The Check Up

By Dr Lucy Dobson, She/Her, Anglesea Medical

GENDER DIVERSITY Transgender and gender-diverse health is a rapidly expanding area of general practice in Australia. For many years there have been people identifying as a gender that was not ‘assigned’ to them at birth.

However, social stigma and discrimination has oppressed their ability to express themselves without recrimination.

Gender identity lies on a spectrum

A transgender person is someone who identifies as the opposite gender to the sex they were born at birth.

A non-binary person identifies as neither male nor female, they lie somewhere along the ‘binary’ spectrum.

Gender identity is different from sexuality, and again the latter lies on a spectrum.

Sexuality is a person’s attraction to another gender and is personal preference. It cannot be assumed to be based on gender identity.

GPs are in a privileged position to support people who experience ‘gender dysphoria’, an intense dislike or incongruence in their gender assigned at birth.

We can do this by supporting social, medical and surgical transition. There are many elements to gender expression and taking hormones or having genderreassignment surgery is by no means the only or ‘complete’ way to do so, which is often the belief of the general public.

Supporting transition

Social transition, ‘coming out’ is often the most important and one of the more difficult parts of transition as it is influenced by the expectations of family, friends and society about what it means to be a male or female, brother, sister, daughter, son, mum or dad.

To the person, it is about being comfortable with who they are and not what others expect.

It is important to establish what pronouns a person chooses to use, these include she/her, he/him, they/them. If you misgender someone with use of incorrect pronouns, politely apologise and correct yourself.

Happiness comes from being truthful to one’s self. The best thing you can do to support a transgender or gender diverse person is to let them be who they want to be!

Who to contact

If you or anyone you know is experiencing gender dysphoria, going through transition or know someone who is, and you are looking for support, speak to your local GP or explore the following resources.

GASP Geelong: gaspgeelong.org.au/about

Transgender Victoria: tgv.org.au

Transcend Australia: transcendaus.org/

Lifeline Australia: 13 11 14

Banking on our community

By Rob Cameron Bendigo Community Bank ®

NEW BRANCH SET TO OPEN All the technical requirements are now ticked off and it will be full steam ahead for the opening of the new Community Bank site in late September, located at the eastern end of the main Anglesea shopping centre precinct.

There will be works commencing on the facade of the building during the lead up to the opening and there may be some minor inconvenience to shoppers as the tradespeople go about their work.

The new facility will have a fresh updated look, with office and meeting rooms on both levels of the two-storey building, providing customer service convenience and privacy, which is an important part of the modern banking experience.

The Bendigo Community Bank will remain the only banking shopfront in the Anglesea township and also carry the important difference of being a locally-owned business, providing the direct financial support back to the community through the community grants program.

This program has returned in excess of $1.2 million to Anglesea and district, supporting schools, sporting clubs, service groups and environmental agencies in the region.

Local community support

The staff at the Anglesea Community Bank recently got on board the Olympic spirit and conducted a little fundraiser for the local Anglesea Foodlink. The Men’s Shed in Anglesea kindly involved themselves with a $500 contribution, and a further $140 was raised within the branch, with a total $640 going directly to Foodlink.

The Lorne Community Bank branch has also been active with support for the Lorne Paramedics Unit, with $500 provided toward the purchase of braces to support damaged limbs in accident situations, allowing patients to be transported to medical facilities in comfort. These are just examples of little contributions making a huge difference in making a community a better, stronger place.

Drop in to one of the three locally-owned Community Bank branches at Anglesea, Lorne or Winchelsea and ask the staff if your community group can receive support from the profits made from your everyday banking experience.