To celebrate pride month this year, we’re taking a look at a small selection of resources by and about transgender Victorians in our catalogue, and taking a quick stroll through the rich history they document! Follow along as we discuss some of these recent acquisitions in our latest PMI blog post.
The ways in which transgender Victorians have navigated their identity in a hostile society has been in a constant state of upheaval since our state’s inception, and the Prahran Mechanics Institute (PMI) Victorian History Library’s collection includes first-hand perspectives charting these changes over time, from historical accounts compiled in resources such as Noah Riseman’s ‘Transgender Australia’, to historical perspectives in primary sources like ‘Elaine Barrie’s self-published ‘Nu-scene International’ magazine. This article will be a broad introduction to the corners of our collection focused on transgender Victorians, and the social conditions through which the works came to be.
Seahorse Victoria
One of the most well documented organisations by and for transgender Victorians is the Victorian chapter of the Seahorse Club, formed in the 1970’s following the original club’s founding in Sydney. This was a time with laws on the books outlawing ‘cross-dressing’, and meetings were organised and hosted discreetly at member’s homes, where they risked prosecution for a sense of community and belonging. Our library collection includes a beautiful retrospective account of how Seahorse flourished in the decades to come and became a home for many Victorians, and all the fascinating details of the club’s history and membership.
The Elaine Barrie Project
As the 70’s came to a close, a new scene (!) and culture broke away from the Seahorse Club, organising itself as ‘The Elaine Barrie Project’, named for the club’s founder and president. This new group founded the newsletter magazine ‘Nu-Scene International’, which operated out of Altona, and published over 100 issues over the decades to come. As well as being hugely influential to our state’s zine culture, the two issues of N.S.I on our shelves are an incredible insight into 1990’s Victorian culture, the conversations (and sometimes spats) being had in these spaces at the time, and the effective organisation of a community forced underground. (The featured image for this post is a double page spread scanned from one of the issues of Nu-Scene in our collection!)
Gender Clinic Established
In 1975, while transgender and non-conforming Victorians were establishing their own organisations in clubs like Seahorse and the E.B.P, the medical establishment in Melbourne was grappling with how to provide treatment for transgender patients, after the advent of gender-affirming surgery in Victoria was performed in the decade prior. Noah Riseman’s report ‘A history of trans health care in Australia’, available in our digital collection, details the establishment of what would eventually become the Monash Gender Clinic, and the ways in which it both served and was at odds with its patients as legal and ethical challenges arose around its operations.
The storied history of transgender organisations in Victoria has left a legacy hugely influential to many aspects of today’s LGBTQIA+ and Victorian culture at large. The growing number of firsthand and retrospective perspectives available in our collection are invaluable insights into cultural change and the struggle of Victorians to be accepted in law and in public, and well worth reading for any researcher interested in queer history. Be sure to come in and check out our book display for pride month, which includes some of the books mentioned in this article, and many more!
And Happy pride!
Written by placement student Cal Elizabeth Birchall.