Oct 7 2015: 15 years of Ombud for Equal Treatment

gba2On October 7th 2015 the regional office for the Federal Ombud for Equal Treatment celebrated 15 years of existence in Graz. It is a governmental institution which is competent for enforcing the right to equal treatment and equality and for protection against discrimination (In Austria the Equal Treatment Act for the private sector entered into force in 1979, the Ombuds were .

Dani with Ombud Bag I was invited to speak on an expert panel with some fabulous colleagues to talk about challenges of “doing gender” and gender performance. In my input I focused on the staggering amount of harassment and violence against trans folk as documented in recent reports from the US and Europe, as well as trans-movements all around the globe. A somewhat heated discussion we had about gender neutral bathrooms I was introducing as best practice, e.g. the #safebathroomDC campaign in Washington.

Fotocredit: Sigrid Schönfelder