On July 10, the Trans Oral History Project ( TOHP ) brought its "I Live for Trans Education" workshop to Women and Children First Bookstore, 5233 N. Clark St.
With the help of videos featuring interviews with both well-known and anonymous trans individuals, TOHP representatives handed out activity workbooks and engaged an audience of about 50 people in spirited discussions about trans media representation, health care and employment.
Cristina Garza began by asking the audience's first memory of seeing a trans person in the media. Talk shows such as Jerry Springer, Phil Donahue and Maury dominated the collective memory. Local activist Precious Davis addressed that phenomenon on video, saying she felt talk-show interviews were "edited to entertain." Almost all of the interviewees wanted to see trans stories in history books. "We begin to be the spokespeople for ourselves," Davis said. The audience seconded the need for trans stories, and many found the Internet an invaluable resource for education, using the ever-quicker online backlash when trans figures are misgendered as an example of its power.
TOHP volunteer Aidan McCormick shifted the topic to health care. The video interviews split between trans-specific and standard health-care narratives, including an interview with a genderqueer nursing student. The audience echoed experiences about health-care providers lacking hormone knowledge and misgendering patients during routine procedures, even in places with high trans populations like San Francisco.
"I have a low tolerance for transphobia in health care," said Jay, an audience member, adding that he'd rather "pass a kidney stone" himself than walk into an unwelcome environment. A few reported positive experiences with doctors if referred by a community member, or even, as one parent of a trans child suggested, calling ahead with information about proffered names and pronouns.
Health care, as McCormick pointed out, is a class issue, and that led neatly into trans activist Alexis Martinez's discussion of employment. She related her experience as a small business owner who lost employees and clients when she started to present as openly female. The video featured sports journalist Christina Kahrl, who said that with one or two exceptions, she felt generally supported while transitioning at ESPN,.
The video also outlined the history of ENDA or the employee non-discrimination act, which still awaits debate in the U.S House. Gender identity is cause for discrimination in 34 states, and background checks make trans employees highly vulnerable. But as Martinez and others noted, small businesses provide a majority of U.S jobs and would not be covered by ENDA. Yet the need for safe spaces for trans employees was clear. TOHP's video clip cited 78 percent of employees saying they felt more comfortable at work after they transitioned, but the same number also felt mistreated at work.
Although time ran short before Lee Dewey could lead the audience in discussing acceptance in the trans community and beyond, it was clear that TOHP's facilitatorsand the reflective and well-spoken audience snapping up the workbooks on their way out of the storehad achieved the affirming space their curriculum strives to create for trans individuals and those who support them.