Making a difference

[lobolance]

Whoo hoo! Just back from participating on a trans education panel for residents at Kaiser. I did this once before, about three years ago. Dr. Robin Dea (chief of psychiatry) was the main speaker. There were supposed to be a couple other panelists, but they didn't show. Anyhow, it was an informal question and answer in the round setup, and went well. A lot of suprised and sympathetic faces as the time went by. We touched on sexual orientation, how one learns where to begin, the attitude doctors should have (not different than with any other patient actually), and much more.

I had a super satisfying experience in the farewells; a woman came up to me and said she'd seen me on the same panel a few years back, and had just last month operated on her first FTM, and was so greatful to have me at the panel back when; the experience had really helped her with this patient.

I love educating doctors this way. So much better than when in the patient position (which someone pointed out, to my pleased surprise). 

Comments

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Speaking of making a difference, the past week my Gender Sex and Religion class has been working on transgender issues in religion. I've been the go-to person for information about that, largely because I've also been participating in discussions elsewhere about the acceptance within the Special Interest community and issues of binary space (Men-only/Women-only) and how the genderflexible are making those distinctions difficult to enforce.

I *think* my big paper for the class is going to be in the area, but I'm not sure. I'm considering something about making space for transgender folks in goddess/pagan communities, and the experiences of TG people in that context, but I'm not sure yet.

[lobolance.livejournal.com]

Very cool. Your entries about the class have been intriguing. The topic you're considering is so happening right now.

[trinsf.livejournal.com]

Well, Kerrick (I don't know if you know him) had raised the issue last year with the Spiral Dance cell. As a result, an invocation was added to the ritual. Unfortunately, we also had an incident with the bathrooms -- someone told a TG person to leave the women's room -- so now we're struggling with that. We only have two bathrooms available on site for participants, and if we make them both unisex, the women-only crowd will be upset. But the alternative is to have one women-only, and one unisex, which functionally means that we'd make the men's room unisex, which is sort of cheesy, if you know what I mean.

[inflectionpoint.livejournal.com]

go you! I'm glad you are able to do this and choose to do this. You do make a difference. I am glad you can.

oops

[inflectionpoint.livejournal.com]

that comment should have gone to the main post. ai!

I'd love to hear more about your paper - my experiences with Divinity lately have been rather genderflexible. The deity I primarily work with is rather, "yes/no/either/depends" and I often get frustrated at how little representation of that there is in many faiths.

Good luck with your classes!