Resistance, Norrie undress social rights issues

By Emma Shaw
Updated November 6 2012 - 12:11am, first published April 25 2010 - 11:00am
Norrie May-Welby in Thirroul  for the Resistance conference. Picture: ANDY ZAKELI
Norrie May-Welby in Thirroul for the Resistance conference. Picture: ANDY ZAKELI

Androgynous activist Norrie May-Welby put on a theatrical performance during the national conference of social youth organisation Resistance.Norrie, the first person in the world to be legally recognised as genderless, addressed the crowd at Thirroul Community Centre on Saturday to speak about the rights of people not to have their gender specified.Conference organiser Jess Moore said Norrie gave three political performances, with the activist dressing and undressing (down to a body stocking)."Norrie has a very androgynous body and a lot of it was about Norrie's body," Ms Moore said."Norrie talked about the right to be neither male nor female and said what a sad thing it is that everyone who makes that decision will be socially excluded by the majority of people." Norrie also led discussions on the roles imposed on men and women by society.Ms Moore said more than 200 people had turned out for event, which tackled issues such as climate change, human rights and the rise of racism in Australia."We need to discuss to act," Ms Moore said."This conference is about bringing people together to fight for a better world."The three-day conference ends tonight.

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