All posts tagged: activism

Interview: Intersex Activist and Artist Pidgeon Pagonis

Published by thequeerav

To celebrate Intersex Awareness Day (October 26), we had a chat with Intersex activist, artist and consultant Pidgeon Pagonis about recent shifts in intersex awareness, how they met Jill Soloway at the White House and got a role on the TV show Transparent, their NEW YouTube channel and more! Firstly, a lot of people are still ill-informed or confused about what it means to be intersex. What is your definition of intersex? To me it’s just any body born with sex genitalia, chromosomes or reproductive organs that don’t fit either the male or female binary. That happens in about 1 in 2000 births at the high end of the statistics. So it’s quite common, just like the same amount of natural born red heads. You’re intersex yourself, and you’re so involved in advocating for the rights of intersex people. How important do you think it is for people to advocate for themselves and the rights of the community/s they are a part of? I think it’s extremely important. I think for intersex we’ve had …

Review – The Queen of Ireland

Published by thequeerav

The Queen of Ireland is a documentary film about the life of Rory O’Neill, better known as Irish drag queen Panti Bliss. The film looks at everything from O’Neill’s life growing up gay in the small town of Ballinrobe, County Mayo, to living with HIV and his gay rights activism, particularly in the lead up to the historic marriage equality referendum in Ireland in 2015. The film is beautifully directed by Conor Horgan who, until this point, was most well known for directing the 2009 post-apocalyptic Irish drama One Hundred Mornings, the winner of many awards. After watching The Queen of Ireland though, I can’t help but feel he has reached new levels of artistic achievement, and that this film will go down as a classic in queer cinema. You see, he didn’t just lay out the facts of a story already written, he captured the honest, intelligent and quirky character that is Rory O’Neill/Panti Bliss. He showed us why Panti is a hero and an inspiration for LGBTI activists everywhere, even when, in fact …

Avoiding BURNOUT: Trans Perspectives

Published by thequeerav

Avoiding burnout can be a difficult thing to do, particularly when you are so passionate about what it is you are doing. As someone who lives, works and breathes advocacy and equality for the LGBTI community, more specifically trans and non-binary communities, it can be difficult to stop the thought process of “how can I help someone else” and turn it into “how can I help myself”. As advocates, we try to help those who may not be able to help themselves. To put it simply, we care, sometimes too much and we don’t want to let others down. To add to this, we’re not just advocating for other people, but also for ourselves and our right to exist freely and equally; it’s all very personal and that can have a huge effect, even on the most positive minded person. For a long time I only ever helped myself by helping other people. I volunteer at various youth, mental health and/or LGBTI organisations, attend events and rallies to stay up to date with LGBTI issues, …