvements in the community’s treatment of transpeople, we honour the random kindnesses of strangers and the moving tide of knowledge about trans and gender-variant people, and the growing acceptance that for most of us humans, gender is never stable.
Nominations can be made for the following categories:
1. Most Outstandingly Unhelpful and Transphobic Gay and Lesbian Organisation
2. Most Supportive and Trans-Friendly Health Professional
3. Most Trans-Friendly Organisation
4. Most Unexpectedly Non-Traumatic Coming Out Moment
5. Best Genderfucking Event of 2006
6. Worst Case of Misinformation About Transpeople in a Newspaper or Magazine Article
7. Best Example of Simultaneous Racism, Sexism and Transphobia from A ‘GLBTIQ’ Perspective
8. The Harry Benjamin Award for the Most Inappropriate Comment by a Psychiatrist
9. The Milli Vanilli Award for the Most Lazy and Uninspired Drag Performance of 2006
10. The TransAmerica Award for the Most Conservative Trans Movie
11. The Golden Shower Award for the Best Gender Neutral Bathroom in Melbourne
12. The Ratbag Award for the Most Incorrigible Gender-Variant Upstart
13. The Red Tape Award for the Most Time Consuming Gender Related Administrative Nightmare
14. The Sharp Learning Curve Award for Most Improvement in Gender Awareness
15. The Token Award for the Best Performance of Trans-Friendliness Without the Action to Back it Up
16. International Achievement Award for the Best Example of Trans Advocacy Overseas
17. Best Tranny
HOW TO NOMINATE
1. Go to http://www.genderproject.net.au/trannys/ and follow the link.
2. Email info[AT]genderproject.net.au with the person/thing you’d like to nominate, the award category, the reason they should win, and your name.
Apart from the International Achievement Award, please keep nominations limited to Australia. Be imaginative.
Nominations close 6pm, Friday 8th December.
HOW TO VOTE
Once the nominations have closed on the 8th December, vote at http://www.genderproject.net.au/trannys
THE AWARDS CEREMONY
The Tranny Awards will be held on Sunday December 17 at an as yet undisclosed location. Look out for more publicity coming soon or join the announcements list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/trannys_2006_announce/.
