Design: Liam B., Didi Š.
Društvo Kvartir and Trans Mreža Balkan are organizing Transposium 2021 this year (between 19. 6. 2021 and 23. 6. 2021). Transposium is a Balkan regional, annual gathering for the trans, intersex, and gender-variant community. First organized in 2014, the event takes place in different Balkan countries. It aims to build community and act as a call for systemic change of the most pressing issues faced by TIGV people, each year highlighting important local civic issues.
In 2021, Transposium is coming to Slovenia for the first time, highlighting the topic of embodiment. We are proud to bring Transposium to a new country, give a platform to new issues and help empower a new generation of active citizens.
We have been mindful of the pandemic and therefore kept the attendance smaller than usual (up to 50 people including organisers) to make the event safer. To make Transpozij as accessible as possible the gathering will be organised in a hybrid form, with a part of the programme streamed online and a part of it happening only in person.
Join us this June in Ljubljana, we’ll be happy to have you!
Balkan Trans Intersex March Manifesto:
With Love;
Trans Inter Marš 2019
The pandemic has laid bare more blatantly than ever before the devastating imbalances in distribution of power and resources across the world and within our societies. (Neo-)Fascism within our government and governments across the globe is becoming impossible to ignore. Trans people have always existed in the crossfire of different systems of oppression and trans bodies have long been the playground upon which ideologies of those who do not see us as people have played out. Yet, look at us. We are here. We are surviving and we are thriving. We are full of love. And we demand to be heard and treated with the dignity that we all deserve.
Thinking about why we organise, moving through the feelings of anger, resentment, overwhelm, hopelessness, hopefulness, more anger, what we always come back to as the driving force behind our resilience is – love. When structures of power have historically painted us as unlovable, it is sometimes easier to love others than it is to love ourselves. But we are not separate, and the love we are talking about is community love. We are learning to love ourselves through loving others who are like us, others that are pushed to the margins of what the world deems acceptable.
But love is not a feeling. It is not an emotion, it is not the butterflies in our stomachs or the joy that springs in our chests when you have a laugh with a good friend. Love is a commitment to nurturing one’s own and another’s growth and freedom. Love is liberating. Love is an action. It is not something that we can demand from those who will not love us. What we can do is lead by example. What we can do is set up practices, set up spaces, small enclaves of community that are so irresistibly loving that the people who never dared to look at us can see that a different world from what they know is possible. Is already being built. Already exists.
We want to build communities that care more about people than they care about ideas. Communities where our validity is not determined by our pain and our value is not determined by our tiredness; that hold space for us to rest, learn, make mistakes. Communities that recognise our capacity for love and for harm. Communities that are patient and generous, that foster conditions for accountability and repair. Communities that are accessible, inviting, welcoming, that understand that everyone – everyone – has something to offer to them. Communities that have a low standard for entry and a high standard for conduct. Communities that not only create space for but insist on the indispensability of trans people, intersex people, queer people, neurodivergent people, disabled people, Roma people, racialised people, poor people, fat people, people from rural areas, people who are not familiar with the terminology, people who are learning, who are experimenting, people who are here for the first time. Communities that are as self-reflexive as they are critical. This is what we want for our communities.
We understand that our love requires demanding what belongs to us. This means fighting for our access to appropriate healthcare, legal protections, resources and representation within educational and media institutions, in all of the Balkan countries whose trans and intersex communities we represent. With this in mind we state the following needs:
- Alignment of legislative frameworks and practices with European recommendations: Resolution on the Rights of Transgender People (2015) and Resolutions on the Rights of Intersex People (2019).
- Freedom to make decisions about one’s own bodies and lives with full respect to principles of self-determination and bodily integrity for every intersex and transgender person, and especially for intersex infants and children.
- Free and simple procedure for changing of identification documents, i.e. legal recognition of gender, sex and name, based exclusively on principles self-determination.
- Accessible and free physical and mental healthcare, free of pathologisation and in accordance with the needs of transgender and intersex people, as well as education of healthcare workers and the practicing of informed consent.
- Accessibility of the gender-confirmation process outside of urban centres.
- Adequate, timely and effective processing of hate speech and hate crimes.
- Appropriate and accurate media representation with respect for our identities, bodies and experiences, free of sensationalism. Nothing about us without us.
- An educational system free from the imposition of sexual norms, which includes a respectful and positive representation of our bodies, identities and experiences in educational institutions and materials.
- Respect for workers’ and human rights and recognition of the intersectional discrimination that trans and intersex people who are sex workers, Roma women, women, migrants, people with disabilities, racial minorities, people from different religious and ethnic groups, face on a daily basis.
- Providing equal opportunities for work and life, including the decriminalization of sex work and the provision of a safe asylum procedure for all migrant sex workers, Roma women, women and migrants.
- Taking all urgent measures to combat homelessness, hunger and fear for own well-being of trans and intersex people.
- A clear and firm stance against increasing (neo-)fascism in governments.
These demands are what is necessary for our basic survival. They are the foundation upon which we build our communities.
In practising love as a set of actions we need each and every one of you. We need you as individuals, as part of the community and as allies. We need you to listen and resist ignorance, oppression and misconceptions about us, towards our bodies, identities and our rights. We need you to act, to step up for your bullied trans neighbour, non-binary classmate, intersex coworker. We need you to support your local queer artist or iniciative, vote at the elections, respect a person’s pronouns, donate money, take a stand for yourself and others. Love begins with small steps. The revolution starts at home.
With love;
Your Trans and Intersex Community
The project is supported by International Trans Fund, Urgent Action Fund, FRIDA The Young Feminist Fund in Ljubljanski potniški promet.