Victoria's parliament carried a law to protect transgender people from discrimination on 6 September. It covers areas such as employment, education, accommodation and access to goods and services. Some amendments are under heavy pressure from conservative independents. So far, it applies only to "bona fide" transgender people, and people wishing to change from one gender to the other are required to give their employer three months notice. Further amendments to allow discrimination in schools were rejected. Transgender spokespeople welcomed the legal recognition. They thought that the Equal Opportunities Commission could be relied upon to interpret "bona fide" in a sympathetic manner. This result follows years of lobbying and a late hold up by conservative independents. I advocated a public campaign to pressure the government to carry the bill in its original form. Lobbying, gay media outrage, quiet pressure and negotiation have achieved an acceptable outcome, but not the best possible one.

QUEER S11

QUEER, a student based activist group, made sure there was a strong and visible queer presence at the S11 demonstration. A lively queer convergence was held at Melbourne Uni. on the Sunday S10. A proposal to have a queer contingent on the S12 union rally received wide support. The need was seen clearly to challenge homophobia in the union movement and to support UNITE. Unfortunately, the contingent was very small. As so often, the immediate concerns (blockading) overruled the strategic ones (linking with the unions). One problem I saw at the meeting was the adoption of S11-awol meeting procedure, which occurs without debate. This meant that we did not actually vote on proposals for action, just indicated whether we would support any particular action. I think this undermined giving political priority to the union rally contingent. QUEER is now discussing whether to continue to organise as a distinct group. I hope it does. There is a real need for a queer activist group that can shake things up, and that does not pander to the conservatives in other groups. Contact Xanthe -0407 519 348 (Queer officer @ Melbourne Uni.) or Josh -(03) 9925 3707 (CCSN Vic convenor and Queer RMIT convenor)

UNITE

UNITE, the group for queer workers, adopted a mission statement at its September meeting. Among the priorities are to: "protect and improve the working conditions of GLBT workers" identify GLBT union activists and encourage them to participate, develop and improve policies in the trade union movement, increase GLBT activities within the trade union movement, achieve lasting and long-term positive change for GLBT workers, and increase the membership and participation of GLBTs in the trade union movement. UNITE is a forum for the generation and exchange of ideas and an opportunity for GLBT unionists to network. It will act as a contact point for workers and focus on specific issues affecting GLBT workers, including participation in and initiation of actions for change, training packages, campaigns and publications. It is open to all GLBT union members, organisers, officials and VTHC executive members. A proposal to educate the queer community about queer-specific industrial issues in news articles was adopted. The main idea is to develop articles for placement in the gay press. A fundraiser and mission statement launch is planned for early December.