For years you have agonised over the questions, is something wrong with me? Am I different? Am I normal? What are these feelings I have? This is just the prelude to your apprenticeship to the "long wait". If you decide to seek help and find out about your "problem", you then encounter the maze, which starts with finding support. This in itself can be enough to discourage a person from setting out on a journey that could be about to change your life. If you are lucky a support group is found, but not all have back up unfortunately, so you now have to dig and delve even deeper to get the answers you want. Usually, within the support group is someone who can start you on the right path. The first is the GP who specialises in Gender Dysphoria, if you are lucky, but wait, this is the start of "The long wait", at least 3 months for the initial appointment, so thatyou can be referred on. The referrals are usually to an Endocrinologist to discover your X and Y make up ,with chromosome tests - 1 month wait, not bad. Then the crunch, you really should see a psychiatrist, but be warned, there is a waiting list, mine is 6.5 months, at the end of November 2001, before an appointment, unless there is a cancellation. I should think that the problems we encounter, if looking at reasignment, or even coming to terms with our female side once recognised, are sometimes enough to push us over the edge. In Legal terms, "time is of the essence", but unfortunatly it appears not so for the Medical profession. I know, in this instance, there are just not enough, if any, who really, really understand where we are coming from.

To come out, of itself is, or can be traumatic for all concerned. To have the problems exacerbated by 'The Long Wait', is verging on criminal, as many will not survive the turmoil they are about to encounter. Legal rights, Costs, Timing before change, Who is the best, Should I really go through with it? Will I keep my job, Where does the money come from, Will my family and friends support me? These are just a few of the questions that go through your mind, without consideration for what the drugs may do to us.

We usually find that people tend to put all of this in "The too hard basket", medical fraternity as well. We tend to live for the moment, without consideration for the long term cause and effect this can have on us. We are happy to be able to meet our peers, don a dress and makeup and pretend we are Female for a few hours. This does not eradicate the mental state and mixed up feelings of going from Frank to Kathy and then the journey back. I have not met any so called "specialist" who has encountered this, so can therefore understand the anguish this causes, or can offer any type of explanation, as to why it happens, or more to the point, how to come to terms with it, and be able to live with it on a regular basis.

Yes we must learn to love ourselves, but we need Love, Understanding, Compassion, and above all else, support from Specilists and Government Departments, to understand we are not Deviants, but have a condition which I understand cannot be cured.

In the final analysis, we need urgent support, not "THE LONG INTERMINABLE WAIT", as this can and does lead to suicide, through depression, and lack of understanding and support. The feeling of absolute hopelessness that occurs from time to time, does'nt help. I know, I have thought on many occasions that eternal sleep is the only answer, but so far have overcome this final step. Considering the support I have from Family, Friends, Peers and groups, for me to even consider suicide should not occur. However, it will until we are provided with understandable answers within an adequate time frame. Yes I know about funding and resources, but others seem to achieve these, why not us? Are we still looked upon as a group of mentally unstable beings?

As reported in the book "YOUR RIGHTS 2001", Queensland is now the only State in Australia not to provide any protection for Transgender People.

At present there are no plans to revise the 1991 Anti Discrimination Act in Queensland.