Another Day, Another Conference

This time the conference is down in New Haven and it is the AIDS Science Day and is sponsored by Yale’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA). The reason why I’m attending the conference is that we (the Connecticut TransAdvocacy Coalition, the Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective, the Institute for Community Research and the Community Health Action, Innovation & Networking) received a grant from CIRA to study the transgender population in the greater Hartford area for AIDS and we are presenting our findings at the conference.

We gave our project the catchy title of the Transgender Regional Area Network Survey Project or T.R.A.N.S. Project. For the last couple of years we developed the instrument (the survey), went before the Institute Review Board for approval, did a focus group and did a pilot survey of 15 people. It was a great learning experience for me, especially since when we were developing the survey; I was take Research II in school. I was able to say, “Yes, I done that” for many of the topics that we covered in class. It was a great mix of textbook and hands on learning.