INTRAA Chair's blog
The trans support / discussion group that I formed had it's first meeting tonight. There were a grand total of four people there, and I think it went rather well, despite the low numbers.
For the past four days, I have participated in The Breast Cancer 3-Day, which is a 60-mile walk over three days with benefits going to breast cancer research. This is my second year working the event as a crew member.
I wrote about a month ago about the advocacy work I started doing in my town. This situation has blown up somewhat, and there is a lot that is and will happen with it, and I am caught right in the middle.
Last night, I participated in an INTRAA Speakers Bureau panel for an LGBTQA youth group in my town. The impetus for the panel was my increased participation in local political organizations and overall visibility. I think that I have made something of an impression as a vocal and accessible trans person here, at least in the progressive communities, and the youth group approached me because of this.
When I started talking to people in my research group and my department about being trans, I specifically chose not to come out to a few people because I didn’t think that they would be supportive or because I just didn’t want to deal with it. Well, I am taking a course this semester with one group member's wife and I plan to come out in the course and the research project that I am doing for the course is trans identities-based. I decided on Monday that I had to come out to him before I came out in the class because it was going to get around to him and I wanted it to come from me.
Today, I acted as an advocate during a meeting with a trans woman in my region and one of the local human rights commission chairpersons. My role was to ask the questions that she forgot to ask, to facilitate the discussion when there were problems, and to generally advocate on her behalf. I was mostly a fly on the wall at the meeting. It was a difficult role for me for three reasons.
The spin possibilities include the LGB community discovering how few trans people actually feel comfortable in the queer community and using that to further distance the communities from each other. Furthermore, I can see the queer community using this information to legitimate ceasing to offer trans-educational, trans-inclusive, and trans-focused programming. In places where there are large trans populations, this may not be a huge problem, but in Indiana, it is my belief that the trans community needs allies as much as it needs to participate in trans-only activities. A community this small cannot be left to fend for itself.
To submit a story, call INTRAA toll free at 888.657.1854 or email me through the site here. Soon you will be able to submit stories directly through the website. I will update this entry when that feature is available.
