Tue 15 Jul 2008 In: Worth Checking Out View at Wayback View at NDHA
Phylesha Brown Acton The next episode of Maori Television's LGBT programme Takataapui will be broadcast at 9:30pm on Monday 21 July: "Within my family, I don't have a mental disorder - I'm not 'gender dysphoric'. But in western cultures I am classed as having a mental disorder," says Phylesha Brown Acton, the Coordinator of the NZ AIDS Foundation's Pacific People's Project. "So for me as an individual, I feel like there really is something wrong with me. But on the cultural side of things, I'm embraced within my family, within my circle of friends, within society, within everything I do, and that makes me feel so much more valued as a human being. That as why I don't identify as being transgendered." Issues such as violence within families, the spread of HIV/AIDS, the church, identity and discrimination were explored at Love Life 2 was the NZAF's second fono in Auckland recently. The event was created to bring a whole collective group of transgendered people from within the Pacific and New Zealand to form a voice on many issues as well as empower people to create resources and take action. Brought together by Phylesha Brown Acton, the Pacific People's Coordinator for the NZAF, the fono was an opportunity for information to be shared about creating and working with resources as well as a forum for raising discussing the main issues affecting people of ‘the third sex' in the Pacific Region. Held at Makaurau Marae in Mangere, this story will touch hearts and minds, all over. Takataapui is broadcast on Maori Television each Monday night at 9:30pm, then repeats on Freeview's Stratos channel at 10pm. GayNZ.com News Staff - 15th July 2008