Our sense of identity shapes our understanding of the world around us: how we see ourselves, how we think others see us, our experience of our bodies, with all their possibilities and limitations, contribute to the meaning and sense of purpose we feel in our community.
Gender is a vital facet of identity. Societies that privilege a gender binary expect us to align with a wholly male or wholly female identity. But this understanding of gender can be limiting, divisive, and harmful, even for those who believe in and subscribe to it.
At this panel, we asked how societies can be transformed when they are liberated from the gender binary. What would it mean if the boundaries between male and female dissolved before our eyes? If we were free to locate ourselves wherever we felt most authentically reflected our position on the gender spectrum? Our panel of storytellers have already started writing this world into reality, creating the narratives and stories that will lead us to a future beyond the gender binary.
Presented in partnership with The Wheeler Centre.
THE PANELLISTS
Alison Evans
- Twitter – @_budgie
- alisonwritesthings.com
Alison Evans is the award-winning author of three young adult (YA) novels: Euphoria Kids (2020), Highway Bodies (2019) and Ida (2017). They are a contributor in the YA anthologies Kindred: 12 Queer #loveozya Stories (2019) and Hometown Haunts: A Horror #loveozya Anthology (forthcoming 2021).
Alison runs a fortnightly writing group for trans youth with Nevo Zisin, and they co-edit the zine Concrete Queers with Katherine Back, which has published over 60 queer and/or questioning artists. They are a passionate advocate for the #loveozya community and work as a children’s specialist bookseller.
Hayden Moon
- Twitter – @hayden_seek94
Hayden Moon is an out and proud 26 year old Queer, legally blind, transmasculine person. He is a PhD candidate in Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of Sydney, a Pinnacle Foundation Scholar and a competitive Irish dancer.
In any spare time he can find, he advocates for the LGBTQIA+, disabled and First Nations communities through his roles in various activist collectives. He also consults with LGBTQIA+ organisations such as ACON and The LGBTI Health Alliance. In 2020, Hayden was awarded the Out For The Next Generation – Student of the Year award in Out For Australia’s 30 Under 30 Awards.
Stevie Lane
Stevie is a writer, videographer and digital creator based in Boorloo (Perth, W.A.) on Whadjuk Noongar booja. They have many years experience advocating for the rights of LGBTIQA+ people and other marginalised communities, and creating resources through their Instagram account @TheQueerAdvocate.
Nevo Zisin
- Twitter – @FindingNevo1
- nevozisin.com/
Nevo Zisin (they/them) is a queer, non-binary, Jewish writer, performer, activist and public speaker based in Naarm/Birraranga/Melbourne. They run workshops in schools and professional development training in workplaces around transgender identities. Author of award-winning Finding Nevo (2017), a memoir on gender transition and The Pronoun Lowdown (2021) a useful guidebook on all things related to pronouns.