Verrry Interesting!

I was there once and always wanted to go back to the island off the coast of Cape Cod.

MVCS launches transgender support group
A safe place to be understood and accepted.
MV Times
By Gwyn McAllister –
February 9, 2017

When Martha’s Vineyard Community Services launched a transgender support group last December, the response was immediate. “I was surprised at how many people called within two weeks of putting out the word right before Christmas,” says the group’s facilitator, Rikki Pashen, Psy.D. “I got over a dozen calls. I didn’t know there would be that many that quickly.”

The group, which has now met three times, currently includes seven dedicated members, who range in age from 13 to mid-60s, and represent a broad range of community members. “The kids and the people in this group just want to be understood and be accepted and valued,” says Ms. Pashen.

For such a small winter population for me having seven members is amazing.

“I started the group because I got a couple of transgender patients who were referred to me by community members who weren’t sure where they should go,” says Ms. Pashen, who worked extensively in the mental health field with LGBT groups before moving to the Vineyard in 2015. “Each transgender person I met with says that there was nobody else on the Island for them to talk to. The only transgender people they knew were from online support groups. I knew that there were different transgender people out there, but because of confidentiality issues, I couldn’t introduce them to one another.”

I wonder if they get their Cross Gender Hormones there or if they have to travel back to the mainland to get healthcare? It sounds like it is the former, that they get their hormone on the island at the Martha’s Vineyard Community Service.