A Bad Word…

And it is not even a four letter word… it is “Diversity.”

Have you noticed that the right-wingers do not like diversity, equity nor inclusion. They think that it is their god given rights to discriminate against people they don’t like. People whose eyes are oddly made, people whose skin is a different shade, people who love people, people whose gender identity is different from theirs.

A conservative quest to limit diversity programs gains momentum in states
AP News
BY DAVID A. LIEB
April 24, 2024

A conservative quest to limit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives is gaining momentum in state capitals and college governing boards, with officials in about one-third of the states now taking some sort of action against it.

Tennessee became the latest when the Republican governor this week signed legislation that would prohibit banks and other financial institutions from considering a customer’s participation — or lack thereof — in “diversity, equity and inclusion training” or “social justice programming.”

That came shortly after the Democratic governor in Kansas allowed legislation to become law without her signature that will prohibit statements about diversity, equity or inclusion from being used in decisions about student admissions, financial aid or employment at higher education institutions.

Last week, Iowa’s Republican-led Legislature also gave final approval to a budget bill that would ban all DEI offices and initiatives in higher education that aren’t necessary to comply with accreditation or federal law. The measure expands upon a directive last year from the Iowa Board of Regents to eliminate DEI staff positions.

Republican lawmakers in about two dozen states have filed bills seeking to restrict DEI initiatives this year. They are countered by Democrats who have sponsored supportive DEI measures in about 20 states. Altogether, lawmakers have proposed about 150 bills this year that would either restrict or promote DEI efforts, according to an Associated Press analysis using the legislation-tracking software Plural.

For over thirty years in manufacturing and twenty of them as a department manager I have never been told to hire a certain number of people with certain characteristics. I have had to sign policy statements saying that I would not discriminate in my work, but nowhere, at no time was there anything about a quote systems. We NEVER had to have a certain number of Blacks, or a certain number of women.

Higher education institutions and many businesses have long devoted resources to improving diversity and inclusivity.

More recently, conservative groups began raising concerns that DEI initiatives are promoting an agenda that elevates racial or gender identity over individual merit. Since 2022, about half a dozen conservative or libertarian organizations have offered model measures to state lawmakers to eliminate DEI offices or prohibit the use of DEI criteria in training programs or employment, academic and financial decisions.

NEVER have I heard of any businesses or colleges saying that they a quota system…. It is just another Republican lie to stir up to stir up anger in their base.

Corporate Diversity Programs Treat Minority Employees As Tokens, Not People | Opinion
Newsweek
By Raquel Rosario Sánchez
April 26, 2024

Diversity training is creating hostile work environments for minority groups. That is the key takeaway from new research published at the end of March by Britain's Free Speech Union. The report, titled "The EDI Tax: How Equity, Diversity and Inclusion is Hobbling British Businesses," surveyed 800 employees, 36 percent of whom said they witnessed employees being penalized by their employer for challenging the training. In addition, 31 percent said they had left a job because of their employer's promotion of political ideology. This figure rose to 43 percent among black people and 46 percent among Asian people.

[…]

The report states that Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) training, now unavoidable in most U.K. workplaces, is supposed to "make offices more inclusive, attractive places to work, particularly for members of historically disadvantaged groups. But according to the people we surveyed, it is having the opposite effect—and is particularly unpopular among ethnic minorities."

[Note: the Britain's Free Speech Union is conservative organization. Wikipedia says “The Free Speech Union has been criticized by journalists and former student members, who believe that the FSU has a right-wing agenda and that its stated aims are misleading.” So its pedigree is questionable.]

I did diversity training. And I can tell you there were a lot of people in those training session that didn’t want to be there. After one particular tense exchanges with one homeless shelter managers who was extremely against trans people in “HIS” shelter, the lady from HUD said something to like this, “Sir when you received that funding from HUD you agreed to these terms. Are you saying that you will not abide by those terms you agreed to? We are here today to give you tools to meet those obligations.”

And all we did to set him off was asked for pronouns while introducing yourself. Boy! He went off like a skyrocket. He went through the whole 90 minute workshop with his arms crossed, legs spread, and a sour look on his face like he was forced to eat a lemon. He even wrote to his congressional representatives that I found out about for the woman from HUD the next time we met to do the training… and our congressional representatives wrote back… obey the law or give back the money.

---

And this will even set off more firework works from the conservative, Republican states are suing over this.

EEOC says workplace bias laws cover bathrooms, pronouns and abortion
The guidance is not legally binding, but lays out a blueprint for how the EEOC will enforce anti-bias laws and can be cited in court to back up legal arguments.
NBC News
By Reuters
April 30, 2024


The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on Monday said employers refusing to use transgender workers’ preferred pronouns and barring them from using bathrooms that match their gender identity amounts to unlawful workplace harassment under federal anti-discrimination law.

The EEOC updated its enforcement guidance on workplace harassment for the first time in 25 years, including to reflect a landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling that anti-bias laws cover LGBTQ workers, after an earlier attempt stalled during the Trump administration.

The commission in the new guidance also addressed the rise of remote work and said that discriminating against employees based on their decisions to have abortions or use contraception is a form of sex discrimination.

The guidance is not legally binding, but lays out a blueprint for how the EEOC will enforce anti-bias laws and can be cited in court to back up legal arguments.

Some Republicans and conservative and religious groups had criticized the expansive guidance after the commission unveiled a draft version in September. They said it conflicts with state laws on abortion and LGBTQ issues and fails to acknowledge that religious employers are exempt from anti-discrimination laws in many cases.

EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows in an interview said the guidance reflects decades of court rulings that have expanded workers’ rights to be free from workplace harassment, and that updating it was necessary to ensure that employers are aware of their legal obligations.

The right-wingers are hopping mad! They are not going to stand it! I foresee Republican governors’ saying that they are going to defy the Title VII federal law as they said that they will not follow the federal Title IX law!

Court Revives Title VII Claims Against CRT and Gender Identity Training
SHRM
April 30, 2024

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the dismissal of claims brought by a state employee alleging that he was retaliated and discriminated against for his opposition to critical race theory (CRT) and gender identity training.

[…]

Nearly two years later, the father and son received emails from their supervisors instructing them to complete workplace trainings titled “How to be Anti-Racist (CRT Training)” and “Understanding Gender Identity and Expression: Moving Beyond the Binary.” The plaintiffs claimed that the trainings instructed employees to speak or refrain from speaking on certain political and ideological matters.

[…]

On Sept. 10, 2020, the father expressed his opposition to the gender identity training to one of his supervisors and sought a religious exemption. On Oct. 6, 2020, he emailed the supervisor, notifying him that he planned to retire on Jan. 6, 2021. On Oct. 27, 2020, the director of the Equal Opportunity and Access Division informed him via email that his request for a religious exemption was denied. On Nov. 2, 2020, the father replied that the denial of his exemption request solidified and confirmed his decision to leave the DHS.

This is not a clean case of refusing diversity training but it is also wrapped in “Religious Freedom” and I foresee other cases of “Religious Freedom” coming up in the courts for the new Title VII and Title IX policies.

 

Then you know who had to put their 2¢ in...

DEI destroyer? Trump vows to crush 'anti-white' racism if he wins 2024 election
USA Today
By Jessica Guynn
May 1, 2024

Lending his voice to anti-DEI fervor sweeping the Republican party, Donald Trump telegraphed a dramatic shift to America's approach to civil rights if he wins a second term as president, vowing to focus on "anti-white" racism, not on racism against people of color.

Asked about supporters who believe anti-white racism now represents a greater problem than anti-Black racism, the former president told Time magazine: "I think there is a definite anti-white feeling in this country and that can’t be allowed."

In the exclusive interview, Trump also said he would use the U.S. military to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants; deploy the National Guard to quash protests and gut the U.S. civil service.

He has to appease the white nationalist and white supremacists in his cult.

One of the goals of the presidential transition plan is reversing “the DEI revolution” by eliminating policies and programs such as affirmative action that work to counter racism that favors white people. Project 2025 calls it "affirmative discrimination."

As I said this whole Project 2025 thing is placate his whiteshirts, such as the Proud Boys and to form a white Christian nationalist country.

It is my god giving right to be a bigot.

Homogeneous v. Diverse (Or the case for DEI)

[Editorial]

The “War” on “Woke”

I used to do diversity training and every once in a while I got asked why is diversity important?

I don’t know if you remember the IBM of the 60s,and 70s you could tell an IBM salesman a mile off and I do mean “man.” Not women. That was unheard of back then, it was a man’s club or more precisely a “white” man’s club.

They had a uniform… a “Flattop” haircut and I don’t mean the current “Flattop” haircuts I mean the “Flattops” of the fifites. You know the type I’m talking about, you see them in the movie Apollo 13 in the scene of NASA Flight Control room.

The other parts of the IBM uniform was a blue sports jacket, a thin blue tie, and a white shirt with a pocket protector. Yup you could spot them a mile off.

In walks two hippies, we got this get idea… a little desktop computer. Now these to long hair types wanted to sell their little desktop computer to a mainframe company! The two long hair hippie type freaks got the bum rush out of IBM and they went on to form Apple Computer.

Then there was the case of a trans woman at IBM… No Way! She was shown the door so fast! She worked on a team developing a super computer back in the 70s. While there she developed along with another colleague away to speed up computers that went on to be the basis for all computers today. She went on to be awarded the Computer Pioneer Award of the IEEE Computer Society,

Lynn Conway was born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., in 1938. After studying physics at M.I.T., and earning a B.S. (1962) and M.S.E.E. (1963) at Columbia University, Lynn joined IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. Working on IBM's Advanced Computing Systems project, she made foundational contributions to computer architecture including invention of multiple-out-of-order dynamic instruction scheduling.

Sadly, IBM fired Lynn as she underwent gender transition in 1968. Starting all over again in a covert new identity, Lynn advanced rapidly to become a computer architect at Memorex, but also began decades living in fear of being 'outed' and again losing her career.

Because of the culture in IBM… “Mainframes are the Kings” they didn’t look outside the big blue box and they missed the PC revolution and because of the anti-LGBTQ climate at the time they didn’t recognized the talent that they had and let her go because she didn’t fit the mold.

Now we have the “Woke” climate where diversity is bad, discrimination good! Where slaves sat around the fire singing. It is something right out of the novel “1984” Doublespeak. Sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya, how did it go out of favor?

When Did 'Kumbaya' Become Such A Bad Thing?

NPR

By Linton Weeks

January 13, 2012

Regarding the rancor among the remaining Republican presidential hopefuls as they migrate from New Hampshire to South Carolina, Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and erstwhile candidate himself, told ABC News this week that "There's not going to be some magic moment at which three or four of these people sit around a campfire toasting marshmallows, singing 'Kumbaya' and giving the nod to one of their competitors."

[…]

Like many political phrases these days, says Richard E. Vatz, a professor of political rhetoric at Towson State University, "Kumbaya" is used "irrespective of its derivation."

In current political parlance, Vatz says, a reference to the song is used to sarcastically disparage consensus "that allegedly does not examine the issues or is revelatory of cockeyed optimism."

When did having respect for others become a bad thing?

Insight Global puts it this way,

Attracting top talent can be a challenge when it comes to building a successful organization — and then you have to retain it.

Part of holding onto your staff is ensuring your employees feel valued, welcome, and respected, and one way to do this is through a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion — also known as DE&I.

In fact, a company’s commitment to DE&I can result in even more benefits than sourcing talent and building effective teams. Utilizing a diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy can give your organization an edge over competitors and strengthen your bottom line. Let’s dig into how, and discuss nine key benefits to DE&I in the workplace.

[...]

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are important to company culture because they foster creativity, fresh perspectives, and understanding. By implementing DE&I, people of different races, abilities, ages, genders, religion, sexual orientation, and other diverse backgrounds can be made more comfortable in the workplace.

The Deseret News had an article about DEI,

These stories point to a conundrum for those committed to expanding opportunity for all Americans: How do we support the values of diversity and inclusion without eroding other important values? American public opinion about racial and ethnic diversity complicates this further.

The majority of Americans of all races recognize the value of diversity in American life. A plurality of Americans of all races believe it is important for businesses to promote racial and ethnic diversity in the workplace. But a majority of Americans of all races also believe hiring and promotion at work should be based only on qualifications, even if this produces less diversity, and they do not believe race and ethnicity should be a factor in such workplace decisions.

[…]

Negative experiences and associations with DEI initiatives would be enough of a challenge on their own. But in our time, a political cancer on America’s race and gender issues has metastasized, transforming negative experiences and associations with DEI into perceptions of threat.

You read comments on these articles and what you see over and over is the right-wing lie about promoting “quotas,” I have been in the business world for over fifty years and not one program mentioned quotas. What they did say was that we will hire and promote the best employees for the job and we will not discriminate based on protected classes.

But the Republicans and right-wingers want to create fear in their white supremacist, white nationalist voters. Create fear that they will become the minorities in the future. That is the real motive behind all this anti-DEI and this “Woke” movement to get their base energized to vote. I didn’t the job because a black man took it! I didn’t get the promotion because they gave it to a woman! All these forgivers are taking my job! That is the fear that the Republicans are creating.

I taught diversity training for about 20 years and never, not once was there any discussion about quotas, not once was there any talk about hiring one group over another. It was always about understanding cultures of other people. But just that pissed off a lot of people. Once when we were doing training at a homeless shelter that they cannot deny shelter to us in our true gender. A guy stood up and said this is “Bull Sh*t” and walked out.

Yes, the Republicans have “weaponized” non-discrimination laws falsely claiming that the laws create quotas, that the laws promote hiring minorities, and that diversity is bad for business.

[/Editorial]

Listen To Us!

We know, if you want to know anything about trans ask us!

There were only two people who were cis gender that I trusted to talk about trans issues and one of them passed away. I trust them because they are/were immerse in the trans culture.

The New York Times was criticized for its reporting on trans issues. Good.
USA Today
By David Oliver
February 20, 2023


The New York Times has faced an onslaught of criticism for its coverage of the transgender community for years – but it reached a fervent fever pitch last week after the publication of several open letters.

One letter came from more than 100 New York Times contributors, and another from GLAAD and other organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund.

“The Times has in recent years treated gender diversity with an eerily familiar mix of pseudoscience and euphemistic, charged language, while publishing reporting on trans children that omits relevant information about its sources," the letter from New York Times contributors reads.

And I agree with them. I've read several stories from the Times that have been written under the guise of responsible reporting, only to shepherd false narratives about the transgender community and particularly transgender youth when it comes to transitioning. I don't want to give them more attention, so I won't link to them here.

Comcast Newsmakers

I have have been interviewed by around a dozen different reporters, there are good one who did their homework and bad one who didn’t.

The transgender community faces hardships like these on a daily basis – not to mention a continuing tidal wave of discriminatory legislation. Trans people are like Sisyphus, forever barreling a boulder up a never-ending hill. Their journey to acceptance is only that much harder when news organizations paint false narratives about them – i.e. doubling down on fringe medical opinions as opposed to focusing on substantial research. And that's if media covers them at all.

He is right!

We also need heartwarming stories.

In the face of trauma, trans people often persevere and find joy. Experts say the two are inextricably linked.

"It is not only important but essential to celebrate," Sara Warner, director of Cornell University's LGBT studies program, previously told USA TODAY. "Our pleasure is our resistance to the hate, homophobia/transphobia, and fearmongering aimed at LGBT individuals and communities."

Joy and happiness are very important. I have entered a number of my photos in the local agricultural fair, I just about won a prize each year for my entries… except one year*. They brought me pride and joy. That’s one of the reasons I donate photos to non-profits, the joy? Amusement? Delight?

Listen to trans people

Trans people also must confront the mental toll associated with media coverage. Negative headline after negative headline can hurt anyone. But statistics show the transgender community – specifically transgender youth – is particularly vulnerable to a lack of acceptance. 

Before I retired and I was Executive Director of CTAC I researched the topic that I was going to be interviewed about. Both for and against, I listened to all the bile from the conservatives so I could form replies in case I was asked something on that topic. That is what I do for this blog, I research the topics. However, it does take a mental toll reading all the bitterenss.

The best way to teach people about trans issues? Treat them like humans. Meet them, employ them and above all, listen.

Sit down and ask us. When I went to a doctor for the first time before I transition we were going over the list of my meds. Estradiol…? What are you taking that for? I’m trans. Oh you’re my first trans patient can we talk? I was glad he wanted to learn but I didn’t like that he had to ask and didn’t learn before me.

I am a gay, cisgender man, and I can't ever fully understand the transgender experience. But it's not about that, or about me, other than gaining an education. It's about them, and being an outspoken ally.

***

*Oh. That year that I didn’t win, there is a story with that. Each year I bring in my mounted 8X10 pictures and every year a lady at the table did the paperwork and said I hope you win these are very nice pictures. Well the year that I won nothing I walk in to the exhibit hall and a man was sitting next to a woman. The woman did the paperwork as usual but the man was looking at my photos, at me, at my photos and he look like he just ate a lemon. He got up and left, the woman completed my paperwork and I asked who he was, she said the head judge. 

How To Get A Conservative Hopping Mad In One Easy Lesson.

There are a number of ways to get a Republican mad but none easier than this.

After Kamala Harris' introduced herself using pronouns, members of Congress react
'What's the big deal?' Dem asks after Vice President Kamala Harris introduces herself with pronouns
Fox News
By Lisa Bennatan , Jon Michael Raasch
August 1, 2022


Several members of Congress shared their reactions to a video of Vice President Kamala Harris introducing herself using her pronouns. 

"What's the big deal? Let people introduce themselves and represent themselves how they want," Rep. Jamaal Bowman, a Democrat, told Fox News.

Republican Rep. Mo Brooks said: "I am concerned that some people are confused about biology and medicine and what their true sex is, but they can call themselves whatever they want to."

At an event on Tuesday, Kamala Harris and guests introduced themselves with their names, pronouns and descriptions of their clothing. Video of Harris' introduction went viral, drawing both mockery and defense from media members online.

Some Republicans felt Harris' introduction was strange.

Oh yeah, I have seen in person the anger of a conservative when asked for their pronouns… they all had short fuses to set them off.

We were doing training for homeless shelters and a number of manager were not happy with being there for the training. You can usually tell right away what they are thinking, they are the ones with an expression like that ate a lemon.

Meanwhile…

Democrats, on the other hand, did not think it was something to be concerned with.

One of the people at the training said this is crap! And said that he refused to integrate his shelters, he said that he would go by what is between their legs to place clients in women or males shelters and he was going to complain to his senators. After he finished his ranting the woman for HUD (During the Obama administration) said okay you can do that but then give back state and federal funds you received for the shelters where you agreed to follow the law. I was on CC for the reply from the senators, they said the same thing… obey the law.

I have also had other people during training get up and leave the room saying this is BS!

Yes, they have very short fuses when I comes to pronouns.

Winding Down

The Transgender Day of Visibility is coming up.

The number of trainings that I do is dropping, professors retire or move on to other jobs but I still have a couple of presentations that I do and I have two this week.

The first is this morning, actually it should be ending just about the time this blog post is published and the other is Wednesday night.

I used to do Stonewall Speakers but I dropped out of the program, I didn’t like their format of Q&A. It has it purpose but I don’t think that it covers important topics that professionals need.

What I do is to take over and teach the class for the day, usually the professors sits in the back of the class taking notes on the students. That is the type that I just did.

The other class is a Q&A class but it is different than the speakers classes because this is a graduate class and they ask pertinent questions unlike the questions asked in the high school and undergraduate classes, questions like “How did you pick your name?”

When I was in grad school I developed a series of presentations to “teach” gender dysphoria to professionals.

I start off with deconstructing gender, then talk about the commonalities and differences between sexual orientation and gender dysphoria, everyone says I know about gays therefore I know about trans people… wrong!

I talk about the coming out process, the Standard of Care for children and I talk about senior trans people their fears of going into a long term care facilities. Finally I talk about intersectionality and the discrimination that we face everyday.

Q&A sessions have their place in general education courses but when I come to teaching future therapist and medical staff you need more in-depth training.

I have taken my “road show” to social work conferences, prison staff, judicial staff, hospital staff, and other professionals including colleges.

One of the professors used to send me the students comments…

When it was announced that we would have a guest speaker for our next class I originally thought nothing of it. I’ve had a good experience with guest speakers in the TCPCG [Teacher Certification Program for College Graduates] program so far and I was excited to hear what the guest lecturer would say. When I walked into class on Wednesday I remember seeing the back of a tall woman standing in front of our class, thinking she was our guest, and proceeded to sit down and open up my computer. About 5 minutes later the guest came forward and she said that we were going to start the lecture. Once the guest lecturer starting talking and I began to look at her a bit more in detail, I realized something very interesting - our guest speaker was a transexual [sic].

Now being an educated grad student I was fully aware of was exactly a transsexual was and that the transexual [sic] community is growing every day, however, as far as I know, this was my first time meeting one. The weird thing however was that it didn’t seem like I was meeting a transexual [sic], but rather just another women - a guest lecturer. Once you get past the deep voice and the 6 foot figure, there was nothing weird or different here, just another woman. When the lecture started I was expecting to learn all about life as a transsexual, and while she did touch on this a little, she was focused more on the big picture. The picture being that there are thousands of transexuals [sic] and people dreaming of being a different gender all around us, and often times they either go unnoticed or are looked as weirdly or differently. I think the message she was trying to tell us is that although on the outside we may look a little strange, it is really who they are on the inside that matters.

+++++++++++++++++++

Diana’s presentation on the science behind the term “transgender” as well as the transgender community was thought provoking, informative, and interesting. I have many family members who are also members of the LGBT community, so topics such as gender identity have always captivated my attention. I have watched numerous documentaries on individuals who identity as transgender and the science behind this phenomenon. I have also had the opportunity to expand my knowledge of transgender biology, psychology, and culture through my interactions with a myriad of students at Hall High School… I was also elated to discover that doctors can halt puberty in a transgender person’s body at a young age and help them experience an easier physical transition to their true gender. Such developments make me hopeful for the future. Ideally, treatments such as these will become more widely available to any transgender person who wishes to transition. However, I think the most important takeaway from Diana’s presentation was that people are just people, even if they were born in the wrong body and feel the need to make a change. Everyone should display empathy and compassion for their fellow human beings.

And the comment that says we are making a difference came from the professor of one of the classes,

I did an activity yesterday in my UConn class. It was a simulation in which the 20 students were required to look at 17 resumes and hire seven teachers unanimously. Each brief resume has a loaded statement, such as one person belong to a military militia group, another was a professed segregationist, another had 10 kids, etc. One of the potential people to hire was a transgender teacher FTM. in the past when I did this activity it was usually early on in the course and rarely, if ever do the students choose to hire this person. Often the reason is that there are other candidates better suited. In yesterday's class all four groups unanimously hired the transgender teacher. This was a first. my role is to challenge them on why they hired or did not hire each candidate. The students were uniformly saying that this person is well-qualified.

You are making a difference.

Yes we are!

Q&A has a place in teaching but when I comes to teaching professional a more structured approach is needed to teach cultural competency and the understanding of the needs and wants of the community.

My Story Part 186: Outreach

I have been doing outreach for over 15 years, the first time that I spoke in front of group was at the Children from the Shadows conference (Later it became know as the True Colors conference.) at the University of Hartford. It was impromptu, they needed one more person on the panel in fifteen minutes and they talked me into it, something I don’t regret doing.

I was hooked, I could see that I made a difference but then it was a LGBTQ+ conference and the conference attendees were either LGBTQ+ people or our allies.

I joined a LGBTQ+ speakers bureau and started talking in junior high schools, high schools, and colleges, for a few years I did the circuit of the schools. But I noticed a pattern, they were more interested in what I call fluff questions… “How did you chose your name?” “What do hormones do to you?” “Who do you date?” "Did you have 'The Surgery'?" etc. etc. etc.

Then I went to grad school for my masters in social work and they had a day set aside for diversity training and I realized that having students ask question was not the way professional trainers do diversity training, it is a long through presentation, they follows a logical flow. So for an Independent Study class I asked if I could develop diversity training presentation, and they thought that was a great idea. They assigned a professor to me for the class.

From that Independent Studies class I created a 90 minute PowerPoint presentation back in 2010-2011.

I have constantly been update the presentation and I have given it to…

• Albertus Magnus: Multicultural Education
• Connecticut and Massachusetts chapters of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) annual conference.
• Department of Corrections
• Department of Justice
• Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (DMHAS)
• Jewish Family Services
• Quinnipiac University: Multicultural Education:
• Southern Connecticut State University - DPH: Introduction to Health Promotion
• Yale University - DPH: Introduction to Health Promotion
• University of Connecticut Counseling and Mental Health Services

For the classes the professors turn the class over to me and I run the class for the day.

Some of the feedback that I got from teaching the classes…

Thank you for inviting Diana to guest speak. She was candid, open, and super informative. I am especially excited by what she told us about transgender brain studies.

Though I know her presentation benefited me, I worry that it might have let other students not as accepting of trans folks as I am off the hook too easily. We need the opportunity as a class to hash it out and learn from each other. People who expressed lacking knowledge or tolerance on the discussion board and outside of the classroom were able to be spectators, not participants. In order to ready ourselves for diverse classroom populations, we must engage in active discussion. I recommend that we continue the LGBTQ conversation next week.

Again, though, I am glad Diana came to speak. Her presence humanized the "issue" for me and, I suspect, for my classmates.

---

Diana’s presentation on the science behind the term “transgender” as well as the transgender community was thought provoking, informative, and interesting. I have many family members who are also members of the LGBT community, so topics such as gender identity have always captivated my attention. I have watched numerous documentaries on individuals who identity as transgender and the science behind this phenomenon. I have also had the opportunity to expand my knowledge of transgender biology, psychology, and culture through my interactions with a myriad of students at Hall High School. It was fascinating to learn that sections of a transgender person’s brain often possess gender characteristics that are different from the individual’s physical gender markers. I was also elated to discover that doctors can halt puberty in a transgender person’s body at a young age and help them experience an easier physical transition to their true gender. Such developments make me hopeful for the future. Ideally, treatments such as these will become more widely available to any transgender person who wishes to transition. However, I think the most important takeaway from Diana’s presentation was that people are just people, even if they were born in the wrong body and feel the need to make a change. Everyone should display empathy and compassion for their fellow human beings.

---

I found Diana's presentation to very interesting and informational. Before this presentation, I could honestly never understand how or why somebody would think they were trapped in the wrong body. I specifically found the videos she showed to be moving and allowed for me to understand how some people truly feel. It was amazing to me that the little boy in one of the videos was struggling on so many levels, but greatly improved once his family was on board with him wanting to become a girl. It made me realize that nobody should be afraid of being who they really are, no matter how the public may take it. I learned how hard it truly is for someone to completely switch their lives and literally become a new person.

---

I got to class on weds at 4 minutes past 2pm. When I walked into the class I was given a soft accepting smile from the person who appeared to be teaching for the day, so I quickly put down my stuff, shook off all the wet, (it was absolutely pouring outside, which is why I was a little late (people can't drive in the rain in Hartford)) and begin to listen. I was very taken by how brave she was and I found her life story to be quite moving and inspiring. The video clips that she played were particularly touching and I found it hard to turn away. Especially the girl that wanted her parent to call her Jazz and to block her puberty. Overall, I learned a lot on weds and I must admit I knew nothing about the subject of trans gender before I walked into class, but I knew a ton after I left.

---

I truly enjoyed Diana’s lecture this week and I know that many others in the class agree! She was showing a video near the very end and she cut it off because she felt it was too long, but Christine, Emily, and I all wanted to continue watching!

One thing that stood out to me was the discussion of microaggressions. We had just learned about microaggressions in our previous class! I think that hearing Diana’s perspective enhanced my understanding of microaggressions. Many of the questions that she said never to ask or say are things that I could easily see well-meaning people saying unwittingly. For example, have you had the surgery?I would have never known you were a male! “Which bathroom do you use?” “What was your real name?” and “When did you decide to become a woman?” are all things that I can imagine people would say if they were trying to be kind or genuinely trying to understand her experience. I’m glad that I’ve been taught to be more sensitive about these types of matters and now I can see why it’s actually very rude to say any of these things.

One of the professors wrote me this note…

I did an activity yesterday in my UConn class. It was a simulation in which the 20 students were required to look at 17 resumes and hire seven teachers unanimously. Each brief resume has a loaded statement, such as one person belong to a military militia group, another was a professed segregationist, another had 10 kids, etc. One of the potential people to hire was a transgender teacher FTM. in the past when I did this activity it was usually early on in the course and rarely, if ever do the students choose to hire this person. Often the reason is that there are other candidates better suited. In yesterday's class all four groups unanimously hired the transgender teacher. This was a first. my role is to challenge them on why they hired or did not hire each candidate. The students were uniformly saying that this person is well-qualified.

You are making a difference.

I break down the training into modules…

• Definitions
• Deconstruction gender
• The Standard of Care
• The Coming Out Process
• Transition
• Children/Elder care
• Intersectionality
• Community

I switch modules according to whom I am training, long term care facilities get the Elder Care module while teachers get the module on Children.

The Speaker Bureau has its place but for a more substantial training you really need an hour or two to do proper training.

There Is No Reason For This.

Trump issued an Executive Order banning diversity training making up really weird reasons to ban them.

Agencies, Contractors Suspend Diversity Training To Avoid Violating Trump Order
NPR
By Melissa Block
October 30, 2020


Three civil rights groups filed a federal class-action lawsuit Thursday challenging the Trump administration's recent crackdown on diversity training.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Urban League and National Fair Housing Alliance call President Trump's Sept. 22 executive order "chillingly punitive" censorship that violates guarantees of free speech, equal protection and due process.

Trump's executive order prohibits certain diversity training that the administration says amounts to "divisive, anti-American propaganda."
[…]
The order applies broadly to federal agencies and the military as well as government contractors and recipients of federal grants, including universities and nonprofits.

I do diversity training. I am going to be doing a Zoom classroom discussion… I suppose that it could fall under Trump’s ban.

Not only did he ban the training but he also set up a hotline to report the training.

Trump explanation is even scarier.

Asked to explain the reasoning behind the order at the Sept. 29 presidential debate, Trump said, "They were teaching people that our country is a horrible place. It's a racist place. And they were teaching people to hate our country. And I'm not going to allow that to happen."

Why did he do this?

I can only think of one reason… he does want people to realize that he is a racist, xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, and misogynistic.

What diversity teaches…

• What discrimination is,
• What the results of discrimination are,
• How to recognize it,
• How to correct that behavior.

“And they were teaching people to hate our country.” that is not what diversity training does… it teaches what behavior is that are racist, a xenophobic, homophobic, transphobic, and misogynistic.

The Trump administration's order, Kim believes, is founded on a gross misunderstanding of diversity training: the mistaken belief that it's all about blaming and vilifying white people. (The word "scapegoating" appears seven times in the executive order.)

That misconception is not just wrong, Kim [co-founder and CEO of the company Awaken, based in Oakland, Calif.] says, but it's also dangerous. "Somehow we've gotten to a place where we believe fighting against racism is anti-patriotic," she says. "That's where we are as a society. And that's a really scary place to be."

Bring about the change that we need to return to sanity... vote Blue.

This Says A Lot

Colleges and universities were required to have diversity education for their staff, but now Trump in an executive order did away with the mandatory requirements and actually bans diversity training.

Diversity Work, Interrupted
Some institutions have begun to cancel diversity, equity and inclusion programs in response to a Trump order. Critics say the order is censorship.
Inside Higher Ed
By Colleen Flaherty 
October 7, 2020


Two campuses are halting diversity efforts in relation to the White House’s recent executive order against “divisive concepts” in federally funded programs.

In a campus memo, the University of Iowa’s interim associate vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion, Liz Tovar, said, “Let us state unequivocally that diversity, equity and inclusion remain as core values within our institution.” However, she continued, “after consulting with multiple entities, and given the seriousness of the penalties for non-compliance with the order, which include the loss of federal funding, we are recommending that all units temporarily pause for a two-week period.”

John A. Logan College in Illinois also suspended diversity events, including a Hispanic Heritage Month talk planned for next week.

The executive order, released Sept. 22, invokes the Declaration of Independence, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. and describes the “fundamental premises underpinning our Republic” as follows: “All individuals are created equal and should be allowed an equal opportunity under the law to pursue happiness and prosper based on individual merit.”

Yet today, the order says, “many people are pushing a different vision of America that is grounded in hierarchies based on collective social and political identities rather than in the inherent and equal dignity of every person as an individual.” Such an “ideology is rooted in the pernicious and false belief that America is an irredeemably racist and sexist country; that some people, simply on account of their race or sex, are oppressors; and that racial and sexual identities are more important than our common status as human beings and Americans.”

In his executive order he goes so far that he tells federal contractors to stop their training!

In a series of tweets he said…

A few weeks ago, I BANNED efforts to indoctrinate government employees with divisive and harmful sex and race-based ideologies. Today, I've expanded that ban to people and companies that do business…
...with our Country, the United States Military, Government Contractors, and Grantees. Americans should be taught to take PRIDE in our Great Country, and if you don’t, there’s nothing in it for you!

NPR reported,

Trump Expands Ban On Racial Sensitivity Training To Federal Contractors
September 22, 2020


President Trump on Tuesday said he had expanded a ban on racial sensitivity training to federal contractors.

His administration had instructed federal agencies to end such training earlier this month.

Trump said on Twitter on Tuesday that he had expanded the ban on "efforts to indoctrinate government employees with divisive and harmful sex and race-based ideologies" to contractors doing business with the federal government and those receiving grant funds.

"Americans should be taught to take PRIDE in our Great Country, and if you don't there's nothing in it for you!" he tweeted.
[…]
Last week, Trump announced efforts to promote "patriotic education" and railed against students learning about systemic racism.

He signed an executive order that requires contracts to now include a provision that says contractors with the federal government will not have "workplace training that inculcates in its employees any form of race or sex stereotyping or any form of race or sex scapegoating" or face the cancellation of contracts.

Notice his choice of words, “indoctrinate,” “scapegoating,” and “ideologies” and it it’s place he wants “patriotic education.” Is that what Hitler did? Didn’t he ban “Jewish” propaganda?

"Instructors and materials teaching that men and members of certain races, as well as our most venerable institutions, are inherently sexist and racist are appearing in workplace diversity trainings across the country, even in components of the Federal Government and among Federal contractors," the order says.

The trainings cited include references to white privilege and systemic racism.

This has all the schools and businesses running for cover, they have no idea what is covered by the law and what is now banned by Trump.

I do a lot of diversity training and some of it for colleges and universities will this be affected by the order? Will I have to have a lawyer review my training to make sure that I will not be arrested for “indoctrinating” the students with trans propaganda or our “agenda”?

Does this sound like what Trump has done with his Executive Order?

European Court blasts Russia 'gay propaganda' law
BBC
20 June 2017


The Strasbourg judges said Russia had discriminated against three gay rights activists who opposed the law. It was adopted in 2013, banning promotion of homosexuality among people under 18.

The law "reinforced stigma and prejudice and encouraged homophobia", the ruling said.

Gay rights groups condemned the law.

Under the law, private individuals deemed to be promoting "homosexual behaviour among minors" face fines of up to 5,000 roubles (£67; $85), while officials risk paying 10 times that amount. Businesses and schools can be fined up to 500,000 roubles.

Homosexuality was decriminalised in Russia in 1993, but anti-gay prejudice is rife.

Critics see the propaganda law as part of a state campaign to marginalise LGBT activists, whose work includes dissemination of sexual health advice.

Does Trump EO sound anything like the Russian law?

Diversity Training, Does It Work?

I do a lot of training and the fall training season is just starting and sometimes I think am I making a difference?

I have seen attendees writing down notes and ask questions while others sit there like a bump on a log, you can just hear what they are thinking… they sent me to attend this junk.

She, he or they: Tampa Bay bars train to better serve LGBTQ customers
Workplace classes about navigating pronouns, gender identity and sexual orientation are getting more popular in the local customer service scene.
Tampa Bay Times
By Sara DiNatale
August 22, 2019

ST. PETERSBURG — Cole Foust [the manager of the LGBTQ+ division at nonprofit Metro Inclusive Health] stood in front of a sleepy group of servers and bartenders, starting off the day’s class with a simple assertion during his introduction: “I go by he/him.”

“Has anyone heard the buzz around pronouns?” he asked.

A few seated at the tables at MacDinton’s Irish Pub nodded or quietly said “yes."

“Don’t worry," he said. "We’ll get more into that later.”
[…]
Foust has given dozens of these presentations, but before that day he’d never spoken to the staff of a bar. Until recently, customer-service oriented businesses hadn’t sought out Metro’s diversity training. Typically, Foust has trained health care and social service workers. But as a cultural shift has more people attuned to what it means to be inclusive, classes to help workers navigate pronouns and gender identity are increasingly in demand.

He makes a good point about using “cisgender,”

The word cisgender? It describes the bulk of the population: people who identify with the gender they were assigned at birth. In Latin, “cis” is essentially the opposite of “trans.”

He posed it to the group like this: If we just used the word “normal” instead of a term like cisgender, how would it make transgender people feel?

“Abnormal," someone called from the group.

“Exactly," he said.

That’s a good way to make if someone objects to using the word “cisgender.”


My worst class was a sports medicine class at a local university for sport majors, we were there because we were with a speaker bureau. It was all men and jocks and this was last place they wanted to be, sitting in front of two trans women. They sat there with their arms crossed and legs wide open and they didn’t ask one question. Since we were supposed to do a Q&A session it was rather to do without any questions, so I asked Maryann… “What was it like when you came out?” We ended up asking each other questions for the whole class.

Another time I was waiting with some friends for our reservation at a restaurant when a woman stopped and said to me… “I was at your workshop at the NASW conference and because of what I learned that day I knew what to do when a client came out to me as transgender.”

Do we make a difference? We sure do.

It Is Not Just Us Under Fire

We have a lot of company including our gay brothers and sisters from the conservatives.

Why LGBT rights are under threat—and what to do about it
An interview with Fabrice Houdart, Human Rights Officer at the United Nations
The Economist
July 2, 2018

In recent years the progress in securing equal rights for gay, lesbian and transgender people in the West has seemed on an upward trajectory. Two-thirds of Americans support same-sex marriage, up from just over a third in 2001. Attitudes have also changed in much of Europe, where same-sex marriage is mostly legal, and in Australia, where same-sex unions were legalised last year.

Yet in much of the world, far more needs to be done. Even in America, activists worry that under Donald Trump’s administration hard-fought victories may be undermined. The Economist spoke with Fabrice Houdart, the Human Rights Officer at the United Nations, about the global challenges to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights.

The Economist: Are LGBT rights going backwards in the world today?
Fabrice Houdart: We are witnessing a proliferation of hate speech and human-rights abuses globally. This backsliding on human rights is not limited to that of LGBT people--but they experience it disproportionately. The steady advances that we have witnessed over the past few years in most parts of the globe have led to greater visibility of lesbian, gay and transgender people in places where they were previously relegated to the shadows.

Today, in almost every country you will find an LGBT grassroots movement. But increasingly LGBT people are used as pawns for political gain around issues of family and tradition. We have achieved some success in the struggle for LGBT equality in certain countries; but in other parts of the world progress will be harder.

We the U.S. used to be the leaders of the LGBT human rights movement, now we are the world leader in LGBT rights oppression. The Fascists and Republicans have found political and financial gain in oppressing minorities.

The Economist: You have spoken out about how homophobia and transphobia hurt the poor the most. Can you expand upon this?
Mr Houdart: When I first went to India in 2012 at the request of the World Bank to assess the links between poverty, sexual orientation and gender identity, I was struck by how the gay elite seemed to be attached to the status quo. They were not keen to see a public debate on sexual orientation take place. The reality is that money or social status create opportunities for one to isolate oneself from homophobia and transphobia. There is growing evidence that the burden of homophobia is harsher and heavier on the poor.

In India, for example, the poor rely heavily on community safety nets and girls tend to have very little control over their life choices, so fully living one’s sexual orientation is not an option. In 2016 I met a gay man from the slums in Mumbai who explained to me that once he was outed, he had no choice but to remain in the family dwelling exposed daily to the homophobia and violence from family members and neighbours. Leaving, he told me, meant losing all community safety-nets--and could have led to him ultimately dying homeless and abandoned on the streets.

Just like in the straight community, those who can afford to flee poverty, war, and oppression do so while the neediest are left behind.

The Economist: Where is tolerance being eroded? How can individuals and businesses make the case for it more clearly?
Mr Houdart: Conversations remain key. Recently, in New York, I went to a training of new recruits on lesbian, gay and transgender issues at the NYPD Police Academy in Queens, which featured gay and trans officers telling their stories candidly and responding to all kind of questions from recruits. It was very powerful and engaging. That same evening, I went to a well-attended diversity and inclusion event at Microsoft’s New York offices in which staff members shared their views on what being an “ally” meant.

Businesses and individuals should keep these discussions going--even in hostile environments. That is why laws against so-called “gay propaganda” frustrate social change because they ban these conversations.

Just like Harvey Milk said all those years ago, being visible is the key.

We need to control the message and not let those who hate us define us.

---

Another place of concern is our aging LGBT population, we fought to be out of the closet but as we age many of us are going back into the closet.

LGBT Organizations Focused on Reducing Healthcare Stigma in Aging Adults
The Medical Bag
By Lauren Biscaldi, Editor
July 05, 2018

Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community regularly face health disparities because of violence, stigma, and discrimination. Researchers at Aging with Pride: National Health, Aging, and Sexuality/Gender Study1 have set out to examine the consequences of those disparities with the help of the LGBT+ National Aging Research Center.

The federally funded project follows 2450 LGBT adults age 50 to more than 100 years. Approximately 13% of older LGBT adults report experiencing healthcare denial or receiving poor health care because of sexual or gender identity. Of transgender adults, 40% experienced the same treatment.

“We've found a constellation of high-risk factors, including a history of victimization and not getting access to the services they need,” said Karen I. Fredriksen Goldsen, PhD, principal National Health, Aging, and Sexuality/Gender Study investigator and professor at the University of Washington School of Social Work.2 “Not everyone is experiencing poor health,” she added. “In fact, most are doing very well. But we wanted to understand the poor health outcomes in this community.”
[…]
Lisa Krinsky, MSW, director of the LGBT Aging Project at The Fenway Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, shared some of the work the Institute is doing to treat the LGBT community, citing a recently launched video conferencing pilot program being used to reduce social isolation among LGBT adults. Additionally, The Fenway Institute is working to address the health of LGBT people with HIV in older age. “We still think of it as a young person's disease,” she said, noting that as a result of the overall success of antiretroviral therapies, people with HIV are living longer. Currently, adults 50 years and older account for 45% of the population living with diagnosed HIV.

I know of a number of hospitals in Connecticut are starting to recognize the disparities in healthcare provided to us and are trying to rectify the inequalities but we still have a long way to go. 

A New Eyeball

So I had to have surgery for cataracts in one of my eyes Wednesday and I was a little concerned not only for the operation but how the staff would treat me. I was at the eye surgery center for a hospital where they refused to treat a trans woman in the emergency room about 5 years ago.

I had to be there at six in the morning so a friend stayed over at my house so we could leave at 5:30 AM.

I changed all my paperwork to “Female” many, many years ago, so I a couple of weeks ago I get a call from the hospital for pre-admission and she asked questions about insurance and medical history. Only once did she ask, “And you’re a woman, right?”

So Wednesday morning we arrive at six and sit there in the waiting room until they called my name, the receptionist didn’t blink at all when I sat down. They brought me back the preparation room, as I was laying on the gurney the doctors came by, the anesthesiologist asked his questions, the nurses took their readings and during the entire time they used the correct pronouns. Not just in front of me but I could hear them talked over at the nurse’s station.

I fell asleep in the prep room and woke up when they rolled me into the operating room and boy the drugs they give you! You don’t care that they are cutting the lens out of you eye and then vacuum the pieces out.

When I was coming out of the anesthesia the anesthesiologist was talking to somebody and he said that there were no problems, she was sleeping when we wheeled her in to the operating room.

Today when I went for a follow-up exam the doctor asked who was the person that brought me to the surgery center yesterday, I told him a friend. She’s a 6 foot trans woman like me.

Oh, and the operation was a success.

---

A couple of weeks ago I did training with a trans man at a local hospital.

This Is Something Close To My Heart.

We are all hopefully going to be at this point someday where need assisted living or are looking for senior housing in 55+ communities and we wonder if we will have to go back into the closet again.

New frontier for gay rights: Bias and bullying in senior housing.
Chicago Tribune
By Nara Schoenberg
May 17, 2018

Even before she began searching for senior housing, Marti Smith had heard the horror stories.

Her gay friends told Smith, a lesbian, that when their partners entered assisted living the partners had to hide their homosexuality to avoid bias and bullying. Even Smith's friends had to play along when they visited.

“Visitors were told not to act gay or dress gay because of fear of harassment when they left,” said Smith, 73. “That’s very common.”

Earlier this month, an Evanston senior living community, the Merion, became the first in the state to achieve the top lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender competency credential from the nonprofit SAGE, a move that reflects a growing awareness of the challenges facing LGBT elders in senior housing. Both locally and nationally, seniors and advocates are calling for more welcoming and supportive housing.

Here in Connecticut the Connecticut Community Care Inc. agency in cooperation with LGBT Aging Advocacy Coalition (which I am a member of as part of the CT TransAdvocacy Coalition) and developed a program called “Getting it Right.”

Connecticut Elder Care Agencies Coming Out As LGBT Allies
Hartford Courant
By Rebecca Lurye
April 11, 2018

When someone walks into Jewish Family Services Care at Home for the first time, they’re bound to see a rainbow — if not in the stars on the glass front door, the welcome board, or the pamphlets in the waiting room, then in the flag pins on every staff member’s shirt.

There’s almost as many symbols of LGBT pride as company logos inside the West Hartford service provider’s office. It’s the organization's way of coming out as inclusive of all sexual orientations and gender identities, a move aimed at welcoming and reassuring one of the most marginalized populations of seniors.
[…]
Local screenings in 2013 sparked an effort by Connecticut Community Care Inc. — a Bristol-based organization that links people to service providers — to make a change in this state. CCCI and several partners formed the LGBT Aging Advocacy coalition and developed a program called “Getting it Right,” a two-pronged approach — part branding, part training — to improving elder care services for LGBT people.

So where am I today?

I am down in Hamden doing training for long term care and nursing home providers as a part of the  LGBT Aging Advocacy Coalition.

Under The Knife

Do your homework, but it is not easy to find out about surgeons because there is no database for surgeons or if there is it is not well known.

Trans Collective Demands Regulations for Doctors Performing Genital Surgery
The group has written an open letter calling on WPATH to accredit doctors performing gender-affirming surgeries.
Out
By Rose Dommu
April 21, 2018

Earlier this month, a group of transgender individuals — all of whom have undergone genital surgery — released a letter to the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) to request reform in the way the organization polices its surgical members — mainly, that it do so at all. Surgeons are allowed to be members of the collective without providing any real proof of training when it comes to performing these complicated procedures (besides being licensed plastic surgeons).

"I can't count how many times I've heard groups of trans people say, 'we should start a database on surgeons' because the reality isn't matching the claims they make about their outcomes, and it doesn't feel like anyone besides us cares," says Gaines Blasdel, a trans community advocate who runs the site Healthy Trans and one of the co-authors of the letter.

Blasdel and the other authors of the open letter aim to provide a resource to trans patients who are often left with little to no medical support once they return home from surgery. 

“Go back to your surgeon… I’m fixing her work!”

Many trans people hear that when they have problems with their surgery, local healthcare providers don’t want to touch us if there are after surgery complication. I know of several trans people who that has happened to, one had to be driven half way across country to have her problems fixed by her surgeon.

We are also to blame there are some trans people who don’t want to hear anything bad about their doctor who did their surgery… speak no evil of my surgeon!

So what is being done?

The authors of the letter are demanding that WPATH be required to accredit doctors performing gender-affirming genital surgeries and give patients access to information that surgeons either aren't collecting or are editing in their favor. "Historically they've been more concerned with deciding if the patient is trans enough for surgery — that era is coming to an end, and I think that we'll see an increase in the 'informed consent' philosophy in the next standards of care. But the question is, are they still going to continue let surgeons do a week of observation, pay their membership dues, and just start advertising as WPATH surgeons? Because that is happening."

So what is being done… well WPATH is now starting to teach surgeons.

Mount Sinai / WPATH Live Surgery Training Course for Gender Affirmation ProceduresA WPATH Certified Course
Featuring Didactic & Live Gender Affirmation Procedures
Mount Sinai Stern Auditorium
The Mount Sinai Hospital
1468 Madison Avenue New York, New York

THURSDAY, APRIL 26 | One-Day Didactic Course Only
Ideal for Healthcare Professionals Interested in Gender Affirmation Procedures

THURSDAY, APRIL 26 – SATURDAY, APRIL 28 | Full Program
(Includes One-Day Didactic Course & 1.5 Day Live Surgery Course)
Comprehensive Live Surgery Course for surgeons, surgical residents, surgical fellows, peri- and post- operative care providers.

So last week the course was held in New York where the surgeons could watch a live surgery.

They are also doing training class for therapist where you can get certified.

What’s the drawback to all this training?

Well there is concern that insurance companies will demand a certified therapist to write the letter for hormones and surgery which means we have to hunt around for the one or two therapist who are certified in the state. It can become a new form of “gatekeeping.”

It Is The Little Things…

That makes a difference, like the use of pronouns.

How Philly organizations tweaked their email signatures - and transformed their culture
Philly Inquirer
by Samantha Melamed
March 2, 2018

There are few things more mundane than an office email signature. But in December, the Philadelphia organization Gearing Up made a minor tweak to its digital protocol — with a surprisingly transformative impact.

It was an addition of just a few words, right below the sender’s name but above the job title: a line declaring the author’s preferred pronouns.

“Lately, with people talking about gender so much, we realized that policy wasn’t quite as clear or accepting as we needed it to be,” said program director Al Sharrock (whose preferred pronouns are they/them/their).

And, though subtle, the change is working for Gearing Up, an exercise program for those recovering from addiction.

“For people who are nervous about whether they’ll be accepted in our space, it has brought them out of their shells,” Sharrock said. “I would imagine everyone else doesn’t really notice it. But the people who need it are seeing it.”

If you go to the waiting room for the dentist of the Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective you will find LGBT magazine, on the forms there is a place for preferred pronouns, and preferred name along with “legal name,” yes you would expect to find that there but you also will find the same thing at my diabetes endo office.

However, it is not in most of my other doctor’s offices.

It is the little things like that and maybe having just a safe space sticker can make a difference and the West Hartford Jewish Family Services is making the difference, they will be the first organization who will have trained their staff to be LGBT friendly. Their staff has taken “Getting It Right” training that is giving by Connecticut Community Care.

The organization that I’m the Executive Directors is a member of the LGBT Aging Advocacy that guided CCC in developing the training program to make sure that they got it right. Which by the way is where I am at this afternoon… a meeting of the LGBT Aging Advocacy.

LGBT Aging Advocacy is also responsible in the Moveable Senior Center where a town senior center has a LGBT day at their centers one day a month at a different senior center.

Update 4:20 PM

At the meeting we heard how a social worker that had a “safe space” symbol on her name tag was at a client’s home when the client spied the “safe space” triangle, came out to the social worker and reintroduced her “friend” as her wife.

We can make a difference!

Teaching Healthcare Providers

In the past I was on a panel for the School of Medicine at UConn Health Center but this year I haven’t heard from them, but I know that they were revamping the curriculum so I don’t know if they are still including us in the student’s curriculum.

Nurse With Transgender Expertise Helps People Live Authentic Lives
Nurse.org
By Lee Nelson
January 26, 2018

The wait list of young people wanting to get help at the Center for Transyouth Health and Development in Los Angeles runs usually at over 100 people long. These children, teens and young adults come from everywhere to seek support.

“I like being part of the team that helps them get to that place of being who they are,” says Bianca Salvetti, pediatric nurse practitioner and HIV and transgender health specialist.

The center she works at is located at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. Salvetti coordinates and implements HIV clinical research and medical care activities within the Risk Reduction Program. She provides primary care to teens and young adults, as well as specialty care to transgender youth and young adults living with HIV.
[…]
How did you get interested in working with transyouth?
During her own nurse practitioner training, Salvetti shadowed a nurse practitioner who worked with homeless youth.

“Something about that drew me in. You worked with young people, and it was more laid back, not so formal. It was just a conversation, and I liked that,” Salvetti adds.

When the job opened up in the transyouth clinic, she knew she had to apply.

Some wonder if you need training because we are so few that there would not be a big demand for nurses trained to work with trans youth.

Where are jobs for transgender nurses?
The jobs can be limited, Salvetti says.

“However, there are definitely more trans programs opening up which opens up more opportunities for nurses and medical providers. I think this is due to the visibility of trans and gender non-conforming folks on TV and social media.

She also believes that young people are pushing for more acceptance and medical care access.

“My plan is to stick with this job. But the hard part is if I ever decided to move from Los Angeles, it would be limited where I could go,” she says. “I’m from Oklahoma originally. My thoughts are that maybe I could buy a house there. But I’m sure the jobs for my skills don’t exist there yet.”

I think that being trained in how to work with trans youth is invaluable training even if you don’t specialize in healthcare for trans people.

Connecticut Is Ahead Of The Curve

We have been training homeless shelter about trans inclusion for over a year now.

Homeless Shelters Could Soon Become More Welcoming To Trans Residents
New proposed regulations would ensure transgender people can stay in shelters matching their gender identity.
Huffington Post
By Sarah Grossman
August 22, 2016

Shelters may soon be safer and more welcoming to homeless people who are transgender.

New rules proposed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) would allow transgender people to stay in the homeless shelters that correspond to the gender they identify with.

“Anybody who is seeking services at a homeless shelter is already in crisis or in need ― and it’s important for them to be treated with dignity and respect,”David Stacy, of LGBT advocacy organization Human Rights Campaign, told The Huffington Post. “A transgender person should have their gender identity recognized and treated appropriately ― and that’s what these regulations do.”
[…]
Current regulations on housing protections for LGBT people were established in 2012 and prohibit shelters from turning away someone because they are transgender, but those rules don’t explicitly say you have to house people according to their gender identity, according to Stacy.

The new proposed regulations build off guidelines that HUD issued to shelters last year specifying that transgender people should be allowed access to shelters based on the gender they identify with. But while guidelines are informal ― and it’s up to shelters whether to follow them ― the new regulations would be mandatory and enforceable, according to Stacy. 

Our training covers the 2012 regulations, our slides list the regulations…

• HUD published  the Equal Access to Housing in HUD Programs Regardless of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity final rule (Equal Access Rule) (77 FR 5662) on February 3, 2012

• The Equal Access Rule requires that HUD’s housing programs be made available to individuals and families without regard to actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or marital status

• It prohibits owners and administrators of HUD-assisted or HUD-insured housing, approved lenders in an FHA mortgage insurance program, and any other recipients or subrecipients of HUD funds from inquiring about sexual orientation or gender identity to determine eligibility for HUD-assisted or HUD-insured housing

• It provides a limited exception for inquiries about the sex of an individual to determine eligibility for temporary, emergency, shelters with shared sleeping areas or bathrooms, or to determine the number of bedrooms to which a household may be entitled

• HUD has subsequently determined it is necessary to provide additional guidance on how best to provide shelter to transgender persons in a single-sex facility. HUD is continuing to evaluate whether setting a national policy through rulemaking is necessary.

[…]
If HUD finds a recipient or subrecipient has failed to meet program requirements, HUD may take actions such as those described in 24 CFR 576.501 (Enforcement) or 24 CFR 576.540 (Deobligation of Funds[translated from bureaucratic talk... take back the monies]).

Of course you know that the conservatives are all up in a tizzy over the proposed regulation

The proposed regulations have provoked backlash from some conservative organizations.

“Why do you have to force other people to feel really uncomfortable, and in some cases unsafe, just to make your political point?” Tim Wildmon, president of the conservative American Family Association, told The Hill.

Our training also points out that it is behavior that is important, if someone is causing a problem then there are the one who should be dealt with, not the victim.

LGBT advocates do not agree that the safety of others would be threatened by transgender people accessing spaces corresponding with their gender identity.

“There’s not a real problem here,” Stacy said. “Any person can pose a threat to others, and nothing in these regulations says you can’t deal with appropriate threats. If there are concerns about someone that are not based on factors related to their gender, but based on relevant factors, such as them being violent, those criteria still apply, and they apply equally to all people.”

Our training program came about because a trans woman was placed in a men’s shelter and was attacked by another resident and she was the one who was thrown out of the shelter on a cold January night at 11 o’clock in the dark of the night.

Okay, You Probably Heard This Already…

A trans model was in the opening ceremonies for the Olympics.

Transgender Supermodel Lea T Made Olympic History At Rio Opening Ceremony
The Huffington Post Canada
By Al Donato
Posted: 08/06/2016

When it comes to transgender representation, the Rio Olympics' opening ceremony pedaled towards progress.

As cyclists with named placards led athletes into the Parade of Nations, Brazilian-born supermodel Leandra Medeiros Cerezo introduced the world to Team Brazil.

Known as Lea T on the catwalks, she's the first transgender woman to hold a role in any Olympic ceremony.

Her part in the opening event was smaller than expected. Early rumours suggested that she would be strutting alongside model Gisele Bundchen, in a tribute to the iconic Brazillian ballad "The Girl From Ipanema." Bundchen ended up sashaying through the tribute alone.

And then there is Chris Mosier, the first trans athlete in the Olympics,

Nike airs first commercial featuring a transgender athlete during Olympics
New York Daily News
By Nicole Bitette
August 9, 2016

They just did it.

Nike debuted the sneaker company's first ever commercial featuring a transgender athlete.

The latest ad shows Chris Mosier, the first transgender athlete to make the U.S. men's Olympic team, comparing his transition to the brand's "Just Do It" mindset.

The 35-year-old duathlete began his transition 2010 and called making it on the Olympic team as a man "a dream come true."

But it all hasn’t been smooth sailing for him,

The Chicago product had a tough road just to get to the starting line alongside his fellow runners and cyclists. Mosier couldn't use the bathroom during a June qualifying race for Team USA in North Carolina because of that state's controversial HB2 law, Rolling Stone reported.

Someday I hope it will not be news when we take part in the Olympics, we will just be another contestant or performer.

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I went up to the cottage in New Hampshire Saturday and then Sunday afternoon I drove over to Rutland Vermont to take part in a discussion at a Quaker conference, I am not Quaker but I was invited by a friend to come and talk about…

A Conversation among the Ls, Gs, Bs, Ts and Qs (Queer, Questioning and Qurious)
Diana, a recent transgender activist, and Christine, a longtime lesbian feminist activist, will hold A Conversation among the Ls, Gs, Bs, Ts and Qs (Queer, Questioning and Qurious) that is open to all. A Quaker meeting is one of the few places where both speakers and audience can feel safe sharing honestly about very personal issues, where answers tend to be complex and gray rather than simple and clear. The presenters will start the conversation with personal experiences, then open it up to the audience. Our watchwords are ‘respect’ and ‘understanding’; ‘political correctness’ is not in our vocabulary.

The Monday “Opportunities” as they call them got a little sided tracked and we talked about the plight of LGBT people in Uganda, it was off topic but it was a very important discussion about the underground railroad that the Quakers are running to get LGBT people out of Uganda.

AMERICAN QUAKERS ARE RUNNING AN 'UNDERGROUND RAILROAD' TO HELP LGBT UGANDANS FLEE
Newsweek
By Zoe Schlanger
July 11, 2016

A group of American Quakers are operating what they call a “new underground railroad” to help a few LGBT Ugandans flee their country, where a recent law imposes harsh penalties for homosexuality.

The Friends New Underground Railroad (FNUR), based in Washington state, sees itself as continuing the work of Quakers who historically helped slaves escape the American South. As of this Monday, they say they have worked with unnamed Ugandan “conductors” to fund and coordinate passage out of the country for 107 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender Ugandans, nine of whom have reached Sweden, while several dozen others are “being processed for asylum status in countries around the world,” according to the group’s FAQ page.

The American group coordinates funds for passage to the Ugandan border with Kenya, and the Ugandan conductors make all decisions with regards to who will be helped, according to Buzzfeed. Once over the border, the LGBT individuals are delivered to local safe houses and organizations before potentially moving on. FNUR tells Buzzfeed that none of their charges have ended up in Kenyan refugee camps, where life for LGBT people can be very dangerous.

Buzzfeed reported Friday on the controversy surrounding the Quakers’ project. While other groups working to oppose Uganda’s new anti-homosexuality law acknowledge the Quaker group’s good intentions, they worry that FNUR lacks the expertise or on-the-ground experience to sustain the project long-term.

And that was what the discussion was about. I mentioned that Scott Lively is being sued by an Uganda LGBT organization under the Alien Tort Statute ("ATS"; also known as the Alien Tort Claims Act), I wrote about it here, here and here.

On the way home Tuesday I took the long way home, instead of dashing across Vermont to I-91 I went down Route 7 to Bennington and then Route 9 across Vermont to I-91 in Brattleboro. Along Rt. 9 you cross over Hogback Mountain and I stopped to take a panorama photo.

You know how they say don't take pictures toward the sun, always have the sun over your shoulder.
Well this is a good example of why you don't want to shot into the sun, but sometimes you have to. The photo is from the top of Hogback Mountain looking south that I took this morning on the way back from Rutland. I had no choice since the view is only to the south. You can see how the sky on the left side of the photo is washed out.

I Was In Jail Yesterday

Yesterday I was invited to do some training at a correctional institute which was a new experience for me.

I was running late as usual and I rushed, my pocketbook and the computer cables but I forgot my laptop which I didn’t realize until I got to the prison and I was collecting my stuff to go inside… SHIT! My PowerPoint was on it! Lucky I emailed her the presentation and I could use her copy without the embedded video.

I’ll tell you it is a little scary to hear the bars close behind you with a loud metal clank; you realize fast that this is the real McCoy.

Though a number of locked doors I was escorted to her office and then to the chapel where I was going to give my presentation. While we were walking down the chapel we walked by a number of cells, I didn’t want to look inside them but curiosity got the better of me and I peeked inside a few. They were all empty but they all had a bed, toilet, and a chair. The toilet was in plain sight of the hallway. Meanwhile prisoners were walking by us just like in any other office building except the all had brown coveralls on my escort explained that they were on their way to the cafeteria for lunch.

As we round one corner the guards stopped us and said to my escort, they are transporting a prisoner. So we ducked into an office. Four guards with a prisoner in the middle walked down the hallway, the prisoner hands and feet were shackled to waist… we were not in Kansas anymore.

When we got to chapel there was an inmate trusty setting up the TV and computer. Then the staff started to drift in, my escort said that they were waiting for the other wardens and the Correction’s Commissioner. It turned out this wasn't just for the staff of the institute but for a number of other facilities from around the state. Afterward I got to talk to the commissioner and he is interested in getting together to talk about writing a policy.

Then they escorted me out and boy did the gate sound a lot different when you are walking out.

Too bad it wasn't a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.