So What Have I Been Doing The Last Couple Of Days

Today today I finally had a chance to rest and to read something that is not on a syllabus. To quote Alice Cooper…

No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher's dirty looks

Well we got no class
And we got no principles
And we got no innocence
We can't even think of a word that rhymes

Tuesday was my last day of class, I turned in my Capstone paper, my last homework assignment.

Thursday, I went to the Capitol for the Equality Day to lobby for HB6599 An Act Concerning Discrimination (If you live in Connecticut please help us pass the bill, you can find out more about the bill here and to find you legislator visit the Vote Smart). I was there to help out and to talk to my legislators, I had a an appointment to visit my Representative and he told me that he was 95% in favor of the bill, but he wanted to read the bill first before committing to vote for it. He said he had giving it a quick glance and he saw nothing that he would be against. That night I had a conference call with the planning committee for the Trans Health and Law conference, to make sure everything was a “Go” for the conference on Saturday.

On Friday, I went to a professional conference where I gave my first workshop to my peers. I only went to one workshop, it was the only Macro workshop, all the others were Micro (A little bit of background, the social worker’s world is divided into two subdivisions, Micro – i.e. the individual and groups, etc. and Macro – i.e. institutions, governments, communities, etc.) and the macro workshop was given by my former professor. My workshop was the last session of the day and I had 18 people sign-up and around 14-15 people show up. The workshop shop description said that…

Working with Transgender Clients
1.5 CECs/. 1 CEUs
The same concern is heard repeatedly—transgender people are afraid to be honest with their therapist because they fear the therapist will not understand what they are going through. This workshop will provide “Trans 101”, an introduction to the vocabulary and definitions used by the trans community.
Topics to be discussed include how gender identity and sexual orientation are separate and independent entities; how gender identity and sexual orientation are similar in some ways and quite different in other ways; how the transition impacts the client and their family; and how society andthe government have built barriers against the transgender community. Both micro and macro issues will be discussed and questions are invited.

and in the beginning of the workshop I said that the goal of the workshop was to create a cultural understanding of what a transgender client will face. There were a number of questions during the workshop about clients and I answered that I was not comfortable in answering those type of question since my background was Macro not Micro, but I answered then as best that I could. When I got into the discussion of macro issues two people got up and left. After the workshop, I quickly glanced at the workshop evaluation forms, most of them rated me a 5 or 4, except for two. They rated me a 3 and added a comment, “TOO MUCH MACRO”. When I read that my thoughts were… I hope I will never be one of their clients. If they thought that they only needed to know about how being trans affects the client and family, and not how society treats them, they are so wrong. I would hate to be their clients on come in for a therapy session after being fired because the Social Security administration sent a “No Match” letter to their boss which “Outed” them. They need to take a holistic approach to the treatment of their client, they cannot say to their client, “that’s tough, but I only treat the micro aspects of your transition.” You also have to realize that the Code of Ethics requires you to be culture competent, that you have to have an understanding of the community that you are working with these two do not. [End of Rant]

Once I finished the workshop, I rushed home and changed into my cocktail dress for the “Night to Remember” at school, it was kind of like a prom, but it was only for students. I usually don’t dance, but I was dancing that night. They played all young people song, a couple of weeks earlier they sent around a list to put down the songs that we want that night and I listed songs like “Devil in a red dress” and Santana. However, they did play any of them. I probably will not see them again after graduation and I many friends both classmates and staff that I will miss. There were lots of tears and hugs all around and I cried on the way home. Just as I am doing now just writing this.

Then Saturday was the Trans Health and Law conference which I have been on the planning committee since September, so I was there at 7:30AM to help out. I gave two workshops, one with my former professor and the other one with a friend. Both had very good turnout. The first workshop was with my professor who did my Independent Studies class and the workshop was on Working with Gender Variant Clients and it was packed. This workshop unlike my workshop the day before did cover therapy because my professor is a LCSW. I took a sneak peek at the workshops evaluations and they were all good. The other workshop was on the pilot research study that we did on the transgender population in the greater Hartford area.

Today, I goofed off and stayed in my nightgown until the afternoon.

Tomorrow, I have a Safe Schools Coalition meeting in the afternoon with the CT Dept. of Ed. and Tuesday I am going down to Southern Connecticut State University to do an Outreach.

The photo was taken by a friend and classmate, Shiri.