Susan's Place Transgender Resources

I saw the other post on moving to England or Canada, and I'd like to extend the question to any opinions on Australia or Germany as well. I know we have a few Aussies here (I don't know about Germans) and I would love to hear your opinions on the living situation there. Obviously, how easy is access to T and does your insurance cover it? And how is the discrimination level? (I would think it would be pretty much the same anywhere you go, but I'd love to know the opinion from someone living there.)

Also... I know this isn't strictly trans related, but... How often do you worry about lethal spider bites? Or snakes? I'm not going to base my moving opinion entirely on the trans issue, but I also don't want to base it entirely on the stereotype that the Australian continent doesn't like being inhabited by anything as squishy as a human. Internet fatality stats aren't as useful as asking some who lives there.

Regarding Germany: T is covered by insurance (though there is a 5 Euro prescription fee), you usually need a letter but there are  also GPs who will give out prescriptions. Haven't experienced any discrimination whatsoever. No lethal spider or snake bites in Germany ;)

Haha, thanks for that. Guess I should have been more specific with my train of thought :-p

I came to Australia from the US and now have residency here.  In Australia, the public health system that helps you pay your medical costs is Medicare, which means you get a great deal of treatment costs free or at very low cost.  It depends on where you live, but some states try to funnel trans patients into a gender clinic which usually makes you go through the therapy route before you can get T, but I had heard so much crap about the clinic in Adelaide that I wanted nothing to do with it, so my GP prescribed me T on informed consent within 15 days of asking him about it.  Medicare covers all my lab tests and I only pay about $35 for an office visit and about $45 for 3 shots of T.  Surgery would be covered partly by Medicare and most of the rest by private insurance.  Spiders here aren't anymore of an issue than black widows and snakes don't usually bother us in the southern suburbs.

I forgot to add that I've not experienced any discrimination so far, but I pass 99% of the time.  I am about to start job-hunting, though, so we'll see - my vital documents are still in my birth sex and name until I have citizenship.

Kreuzfidel covered the situation here pretty well.
Things that bite are really no worse than anywhere else, and no-one has died of a spider bite since antivenine for Funnel Webs and Redbacks was invented nearly 50 years ago.   
Snakes are a bit like Transphobia, depends on where you live really.
If you are in Melbourne or Sydney there are suburbs that are known for high population of  Trans and Gay people,  conversely  if you live on Flinders Island in Bass Strait, you will certainly meet Tiger Snakes.   

Karen.

Why do so many people still think that Australia is the world's deadliest continent or something? I guess Crocodile Hunter still has that effect on people...

To be honest, yes there are creepy crawly poisonous things, but the chances of an encounter are pretty low unless you're living right on the bush.  As far as funnelwebs and redbacks are concerned, if you know where they're likely to be, you take small precautions and they're not an issue.  I last came across a redback spider over 20 odd years ago.

The rundown on the medical system:
1.  You only qualify for Medicare if you're a permanent resident or citizen.
2.  Medicare has a schedule of payments for a given health care provider service (GP - short/long consultation, biopsy etc.  Specialist - short/long consultation etc).
3.  Health care providers have the right to charge more than what the scheduled rebate is - that is the gap that you will need to pay out of pocket - the gap varies from provider to provider so if you're concerned about cost of treatment, ask about the gap before scheduling an appointment.  Some providers do charge rebate only (AKA bulk bill).
4.  Most diagnostic tests are covered (radiology, blood tests etc) but only under referral by a health care provider.
5.  There are a few transgender clinics in the major cities - I've avoided the one in my city to date.
6.  A few of the Docs providing transgender care are pretty up to date - my endo fully understood where I was coming from and gave me my E script without requiring me to go back into therapy (and it's been over 8 years since I last saw my psych).

Transphobia - varies from place to place/suburb to suburb.  justmeinoz has pretty much covered that - you'll pick up pretty quickly where the trans friendly/indifferent areas are.

Kreuzfidel - I would love to hear about how your move to Australia went. How long did the whole process take, and more specifically... what's the first step?

Luna - If you'd ever seen a documentary on "worlds deadliest creatures" in the states, you'd know exactly why. Over here, any show on deadly animals turns into an Australia showcase. It has got to be a conspiracy. I have to wonder if the government isn't trying to scare us away from your continent because they're afraid we'll like it too much and stay, hahaha!

Australia! Woo! :D

As the others said, medicare can help with a lot of costs, and private health care can help make up some of the extra. While poisonous animals are everywhere, you really don't run into them that often, and even if you do most of the time they're more afraid of you than you are of them! :P Even if something bad does happen and you get bitten by a snake or spider, the hospitals are well versed in what to do in such an instance, and you're likely to recover easily.

As to descrimination, I've only ever had one bad experience in that regard, and that was with an online friend who was American, so I don't think that counts! :P You are (I believe?) covered by anti-discrimination laws when getting a job here, so it really shouldn't be a problem.

One thing to take into consideration is that we have few surgeons here who will work on trans patients. There are only three surgeons I know of who will perform top surgery, and bottom surgery (construction, not hysto/oopho) isn't done here at all.

Biscuit_stix, it depends on the type of visa you apply for as to how long it can take and whether you apply onshore here in Australia or offshore.  I applied for the spouse visa as my wife is an Aussie.  From my first initial visit until now, it took 2 years to get settled.  The Department of Immigration and Citizenship can take a long time to grant a visa because they have so many applications to wade through.  Obviously a lot of people want to live here!  The first step is to go to DIAC's website and look into what types of visas you may be eligible for: http://immi.gov.au (http://immi.gov.au)

You dont really need to worry about spiders. There are a lot of spiders in my shed but they are mostly just those Daddy Long Legs ones, they are everywhere!! I dont even know how they get in there! I might see a snake in my yard 2 times a year, but I live near a park so that is probably why. Different animals also like to swim in my pool too, its kind of weird actually. There was a baby possum swimming in there one morning! It isnt scary or anything tho. Your more likely to just come across a gecko lizard on your window every night  :)

You have to be careful of the killer koalas that leap out of trees and suck your brains out.

I've found Australia to be pretty laid back. I have had no issues. It may be easier for FtM rather than MtF to get hormones. In Adelaide there are only two licensed endos who can treat MtF while most GPs will prescribe T. It's an Act of Parliament thing so I've been told. Each state has different rules as well just to keep it confusing. The major cities seem tolerant of most things, you may have problems in small country towns but there isn't much work available in them anyway, and little medical care in most cases. Sydney and Melbourne are the most expensive to live in. Then Adelaide and Perth.
Tasmania pays people to live there, which is why Karen lives there :laugh: :laugh:

I have lived in and visited many places but Australia is quite special.
I emigrated from the UK  many years ago so I'm not sure what the process is, there are job categories that have preferential treatment, so it would be worth checking the Govt web sites.  That said the immigration bureaucracy is very slow, and it is deliberate, in order to keep the number of immigrants down.

Cindy

Off topic but that's for making these moving posts Biscuit.  I want to move sometime in the future too and some of these areas are some of my choices so I'm paying close attention to what the other readers said especially with the deadly creatures in Australia.   :D

Deadly shmedly!    Nothing a long handled shovel or a boot won't fix! >:-) 

Karen.

More people in Australia die from reactions to bee stings than they do getting attacked by sharks, crocs, snakes or Tasmanians.

And that is considerably less than those who are killed in motor vehicle accidents.

I'd just like to point out for those who are following this thread and aren't Aussie, Tasmania is actually a beautiful place, and lovely to live in. It makes me think of Scotland with the green countryside and colder weather! :P For some reason the rest of Aus picks on Tasmania, and I've never been able to work out why; I visited once and never wanted to leave again! :P

I couldn't live there myself though; their quarantine laws are ridiculous, and my fishkeeping hobby demands I have access to outside sources! -goes off on random tangent-

Anyway! As others have said, the treatment here can sway from one extreme to the other; it took me close to two years to get on hormones because I had no help, and none of the people I went to wanted to put me on T, Yet others I've spoken to have been put on hormones within the first few weeks. It really does depend on who you go to, which state you're in, and factors like how old you are.

Some interesting Aussie tidbits that might help sway you (though I don't know how many of these will help immigrants):

1). Our licences don't have a gender on them.
2). It is possible to change your gender on records before having surgery or going on hormones.
3). Top surgery will be partially covered by Medicare regardless of your legal gender at the time of surgery (with further coverage available through private).
4). Hysto/oopho will be partially covered by Medicare if you are legally female (with further coverage available through private).
5). A legal name change takes around a week to process, and will cost just over $100.

A quick breakdown of our anti-discrimination laws by state/territory:

NSW: 'Transgender' covered in anti-discrimination laws since 1977.
ACT: 'Transsexuality' covered in anti-discrimination laws since 1991.
QLD: 'Gender identity' covered in anti-discrimination laws since 1991
SA: 'Chosen gender' covered in anti-discrimination laws since 1984.
VIC: 'Gender identity' covered in anti-discrimination laws since 1995.
WA: 'Gender history' covered in anti-discrimination laws since 1984.

Neither TAS or NT cover transgender people in their anti-discrimination laws, though it could be argued that a transgender individual's status falls under 'irrelevant medical history' (which is covered in both) in certain cases.

Australia's six most expensive cities ranked as of Mercer's 2011 Cost of Living survey:

Sydney - Globally ranked 14
Melbourne - Globally ranked 21
Perth - Globally ranked 30
Brisbane - Globally ranked 31
Canberra - Globally ranked 34
Adelaide - Globally ranked 46

It's worth noting that the Mercer survey compares against New York, and as such is skewed to an American market. One also has to take into consideration that the average Australian earns (as far as I can tell) more than the average Brit or (I assume) American. For example an English cousin is staying with us at the moment, and we've worked out that her salary as a full time (40+ hours) nurse converts to around $35000 Australian. To put that into perspective, my annual income as a part time (20+ hours) assistant manager in a retail store is $39000 (and let me assure you that is at the bottom end of the Aussie pay scale). So while the cost of living can seem high here just from looking at the numbers, from what I can see the average wage is more than capable of coping, so don't let that scare you off! :P

I hope that's been of some help! :)

Quote from: Bane on March 23, 2012, 05:45:09 AM

1). Our licences don't have a gender on them.

Aww thats not fair :( mine has gender :'(

Quote from: harlee on March 23, 2012, 06:07:36 AM
Aww thats not fair :( mine has gender :'(

Wow, really? Gosh, I guess I was too quick to jump on that generalisation then! Now I'll have to go and check which states do and which don't! I'll leave it there so these two posts don't look stupid floating around with no context. :P

Okay! So the ACT, NSW, VIC, WA, SA and NT driver's licences do not have a gender marker on them, while QLD licences do. I was unable to find out if TAS licences have a gender marker or not; anyone else know? :)

Quote from: Kreuzfidel on March 21, 2012, 09:08:44 PM
I came to Australia from the US and now have residency here.  In Australia, the public health system that helps you pay your medical costs is Medicare, which means you get a great deal of treatment costs free or at very low cost.  It depends on where you live, but some states try to funnel trans patients into a gender clinic which usually makes you go through the therapy route before you can get T, but I had heard so much crap about the clinic in Adelaide that I wanted nothing to do with it, so my GP prescribed me T on informed consent within 15 days of asking him about it.  Medicare covers all my lab tests and I only pay about $35 for an office visit and about $45 for 3 shots of T.  Surgery would be covered partly by Medicare and most of the rest by private insurance.  Spiders here aren't anymore of an issue than black widows and snakes don't usually bother us in the southern suburbs.

How did you get residency in Australia? I've always heard that Americans have to open a business with $100,000+ in capital or get some kind of high power position like a brain surgeon or something to get citizenship in other countries. And I've also heard from a friend of mine in another part of the world, that Australia doesn't let anyone in, that you need to have a ton of money to your name to be allowed into the country even for a vacation.

@ thefire - That's basically not true.  Yes, you need to prove that you have enough money to support yourself during your initial arrival, waiting for your visa approval or during the interim until you find a job, but that's only for SOME visa types.  Again it depends on what kind you apply for.  You don't need a ridiculous amount of money to be allowed to have a holiday here, just enough to support yourself during your stay.  This is to prevent people coming here on a tourist visa (no work allowed) with, say, $200 to their name and then illegally working here.  I had about $7500 in my bank account when I got a 1-year Work and Holiday visa here.  The visa I just got approved for didn't require me to have any money, just to demonstrate that my spouse would financially support me until my visa was granted.

Quote from: thefire on March 23, 2012, 12:05:36 PM
How did you get residency in Australia?

As Kreuzfidel said - there are lots of ways.  You don't need $100k!
1.  Student visa - apply to study here, you get a visa that's valid while you're studying.  Note that a student visa limits you to 20 hours of work per week.
2.  Working holiday visa - that is a short term visa only - you are allowed to work part time on a time limited visa - it basically allows you to backpack around the country and earn the cash to pay your way so to speak.  Generally speaking this visa can't be extended unless you manage to qualify for either of the next two:
3.  Working visa - the infamous 457 visa.  This requires that you have a skillset that is in demand in the country.  Usually you'll only fall into this visa category if you've successfully applied for a job in the country and your employer sponsors you.
4.  Spouse visa - you marry an Aussie!  This one takes forever to process, and then they put you on a probationary spouse visa for 2 years - if you're still married after two years they take pity on you and then give you the permanent residency :P

The first two visas are relatively easy to get, and are a good way to come over short term and to see whether or not the country is as scary as people make it out to be. =)

I also love Tasmania, but it is a bit of an Aussie joke to 'bag' Tasmanian's particularly if you know them. Karen happens to be a personal friend and we just joke to each other. Tasmania is also relatively small compared to the mainland states and you can drive around it in hours rather than days. The countryside is gorgeous and different to the mainland. It can be much cooler and people need to remember that the Aussie climate is not for everyone. It can be very hot. The biggest scares for me aren't the wildlife but the bushfires. They can be horrific and anyone living outside of the CBDs needs to have bushfire plans.

There is no gender marked on Tasmanian Licences.  With all the jokes about inbreeding directed at Tasmanians they probably figure it is pointless!  :laugh:

The Immigration Dept has a point system to assess whether someone is elligible for residence.  Other than that I have no up to date info on the specific requirements.

Tassie is a great place, especially if you like the outdoors .  The roads are motorcycle heaven, awesome fishing, especially trout, great hiking, some great wineries.  What's not to love about an island shaped like a woman's pubic hair! Hence the term "map of Tasmania" in the song by Amanda Palmer! >:-)

Karen.
 

Quote from: justmeinoz on March 24, 2012, 07:14:56 AM
Tassie is a great place, especially if you like the outdoors .  The roads are motorcycle heaven, awesome fishing, especially trout, great hiking, some great wineries.  What's not to love about an island shaped like a woman's pubic hair! Hence the term "map of Tasmania" in the song by Amanda Palmer! >:-)

That much is true!  The main problem with Tassie has been jobs - there really isn't much down there other than the wilderness! :P
As it stands, I think last set of statistics still has Tassie with the highest unemployment rate. :/

The job situation here is pretty bad at the moment, with a lot of uncertainty in the logging and timber industries over forest access and conservation issues.  The flow on effects could be bad and add another couple of thousand to the jobless figures.  On the other hand if you work in fish-farming or vineyards/winemaking the situation is much better, with both doing fairly well and expanding.

Karen. 
ps.  The North-South divide in this State is a family thing.  One family in the North and one in the South! >:-)

It's been a long time dream of mine to backpack around and see all of Australia. But the work-travel visa is only for people under 30, which I think is BS! Some of us older people want to see the world too! So I guess I'm not allowed to come there and backpack around then am I? It will most likely be sometime when I'm over 40, which to me doesn't necessarily mean I'd be incapable of backpacking around the country just because of my age. But I really do want to see the country some day, and I don't want to marry anyone either. I'm a lone wolf.

@ thefire - I barely got my Work and Holiday visa - got approved about 2 weeks before I turned 31.  But you can come here on an ETA (Electronic Travel Authority) and stay up to 3 months at a time for a year.  You can simply renew the ETA online when the one year expires.  ETAs are available to people from most developed countries and you just go online, fill out a form, submit payment and it's usually instantly granted.

Now I really want to move to Australia.

You would hate it Malachite,

We just rest on the beaches; the girls wear bikinis, the guys wear whatever they want to hide the physical reactions of watching girls in bikinis (Damn). And we drink cold beer or beautiful wine and eat great food. It is a very tough life, but someone has to do it.

I'm brave. So I'm committed to the hardships.
Sorry; hold on for a second " Honey, peel me a grape" Now, where was I?

Cindy

Quote from: Cindy James on March 28, 2012, 03:50:07 AM
You would hate it Malachite,

We just rest on the beaches; the girls wear bikinis, the guys wear whatever they want to hide the physical reactions of watching girls in bikinis (Damn). And we drink cold beer or beautiful wine and eat great food. It is a very tough life, but someone has to do it.

I'm brave. So I'm committed to the hardships.
Sorry; hold on for a second " Honey, peel me a grape" Now, where was I?

Cindy

I think Australia could use one more person to commit to their hardships.  I'm willing to put in the work.  :)

For some reason there appears to be a queue. Lordy, people love hardship. So many brave people, 'cut the grape in segments dear'

Quote from: Cindy James on March 28, 2012, 04:02:19 AM
For some reason there appears to be a queue. Lordy, people love hardship. So many brave people, 'cut the grape in segments dear'

Someone has to get the job done.   :D

-and dip them in vodka, Oh that's a clever trick, you want to balance them there while I  :police:

Naughty girl

It's tough that's for sure.  I had to have Spring Bay Oysters two meals in a row one day last December! And I am soooo sick of fresh salmon. :laugh:

I'm bored with all of the exotic wildlife - too many koalas and cockatoos *sigh*

I just spent over an hour looking at immigrating to Australia.  I have no special skills that they want and I will probably be over 30 by the time I would be planning to move there and I have no family or partner to sponser me so I'm stuck here.  :(  I guess when Uncle Sam said "I want you" he wasn't playing lol.


No those aren't tears....I just have something in my eyes.  :'(

You never know what the future may bring, Malachite!  And you can still come and visit Cindy and me in Adelaide :)

Mal! Go to school with me! :D I'm going to start on my electrical engineering degree once I get a better job, specifically so I can be more appealing to other countries ;) Do a 'once a week' class or, or an online course, or something and we can tell uncle Sam he can't keep us /together/, haha!! :)

@Kreuzfidel lets hope it brings good and unexpected things.  Maybe  I could just start up a buisness down there lol or maybe if you or Cindy know a nice lady down there who is ready for a commitment...... :laugh:

@Biscuit_Stix  Let me know when classes start.  I knew I shouldn't have went for my Criminal Justice Degree but regardless we will show Uncle Sam a thing or two!   :police:

On the TV news last week there was a story on a new Immigration program to attract Tradesmen to Australia.  As well as a working Visa system, apparently it  will also allow Permanent Residence and Naturalisation.
I have no info on what trades, but it sounded fairly broad.

Karen.

Quote from: Kreuzfidel on March 28, 2012, 09:56:04 AM
You never know what the future may bring, Malachite!  And you can still come and visit Cindy and me in Adelaide :)

Hey, I'm here in Adelaide too!

And Malachite, I'm sure we can find a nice girl for you.. And if not, I suppose I'd do.. But I'm not a 'nice' girl...  >:-)

Quote from: kelly_aus on April 10, 2012, 07:16:07 PM
Hey, I'm here in Adelaide too!

And Malachite, I'm sure we can find a nice girl for you.. And if not, I suppose I'd do.. But I'm not a 'nice' girl...  >:-)

I accept with open arms!   >:-)

I think we need to have a Susans Adelaideans get-together!

Definitely
Sarah, Kelly and I catch up every now and again. Now that the summer silly season is dying down we will have to get together.

Quote from: Cindy James on April 11, 2012, 03:14:22 AM
Definitely
Sarah, Kelly and I catch up every now and again. Now that the summer silly season is dying down we will have to get together.

Sounds good to me.. But for tonight, I think I own the title, 'Angel of Sorrows'...

Mutual hugs tonight I think Kelly.   :(

Sounds like a good plan - shoot me a message if you all want to try to plan something :)  Hugs from me, too...