Who are we?
We are Bridget & Tammy, and in so many ways we are just like you. We share a love for fitness, with Bridget having completed the Australian Ironman Triathlon in 2005 and Tammy setting her sights on completing a half ironman in the next year. We've both spent time as officers in the Army, for Bridget this has been the focus of her career while Tammy moved on to spend time working in IT in both private and government roles. Tammy is a lover of art, both appreciating it and making it. Bridget, on the other hand, would much rather spend an afternoon honing her skills on the latest computer game or trying to finally figure out the secret to the perfect latte on the home espresso machine.
We are a regular family: the last decade has brought us love, marriage, happiness and two beautiful children. Then quite recently something happened to us that meant our livelihood was threatened. Our income, housing and medical care, all conditions of defence force employment, were jeopardized. We were denied support services, cut off from some of our family and we began to live in fear.
What happened?
What was this terrible thing that happened? One of us was diagnosed with a medical condition. This medical condition has a clear biological basis and a relatively simple, extremely successful treatment; however it is widely misunderstood in Australian society. The condition is known as gender identity disorder or, more commonly, as transsexualism. You see Bridget was born with a male body, and has lived for much of her life trying to be a man.
Why are we here?
Our struggle to deal with this diagnosis as a family has been hampered by discrimination and misinformation. We want to help people to be aware of the difficulties faced by people in our situation. We want to face up to discrimination and fear and do our part to replace it with acceptance and understanding. We want to show that we are just like you.
Since when do you have to agree with people to defend them from injustice?
Lillian Hellman