Chatting to Amy, whether in real life or on the phone never ceases to provide an endless stream of laughter, tears and ideas. Amy and I met as two of the Australian musician guests at the Sichuan Symphony Orchestra in January 2019. We bonded then as she was my fabulous partner in board games, with Amy being fiendishly skilled in every game she tries her hand at, and mutual interests in various social justice issues. Talking to Amy has given me so much insight, understanding and empathy for her life as a trans woman, as she continues to break barriers and be a champion for trans rights, all the while navigating her musical pathways, life at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and now, the coronavirus crisis currently affecting all of our livelihoods in various ways. This interview is more lengthy than usual, so I hope you enjoy the read, and join me in thanking Amy for sharing her experiences in this conversation right now.
A few words describing your mood and where you are writing this now?
I’m feeling calm but uncertain about things, a general symptom of the rapid changes we’ve faced to stop the spread of COVID-19. I’m at home in my room enjoying a quarantine diet of sleep-ins and Lipton ice-tea.
Describe your work (ordinarily, and how it has been impacted now) That’s not a simple question. I normally make all of my money as a freelance musician, playing with many contemporary groups and orchestras around Sydney. One by one I watched all my gigs get cancelled and indefinitely postponed. I like to do things and amidst preparing for auditions I’ve been accepted to go on Operation to Darwin with the Army for 6 months. There’s no routine to my life but I’ve enjoyed every challenge and new experience that has come my way.
Amy - you’re a busy woman; Recently, you were involved in work recently battling bushfires of the New Year. And you also made speeches for the United Nations a few months ago on a completely different topic. Could you tell me a little bit about these two recent excursions? I volunteered with the Army Reserves to assist with recovery efforts following the devastation of the 2019-20 bushfire season. For 40 days I travelled all around NSW doing hands on tasks to assist with community recovery. It was hard work but very rewarding to be able to help.
About the speeches, last year I had the incredible opportunity to share my research and personal experiences on transgender rights with the United Nations. I had spoken with Dr Elizabeth Coombs, the Chair of the UN Taskforce for Privacy about my experiences transitioning and what I thought the key issues were. She was in Australia and was looking for LGBT+ perspectives for the latest UN report she was drafting: Privacy – a Gender Perspective. I researched the global challenges people faced with transitioning and how they impact our human rights and presented the findings as part of two talks and two panels at a conference in New York. The first talk was on broader issues, focusing on policy issues and what countries can do better to support trans people (for the record, Australia has some glaring human rights issues in the way their policy treats trans people), and the second talk was about reshaping social media to be respectful and understanding of trans issues. The research and consultations formed the basis of some ground-breaking recommendations put into the report, which was released earlier this year.