#trans buddy

This is my last day in Nashville. This summer has gone by fast and I have learned a lot. Cameron, Trevor, and I have knocked out quite the to do list while also having a good time. One of the reasons why I was looking forward to this internship was because it is in the South, a region I have only spent a couple weeks in for vacation. While I only been able to explore a bit, I have certainly learned about Tennessee and the challenges people face here in regards to access to health care. One group that I have learned a lot about these struggles from is the parents of trans* youth. The PFLAG meetings in Nashville tend to have mostly parents of trans* youth and many of these families are not only dealing with unaccepting schools but also accessing transition related health care for their kids. In general, many people will drive hours, even from other states such as Kentucky, to specifically Vanderbilt and other places in Nashville to access even primary care services.

I was asked by my supervisors to talk a little about why I'm doing this. What inspires me to do this work? It's a big question.

I am the Trans Buddy Project specific intern—compared to my colleagues Cameron and Trevor who are the interns for the Program for LGBTI Health (you'll hear from them later in the summer). I come from an activist and public health background. In high school I did a lot of work around creating safer schools for youth specifically LGBTQIA youth. Unfortunately, I am unable to do as much of that work now that I am in college. However, I reckon I engage in other activist work just in a different way.

What inspires me to intern at The Trans Buddy Program? Another big question. Well, I am a public health major with an emphasis on health disparities and gender. However, I am not only interested in community work and research but clinical care as well. I like how this internship allows me to participate in all three. I am able to meet trans people in the Nashville community and learn more about the Nashville trans community, read research papers and help with research projects, and then also meet patients and be a trans buddy. Being a trans man myself I wanted to work with my community and give insight that cisgender people just probably are not going to have. However, not being from Tennessee or even the South means I still have a lot of learning to do about the specific population I will be working with.

I'm involved at my college in trying to improve campus emergency and public safety (all on the medical side). Some examples of the work we do is trying to improve the relationship between the students and the county fire department and raise awareness around alcohol poisoning. Though that does not seem directly related to the LGBTQIA community because it is not overtly about marriage equality, youth homelessness, or trans people being murdered, view it as being about the LGBTIA community as well as being relevant to other marginalized groups. My major is specifically focusing on health disparities and gender specifically on the trans community. I tend to do this through a structural competency lens. Structural competency, in short, it looks at how race, class, gender, sexual orientation, etc and social structures impact health and outcomes. 

I have always been interested in health and medicine. When I was four I would look at my mom’s old EMT textbooks—I finally got my EMT license last year. When I started transitioning in high school I knew that I not only wanted to be involved with health and medicine but with the trans community as well. I learned more about public health and decided that is what I was interested in pursuing.

Trans people face huge disparities in regards to accessing proper healthcare—as well as economically and racially—not only in regards to transition related care but just basic care for say, the flu. The trans community is a resilient community though. Yes, trans people, especially trans women of color, are being murdered but there are also other trans women of color doing important and successful organizing work as well as surviving and thriving (hell, they started the whole movement).

In regards to healthcare directly, trans people are able to build community and share resources and information especially through social media platforms in order to access the care they need. Of course, all of this depends on the privilege that people do and do not have (income, education, specific identity, how they are read by society, race, etc.). This resilience is starting to become recognized by researchers as well. The National Center for Transgender Equality and National Gay and Lesbian Task Force study, National Transgender Discrimination Survey (Grant et al. 2001), talks about resilience not only in terms of accessing healthcare but also in employment, etc. Some graduate students presenting their research at the Philly Trans Health Conference also discussed resilience in the trans community.  

I think there are a lot of forms of activism, a lot that can be done within those aspects, and that all forms intersect. Even though the activism I do is not marching in the streets and the subject manner is not overtly related to human or civil rights, I do not think that it is any less important. As long as my work continues to keep marginalized communities and the intersections of oppression centered then I would like to think the work I does matters or at least can make some difference.