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Jennifer Shields

Artist and advocate from Ōtautahi, Aotearoa.

Kia ora!

I'm Jen - I'm a queer and trans artist and advocate based in Ōtautahi, Aotearoa. I'm currently President of PATHA and Healthcare Lead at Qtopia.

My specialty is trans healthcare of all kinds - gender affirming care, mental health support, peer work, and improving access to general healthcare. My academic background is in arts and sociology - I studied at the Elam School of Fine Arts, and studied sociology and queer history at the University of Auckland.

I’ve been working in rainbow community advocacy for the last ten years, with a special interest in healthcare, gender affirming healthcare in particular. I’m passionate about ensuring rainbow folk around Aotearoa are able to access great, competent, and caring healthcare no matter where they live. I'm currently leading a national training programme for Aotearoa's primary care workforce around gender diversity and gender affirming care.

Outside of my rainbow community mahi, I’m an artist, a photographer, and a producer of art and live events. I’ve had the privilege of producing the Ōtautahi Tiny Performance Festival since 2019, was Gallery and Programme Manager at the Centre of Contemporary Art Toi Moroki for two years, and co-founded Glitterbox Pursuits, a queer arts and events company with Audrey Baldwin.

I ran a New Zealand music radio show on RDU 98.5FM for a number of years, winning Host with the Most; have written for NZ Musician magazine; and have the honour of having been a member of FEM SCREM, labeled Ōtautahi’s punkest band.

I have a sick love for public speaking, which I attribute to (in a fit of teenage overconfidence) volunteering to play piano with Amanda Palmer in front of a crowd of thousands at at the age of 16. At Qtopia, I run professional development workshops weekly; I’ve run public speaking workshops for Artist Life School; and most recently chaired a panel on the Importance of Writing Queer Joy for WORD Christchurch.

Highlights

Aug 5 · linkedin

Here are my reckons about the Olympics - time and time again, people who succeed who do not look like the norm of skinny, white, cisgender women, get punished instead of celebrated; get subjected to international mechanisms of hate instead of the aroha and awhi we usually give our athletes; and have to deal with the extra pressures of every hate-filled eye on the planet watching them, waiting for any excuse to cut them down.

That's not in the Olympic spirit, aye?

https://lnkd.in/gdV37jEc

Jul 3 · linkedin

Excellent new report from the Yale Law and Medical Schools out this week on the methodological and ideological flaws in the Cass Review - well worth a read, but I've pulled out some key points here.

The NHS is failing trans people in England - more than 16 people have lost their lives on wait lists for gender affirming care - that's the crisis in trans health in England that needs addressing, and it seems to be the crisis they're happy to ignore, and actively suppress by punishing healthcare workers who speak out.

Related Questions

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Experience

Healthcare Lead at Qtopia
President at Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa