“Tower, this is Abby, we have to declare an Emergency.” (Oct 2024 Recap)
In October, the weather in Taiwan is getting colder, and for the transgender community, the whole situation is entering the depths of winter. This month, there was good news about Taiwan’s lawsuit regarding transgender person can change their gender marker without GRS surgery. On the one hand, those conservatives were eager to jump in. It also made the anti-transgender comments on the entire Internet reach an unprecedented level, making it even more terrifying. Making me personally the target of this wave of attacks. As for my personal situation, it seems that I am not as strong as I imagined. This time, I have to tell me that I need help. These will be explained in detail later.
This month’s article will be very long. First, let’s review what I did this month that are worth mentioning:
The documentary “Children of the SUN”
In terms of documentaries, the Chinese and English subtitled version of “Children of the SUN” was screened at New Bloom and Lumaq Aboriginal Restaurants on October 5 and October 20 respectively. It received very good reviews. Thank you for your support for this first-time filming. The director of the documentary was so supportive. In addition, the film will also be available for online paid viewing on October 29. The personal version is priced at NT$200. We hope that friends will support our creation that is purely for the issue and supports it with enthusiasm. This film will also be released in 2025 It will be released online for free in January, allowing the world to see the gender story of the Rukai people in Taiwan (patreon paying supporters will have another article available for online viewing).
Photo: screening scene at New Bloom on 5 Oct.
Photo: screening scene at Lumaq on 20 Oct.
Been on TV
On October 17, I was invited by Taiwan Public Television Service to appear on the political commentary program “Taiwan New Vision”. I shared with the guests and viewers in front of the TV about the situation of transgender people in Taiwan, and once again explained why surgery is not required for the legal gender change. Changing the gender is very important for transgender people, and I also clarifies various rumors about transgender people. However, in this program, the production unit invited the “Taiwan Solidarity Union” political party, which has always opposed the removal of GRS surgary in Taiwan, to come and talk to the program. They were really talking nonsense and were completely manipulating society’s fear of the unknown. I later At the show, I also put on various expressions of helplessness because I couldn’t stand listening to it.
Photo: Political commentary program “Taiwan New Vision” . Public Television Service.
Photo: Me in the left is pissed by what “Taiwan Solidarity Union” said.
Political commentary program “Taiwan New Vision” . Public Television Service.
Went to Vutai once more
On October 21st, because indigenous friends from Australia had attended the special screening of “Children of the SUN” the day before, and they originally wanted to study Taiwan’s origins in Vutai Township, Pingtung (which is also where I shot the documentary). Because of the local mountain weather and road condition, I made a temporary decision the day before to responsibly accompany them. After all, the roads in the mountains are not that easy to drive, so I would still worry about them. We spent two happy days in Vutai and exchanged many topics about transgender people and indigenous. After the trip, they gave me a nice red envelope, which allowed me to pay some bills and eat. (Actually, I just wanted to take them to visit the tribe, and stopped by to see if everyone was okay, without any intention of charging money)
Photo: Culture teacher who can speak English was talking about tribe.
Been on Radio
When I was in Pingtung that day, I was interviewed by the National Chengchi University Student Radio about the policy of “the Ministry of Education is revising the student information system to allow students to freely fill in their gender identity.” Of course I was happy and hoped that schools in Taiwan could Implement policies in this regard and protect transgender students from discrimination or harassment. News article in Chinese
Given a internet security speech
On October 24, I was invited by another NGO to give a speech on information security in Taichung. The theme was “The Era of National Live Broadcasting: Your Life, My Show.” The content mainly analyzes the data collection and Internet surveillance and blocking of people in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan from the government to business. Although the audience of this speech was not large, everyone’s response was very good. Many people are very concerned that their data will be Non-consensual collection and sale by governments and commercial companies.
Photo: the e-poster of the speech.
October 25th: from 8am to 3am
October 25th was a very busy day, because the discussion on transgender issues has been very “heated” recently. Early in the morning, I rushed to Radio Taiwan International to participate in the recording of the “More Than Gender” radio program. In it, I shared my life story, and tried to explain the current situation of transgender people in Taiwan, various misunderstandings about transgender people, and most importantly, countered various hate speeches.
Photo: Me and the host of “More Than Gender” radio program.
At noon, I rushed to my old home and used a friend’s car to move a few things to my new home. When night falls, go to the “2024 6th Taiwan Transgender Parade” to see how everyone in the community is doing and whether everyone is okay. I also met a lot of friends during the parade, and seeing everyone still greeting me warmly made me feel at ease. (Of course, I also know some transgender friends who don’t even have the courage to go out to march. It doesn’t matter. I will wait for you and hope to see you one day)
Photo: Me and some friends in the parade, they are holding the sign dated back 12 years ago, when ISTScare just launched, and the signs are still the same one.
After the parade that day, we also participated in the live broadcast of Taiwan Public Television Service ‘s online program. Public Television has always been a good partner of ours and has always supported the issue of replacement of certificates without surgery. In that day’s program, I continued to talk about Our purpose in promoting the trans movement.
Photo: Me ,the guests and the crews from Public Television Service.
The trip that day is not over yet. After the live broadcast of the show, I went to New Bloom’s transgender parade afterparty to serve as a late-night party DJ. This time I also brought you a variety of good EDM music, so that everyone could have a pleasant night and return to the venue. When I got home, it was already 3 o’clock in the morning.
Photo: I was doing DJ at New Bloom
Taipei Youth Consultative Committee
On October 27, I attended the selection briefing meeting of the Youth Consultative Committee of the Youth Bureau of the Taipei City Government. This is a newly established bureau in Taipei City. The purpose is to form a committee for the development and future of Taipei City’s youth. Fortunately, they requested My age range is 18-45, so I’m still within the qualifying range. I hope to make a personal profile and submit it before the selection deadline next week. If I can be successfully selected as a youth committee member, I hope to become one of the important people in promoting diversity and gender equality in Taipei City. However, there seemed to be no LGBT+ friends at the briefing that day, which made me a little worried.
Photo: a law speaker was mentioning transgender rights in the selection briefing meeting.
Technical consultant for media company (not transgender related)
On October 28, under the introduction of a friend, I worked as a temporary technical consultant for a day in the literary department of a media company, because the company wanted to develop a story about the dark web in the next film production, and they wanted to have professionals. technical guidance, so my journalist friend introduced us to each other. I provided a lot of technical explanations and teachings about the dark web to let them understand the good and bad aspects of the dark web. From the remuneration they gave me afterwards, I felt that they seemed to be very satisfied with my service. In the near future, I may have the opportunity to contribute to a movie as a technical consultant!
Well, not all things go well…..
Wow, judging from the above article, October is really a busy month, with various interviews and activities coming one after another. But just as everyone is busy spending this wonderful October, there is not all good news for the transgender community.
I may have mentioned last month that I was working for a human rights NGO. I was originally supposed to do information security work, but later I was doing accounting-related work. However, because the salary of this job was really low (the basic hourly wage in Taiwan is 183 yuan, which is approximately equivalent to US$5.7), and some things happened later, I had no choice but to give up the job.
Due to the success of the lawsuit in the case of non-surgery legal gender change, the intensity of attacks by conservative forces on the transgender community in Taiwan has reached a new high. Their portal website No Self ID in Taiwan has even collected information that has been used in the lawsuit about their identity, including the names of the parties and relevant judgment information (we found in one case that we don’t know how they learned the names of the parties). This is to put the personal information of these transgender people into the public trials on the Internet are a very immoral thing.
In response to this matter, I also responded. After I tried to sort out the information provided by others, I originally wanted to use the same thing to threaten the website to take down the disclosed personal information. I thought it would be useful, and they even sent an “intermediary” to try so talk with me. Please ask me not to publish it. Of course, I didn’t really want to publish the other party’s information.
The storm is coming…
Later, they transferred the war to me personally. Reduxx, a well-known anti-trans media (its founder has been punished for making hateful speeches many times), publicly named me in the early morning of October 30, Taiwan time. At that moment, my Twitter The influx of hate speech, I need to turn my social network into a semi-open state.
These past few months have actually been very difficult. Because I can’t afford my pets financially, under the persuasion of my friends, I had to give the four cats I had raised for a long time to other friends. I really miss them, but I know they will live better in their new families.
If you have read my previous article, you may have noticed that I seem to be moving. Yes, because the rent in the old house was 4 months in arrears and the living environment was not very good, a good friend of mine invited me to move to a new apartment to live with her. The rent was about the same as before (NT$7,500 per month, approximately US$235). But as mentioned before, I am currently unemployed. I have actually been looking for various sources of income, including speaking engagements or working as a consultant. After all, these are unstable sources of income. Although a friend asked me to interview for an administrative assistant job a few days ago, due to my characteristics and distance (and the basic salary for this job), I couldn’t give myself enough confidence that I was qualified. My friends are also worried about my financial ability to afford the rent.
I want to do more
Such setbacks at work have made me question my ability to work and my ability to withstand stress. I am worried that I may offend more people or encounter more setbacks when I continue to work. But after all, we need money to live, and social movements also need money. I was a program engineer and security before, but now I don’t know where my next meals is.
Because I hope to have a fund to support my transgender community services and social movements, I have proposed an annual work plan for the Open Society Foundation in the United States. This year they are especially open to submissions from Taiwan. If selected, I will receive a very good fund can support my life and promote social movements for one year. Although Taiwan only has 4 places, I am relatively optimistic, but the results will not be available until the end of December.
Pressure, mental state
Between financial stress, a move, and a storm of online hate speech, I’m not doing well right now. I only have about NT$2,000 (about US$63) left with me now. I still have a lot of things in my old home that I can’t move to my new home because I can’t afford the moving expenses (it costs about NT$9,000, about US$281). And I have to complete the move to my old home before November 4th. Although I currently rely on the government’s monthly transportation pass (NT$1,200 per month allows unlimited use of public transportation), this is not a way to move. After all, things like washing machines and refrigerators cannot be moved by metro.
Furthermore, because the previous things happened, I blamed myself very much. I seemed to have crossed my original bottom line and danced with the madman, which made my situation worse. My current mental state is that it is very difficult to find a suitable job in a short period of time when my resume is not very good, so now I need to declare an emergency.
Running out of everything
Because I don’t have much cash anymore, the rest of the money is used for food and to see the HRT doctor (but after spending all the money, I can’t see the doctor), but the hormone drugs I have on hand can last about 4 weeks. And I also saw a psychiatrist because of excessive stress, and he was prescribed anti-anxiety medication to help me sleep.
I would like to ask my followers to help introduce whether there are emergency living funds that Taiwanese transgender people can apply for. It is expected that in the next three months (until the results of the documentary competition and OSF proposal are announced), I will need at least about US$3,000. Living expenses, and I also hope that if followers see any annual funds that Taiwanese transgender movement workers can apply for, please let me know so that I can apply for these expenses.
I hope to set up my emergency life fund to raise funds, but because the GoFundme page does not accept accounts in Taiwan, I cannot use it.
The current support from Pateron is around US$58 per month. If you have the ability, I hope you can also support my life. My paypal is here paypal.me/lazurloner . You can also contact me via E-mail [email protected] . Any assistant is appreciate.
I hope this message can spread so that I can continue to help more trans people. I have spent like 4 hours in this article, wow, that’s something.
May the inner peace be with me.