Hugo Grrrl says workplaces introducing things like rainbow signs or flags or gender pronouns in emails are a simple step to make employees feel welcome. Photo / Tom Hollow
Hugo Grrrl says workplaces introducing things like rainbow signs or flags or gender pronouns in emails are a simple step to make employees feel welcome. Photo / Tom Hollow
Pride Month is underway across New Zealand this month, with a month-long festival in Auckland and other events across the country.
Yet while many are fully accepting of LGBTQ+ rights, there are many who are still struggling to get their heads around gender and sexuality as the rainbow community continues to evolve.
On this week’s episode of Ask Me Anything, an NZ Herald podcast hosted by Paula Bennett, she is joined by drag performers Geena (better known as drag queen Miss Geena) and George (House of Drag-winning drag king Hugo Grrrl) to discuss the best ways to support the LGBTQ+ community.
Geena and George are trans female and male respectively and have simple pointers for people wanting to better understand: Google it.
“I think there’s a lot of fear around trans issues because it is sensitive and people are worried about doing things wrong to offend the trans community,” George said. “And my advice with that is like, Google. If you’re not sure about something, Google will have the answer. There’s lots of smart people giving good advice. You’re gonna be fine.”
George, who works in corporate rainbow education, said workplaces introducing things like rainbow signs or flags or gender pronouns in emails may look like tokenism to some, but it’s a simple step to make employees feel welcome and supported.
“The space is moving really fast. Lots of people don’t know what being trans is. Lots of people don’t know what being non-binary is. So the more people we can [educate], the more of a nice experience new staff members coming in are gonna have.”
Miss Geena says we should build gender-neutral bathrooms rather than segregating by gender. Photo / Sam Sutherland
Other steps include encouraging people to use gender-neutral terms when meeting people - partner over husband and wife - and designing policies so that single-sex parents have time to take leave.
And while many conversations around gender identity get dragged into the bathroom, Geena said the simple solution was to just build gender-neutral bathrooms rather than segregating by gender.
“We just want go take a s*** or piss, we don’t care which toilet we use. But also don’t make the disabled toilet the gender-neutral toilet. Just make them all gender-neutral.”
And, if you’ve ever wanted to do drag, both Geena and George encourage you to take part - and that includes former deputy Prime Ministers.
“I’ve always felt there was a budding drag queen in me,” Bennett revealed. And while the stage is a little out of the way at the moment, she did at least get a drag name by the end of the podcast - Pull-ya Benefit.
Listen to the full podcast for more from Geena and George on their trans and drag journeys, the harm gender norms are causing to all sectors of society, and more advice on being a better LGBTQ+ ally - and more on the potential stage adventures of Pull-ya Benefit.
Ask Me Anything is a NZ Herald podcast, hosted by Paula Bennett. New episodes are out every Sunday.
