There is a new link among my links in the What about gender? section. It’s a link to my new weblog here on wordpress called SSIGN, which is short for: Student body for the Support of transgender students and Information on Gender issues, the Netherlands. Would you have come up with that? No, you wouldn’t, it’s a bit silly, but it works, and still it’s only a working title for exactly that what it says. This student body is still an idea, not yet worked out to really be embodied in a true organisation. I do hope to make it happen, which will mean there’ll be an organisation which can support and represent transgender students in the Netherlands and which will be able to inform the public of the existence of gender diversity and in the end I’d like to achieve some emancipation for the transgender students in the Netherlands.
I myself am now almost at the end of my universitary study, my effort to be myself on campus was something I managed on my own with difficulty, though the biggest obstacle was really personal. I found a respecting community on campus who’d respect me as I am, no discrimination and no human onbstacles. I do suppose that not all transgendered students in the Netherlands have this virtue, and besides that it would have been nice if I got help from an organisation like the one I will be trying to set up.
The weblog for SSIGN is in Dutch, but I do hope to get a sister-blog up and running in English for the international students studying in the Netherlands. Eventually when SSIGN is set up it will have it’s own website which will make the blog obsolete, until then the SSIGN blog will be the place to be for transgendered Dutch and international students in the Netherlands.
If you’re interested in helping me out, or want more information, then please leave behind a comment here or at SSIGN and I will contact you.
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13 February, 2008 at 9:28 am
artgrrl
Just gor the url today, nice idea! The atmosphere at the UvA is pretty good too, but I guess it really depends on the department, mine’s Media & Cultuur.
20 February, 2008 at 10:54 am
Sophie
Thanks for your comment!
(Voor het gemak ga ik verder in ‘t NL) Het SSIGN initiatief is o.a. in me opgekomen vanwege een opmerking van m’n therapeut in 2006 bij de VU, dat als student zijnde ik bepaalde zekerheden zou missen voor een succesvolle transitie. Uiteindelijk was dat dus niet zo, maar met SSIGN moet het voor anderen wel makkelijker worden, dan het voor mij tot nu toe wel was. Zaken als je naam en mensen inlichten op een universiteit kan nu eenmaal wel een drempel vormen, en als ik die met dit voor anderen omlaag kan krijgen dan ga ik daarvoor ^-^ .