Nono Burling: Good morning everyone and welcome to First Tuesday's which is a monthly
webinar series that's offered to you, or
brought to you, by the Washington State Library.
We have just a little bit of
housekeeping to start with.
I wanted to tell you, oops see what just happened there, I'm Nono Burling, I'm your facilitator
which basically means I'm introducing
everything. We have two people online
right now for technical support. Jeremy
Stroud and Joe Olayvar. If you guys
wouldn't mind putting your contact
information into the chat box. That way
if anyone is having any trouble they can give you a call and get some
help. Though since we've changed software, it seems like it's a pretty, we're having
a lot less technical difficulty, which is
great. A couple of things--at the very end
of the webinar, when you close down the
window, you'll see that there is a survey
that should pop up on your, in your,
browser and that survey is, we need, to do
for our funder which is the Institute of
Museum and Library Services. So if you
have the time it's just four questions. It
should be really quick. Let's see... and
then I want to say that this is brought
to you by the Washington State Library
and the Institute of Museum and Library
Services, our funder, and I was going to
introduce our panelists to you. They have
suggested that I just say their name,
they're going to introduce themselves.
During the course of the webinar they've
requested that if you have questions
during the presentation, you put them in
the chat box. They'll try during the presentation to
reply in chat and then at the end they
can answer any questions out loud but
please add your questions as we go. So I,
we have Sunny Kim, Micah Kehrein, Bean Yogi,
and Reed Garber-Pearson are our four
presenters and that's all for me and I
would say take it away guys.
Sunny Kim: All right, welcome everybody while we're getting the slide into presenter mode, I
just wanted to thank you all for showing
up and joining us today. I know it's hard
to carve time out for a more learning
and development but I appreciate that
you all are here for this. And the second
thing I'd like to do before introducing
ourselves is acknowledge that the land
on which the presenters live is occupied
unsceded and seized territory of the
Duwamish people and the Coast Salish
tribes that have stewarded this region
since before settler colonialism and we
want to go beyond just a statement and urge you all to be guided by this knowledge
in your relationship to whatever land
you are currently living on living on.
So with that, having said that, let's start with Reed introducing themselves.
Reed Garber-Pearson: Hi, this is Reed speaking good morning everyone and Bean and I, are, we're both
on the same mic right now so we'll be
trying to introduce ourselves as we're
on mic so you know who is speaking. So
this is Reed, and I'm the online learning
librarian and a social sciences
librarian at the University of Washington.
Micah Kehrein: Hello, I'm Micah Kehrein. Sunny and I are actually
also sharing the mic so we will try to
introduce ourselves as we go. I work for
the Seattle Public Library and I'm a
library associate for their, meaning I
staff an information desk.
Sunny Kim: Hi there, I'm Sunny Kim. I also work at
the Seattle Public Library as a teen
services librarian and just the one
thing I like to share with folks is that
before joining libraries I worked in
community organizing in Seattle so that
informs a lot of what I bring to my library work.
Bean Yogi: Good morning everyone. My
name is Bean Yogi. I also use them in
their pronouns and I'm a library
associate too at the Seattle Public Library.
Micah: I see that someone commented
that the slides
are showing up and larger than the
screen is anyone else having issues with
that or is that perhaps just a issue
with one computer?
Okay, and does Jeremy's fixed typed into
the chat box address the issue?
Double-clicking on the screen?
No it does not. Okay so...
So it's looking half-and-half. I'm seeing how about now no it's great
yes okay excellent all right it looks
like it the issue has been addressed all
right sorry so to wrap up our intros all
of us use the pronouns they them and
theirs and yeah you may notice that we
also included it in our soom chat name
this is a practice that I've started to
do because there are so few ways to
share with people what pronouns you are
using so anyway
take it away read all right so we're
gonna talk a little bit about what we're
gonna do today this is a very very brief
session of a very introductory session
so today is all about increasing our
understanding of transgender experiences
in order to create library spaces and
programming that are truly inclusive of
and reflect the wide variety of gender
expressions and experiences of our
patrons and our co-workers that use our
library spaces will offer some ideas and
some starting points for resources and
programming but really today is meant to
get you to start thinking about your own
institutions and libraries in the
context in which you work and to
identify some areas that you might want
to want to work on in your own landscape
so hopefully if anything today you'll
come out with some questions that you
can take back to your own institution
and start to do some work within you and
we're always open to talking further
about this later
okay and we've created some ground rules
since this is such a brief session today
we did a very long for our workshop of
the same session at the Washington
Library Association conference last year
November 2017 so this is like 50 minutes
of very basics so these are really meant
to help us have some common
understandings together when we ask
questions and answer them so obviously
respect is is a guideline that we'd like
to have with one another today speak
from your own experiences and
perspectives please when you ask
questions and respect people's pronouns
we all make mistakes and you have
probably made mistakes I make mistakes
we'll all continue to make mistakes but
I think the most important thing to
learn today is to correct yourself and
to own those mistakes and to take
responsibility for them and we will talk
more about how to apologize when we make
these mistakes and we'll give you some
some helpful little tips about about
that Thank You Reid this is Mike again
so one of the things that felt really
important to me as we were doing this
presentation is making sure that we had
shared language so I'm sure all of you
have heard of LGBT kind of a more full
acronym is LGBTQ Qi a and so what does
that mean so what this acronym stands
for is all different folks in the queer
community that includes folks that are
lesbian gay bisexual transgender queer
questioning intersex and asexual I'm
sure some of those words are new and
what we are going to talk about today is
particularly the identities that have to
do with gender identity versus sexual
orientation so the identities that have
to do with gender identity versus sexual
orientation is of course primarily
transgender that word refers to folks
that identify with the gender identity
other than
the one that was assigned to them at
birth and it also applies to some folks
that are queer some folks that are
questioning and I realized when we
reformatted this that I'm actually
missing an arrow and so I'd like to for
you all to imagine an arrow pointing
towards the word intersects um and that
is um how are you able to move it live
so no no no maybe and so what we are so
what with queer that is a word that has
to do with both sexual orientation and
gender identity it's a word that can
mean a lot of different things to a lot
of people and it's also used as an
umbrella term to refer to the whole LGBT
community often it is a word that has
been reclaimed by a lot of folks in the
community after it being a word that has
been used against us the word
questioning that is a word that refers
to folks that are still kind of
examining what either their sexual
orientation or gender identity or both
is and then as for intersex that is a
population of folks whose genetics whose
chromosomes whose genitalia and who's
kind of like hormones are not in
alignment with what medical standards
assigned to a binary gender so male or
female it's actually about 2% of the
population I'm gonna go into more detail
about this on the next slide and so just
to give you all heads off votes which
words we're going into today in kind of
what this means in the scheme of the
LGBTQ community so definitions I was
getting a little ahead of myself but you
know it's 9 a.m. on a Tuesday morning so
let's dive deeper so transgender
individuals have a gender identity that
differs from their assigned sex at birth
meaning that they identify differently
other than what's on their birth
certificate the word cisgender that is
the opposite of transgender it's not a
bad word it's just a descriptor and
that's
folks that have a gender identity that
does align with the the sex that they
were assigned at birth so for example
that would be someone who was born the
doctor wrote female on their birth
certificate and you know there they
still identify as a woman that is all
that cisgender means so diving into
trans what transgender identities look
like a little more deeply a transgender
man you might hear someone refer to that
person as a trans man that person was
assigned female at birth but his gender
identity is that of a man and he lives
as a man he is a man a transgender woman
on the other hand or a trans woman was
assigned male at birth but she is a
woman her gender identity is that of a
woman and yeah that's that's her so
sometimes folks get a little mixed up
with those terms so I like to kind of
delineate which means what a genderqueer
or nine non-binary person may have been
assigned any gender at birth and that
that is a very kind of on different sort
of umbrella term that includes a wide
variety of identities for folks that do
not identify either as a man or a woman
and so they might identify not as either
gender both gender simultaneously
meaning they feel both like a man or a
woman or fluctuate between gender
identities in a gender-fluid way and
then one other part of this is folks who
are gender non-conforming so that would
be someone who is cisgender who
identifies with the gender they were
assigned at birth who perhaps in a good
example of this would be someone who was
assigned male at birth who really
identifies as a man but like loves
wearing dresses and painting his nails
in our society that would be considered
gender non-conforming so I know I just
put a lot of text out there for y'all
and kind of talked at you for a minute
and I want to illustrate what this looks
like using myself as an example
so this is the gender unicorn and this
is a graphic by the trans student
educational resources and they share
this just to kind of give folks an idea
of what this looks like in action so
you'll see the little rainbow that
represents a gender identity so you can
see that's what the unicorn is thinking
about that's what um
that's what's in the brain that's kind
of what you feel and you'll see gender
expression that's the green and the dots
on the outside that is how you express
how you show your gender those are kind
of the adornments of gender what you
wear but also like how you walk and how
you physically take up space in the
world sex assigned at Birth you'll see
the chromosome sign for that that is has
to do with you know chromosomes and
genitalia and hormones and then you'll
see the different parts for physical and
emotional attraction this delineate that
you know some folks have different
physical and emotional attraction to
different folks of different genders so
let me dive in so I'm using myself as an
example
this is something that is a pretty cool
way to explore on your own and really
think through how you identify how you
express yourself and the attractions you
experience so for me I identify very
strongly as genderqueer or non-binary
and so that is my only gender identity
for me I feel like I'm not either gender
other non-binary folks might mark this
completely differently obviously we are
all different my gender expression so
you all saw one little photo of me and
so let me talk through that so I mostly
feel like my gender expression is other
but I recognize that it also Peaks into
both things that are feminine and
masculine y'all cannot see me today but
I'm wearing nail polish and mascara so
those are things that kind of are
societally assigned to feminine I'm also
I think all of the clothing I'm wearing
as men's clothing so that is something
that is
assigned as masculine and this you know
can be fluid I'm a huge fan of floral
print so depending on when you see me my
gender expression might look differently
but this is kind of a snapshot from me
of how I feel my gender expression plays
out in the world meaning the physical
adornments I share with my body and the
way I move my body sex assigned at birth
so this is something you never under any
circumstances want to ask trans folks
about but because we're all friends here
I'm gonna share this information about
myself but again this is something you
don't want to ask I was assigned female
at birth and that is just kind of a
piece of information that I share to
make this graphic make a little more
sense and then to kind of delineate the
difference between gender identity and
attraction
I'm just briefly speaking to my own
physical attractions and emotional
attractions just to kind of bring this
back into the larger picture of how
sexual orientation and gender identity
are different so for me I'm physically
attracted primarily to other trans
individuals but also men and women and
my emotional attractions are a little
bit different I am again incredibly
attracted to other trans folks
emotionally and then also men and women
and you'll see that that differs a
little bit for me between physical and
emotional attraction all right up next
we have beam and I'm gonna mute myself
over here hello everyone this is being I
just want to walk you through really
quickly some information that we hope
will demystify trans and non-binary
identities questions that we get a lot
in the work that we do is you know like
well what what are some realities of for
trans people and what should I know
and keep in mind about non-binary
identities and I think what I want to
start off by saying is that sometimes we
really want there to be like hard and
fast truths about identities that were
not familiar with to kind of make it
easier for us to understand them but
what you'll hear us say a lot and what
else a lot in this slide is that it's
you know people's experiences
individually are really different and
just like any other social group trans
folks are not a monolith so just want me
to say that and really go over the fact
that when it comes to trans and
non-binary people we we understand that
part of individual people's transitions
socially you know involve things like
changing your name and changing your
pronouns from what they were assigned to
you when you were born it may involve
changing how you present your gender
identity so that you know you might have
been pressured or forced to wear certain
kinds of clothes or to style your hair
in a certain way part of some people's
gender transition involves taking more
self-determination in that respect
another aspect of transition that some
trans people choose to go through is
what we sort of broadly call a medical
transition and that means you know on
some levels engaging with the medical
industrial complex to receive hormone
replacement therapy to maybe invest in
gender-confirming surgery what we really
want to emphasize about this aspect of
transitioning and what that means is
that it doesn't look the same for any
two trans people you don't need to
undergo medical transitioning in order
to be trans or in order to be non-binary
and also that I think they're it trans
people often will receive questions
about you know what their transition
involves what it looks like have you had
any surgeries or you want any hormones
and those are just like any other
medical
decision like extremely personal so we
wanted to say you know we wanted to go
over that and mean that as just one
aspect of transition that some people
choose to go through but also encourage
all of us not to not to inquire about
those things unless of course a person
has decided to share that information
with you one other thing we wanted to
say is that there's a very popular
narrative in media in the ways that we
talk more broadly about trans experience
just say that you know that you're trans
because you feel that you were born in
the wrong body and that just isn't the
case for some trans people and it's good
to understand that that is sometimes
people's experience and that that is
something that can cause a lot of
emotional and social anguish but that's
not good to assume let's see hopefully
it goes without saying but there was a
point where many medical professionals
considered being trans to the Ament
aloneness which is not not the case not
that there's anything wrong with having
mental illnesses or that that should
bring about the social stigma that it
does but really that being trans is a
very human experience and if you were to
Google third gender and click on the
Wikipedia page for that for that search
you would see that actually many
societies around the world particularly
indigenous societies have conceptualized
a third gender and have always
understood that gender is not simply a
binary so if you're interested in
knowing more about what non-binary
identities can look like outside of
specifically a u.s. context that might
be a good thing to to check out and last
but not least racism classism ableism
and other forms of oppression impact the
access that we have to gender
forming healthcare and that using the
legal system to change legal documents
is something that some trans people
choose to do and sometimes is is not
possible for a whole host of reasons so
what we what our legal documents say
about us is not always what's true about
us and that's something that we'll touch
on a little bit in the context of our
work in libraries okay so now we would
like to invite you to share in the chat
based on what you've heard us say based
on maybe what you've been reflecting on
in terms of how to be more centering of
trans people in our work why why do you
feel that discussing these issues of
gender and reflecting on trans inclusion
for libraries is important for us as
library staff so don't be shy go ahead
and pop your ideas into the webinar chat
and as some of you are reflecting and
perhaps typing and deleting and retyping
oh there we go
okay so some of the things that are
popping up in the chat include better
serving the community not misgendering
our patrons and colleagues wanting to be
supportive and not not offending people
wanting to support the kids in our lives
creating welcoming and safe space in our
libraries knowing what to do when we
overhear our co-workers and friends
speaking and sensitively about trans
people and yeah and centering trans
folks in the workplace which can help us
Center trans people in our communities I
think that's a really important one I'm
seeing lots of lots of suggestions lots
of ideas keep them coming
we are gonna we're gonna share a few
that we think are really important that
really I think actually reflect what
some of you are saying I think okay
yes as many of you have mentioned we our
goal as library workers is to make
libraries safer for all of our patrons
and this is one easy way with a little
bit of practice that we can do that and
incorporate better policies procedures
another is to avoid unintentionally
escalating situations and yeah I maybe I
won't read all these out loud since you
can see them but one thing that I really
wanted to highlight is to say that you
know libraries are not we don't exist in
a vacuum and trans people inside of
libraries outside of them are regularly
misgendered in our everyday lives and
when we make a mistake about gender in
just one instance we like to think of it
as perhaps accidentally stepping on
someone's broken toe you might not have
done it on purpose you might not have
been
the first or the only person to have
stepped on that toe but it doesn't mean
that it doesn't hurt when you do it
and because of how our larger society
thinks of and treats trans and
non-binary people we we just want to
make our libraries one one place where
that happens less often okay so this is
read again and I'm not going to go
through all of these options since we
are limited on time but I did want to
show you this slide to give you some
ideas and options for language when
you're referring to co-workers
or patrons as individuals or edges as
large groups I think that when we're
talking a lot of us myself included have
a tendency to say hey guys or if you're
if you're trying to be very very polite
with people I think a lot of people like
to use certain mam when referring to
patrons but I think what I want to
stress today is that it's more polite to
not misgender somebody than to use like
honorary terms like sir and ma'am
in your language with people and we've
said this a couple times but I think
it's worth reiterating is that you never
know somebody's pronouns or gender
identity until you ask you can't assume
by what people look like and especially
in groups that that means that we have
to really change the way we use our
language with people so there's some
really easy ones like simply hi everyone
or hi folks you all you know those are
very easy get creative with your
language um but yes somebody said the
power of regional language y'all yes I
use y'all all the time I don't think a
lot of people here in the northwest do I
love y'all um
addressing individuals just saying
excuse me you don't have to have a
pronoun in there hello there ideas for
children hi friend or hi reader there's
so many ways I'm a big fan of using
folks I'm I call people folks a lot
means next to me same mm-hmm so yeah
there's there's so many language options
and I think it can be the most inclusive
thing that you can do and I think the
one thing that you can do is change your
language with people
never assume never never put pronouns on
people until you ask or unless you
already know and so these are on the
slides and I would encourage you to
spend some time with these after the
webinar and practice I think a really
great thing to do is to look in the
mirror and like talk to yourself as if
you're talking to other people you can
also get a buddy and be like hey can I
practice using these words with you and
the only way you're ever gonna get it is
by just like reiterating it to yourself
so just getting in front of the mirror
and saying good morning y'all it sounds
really stupid but I've done it a lot and
I have a lot of people in my life that
regularly change pronouns and this is
the way that I make sure that I'm
keeping myself accountable to changing
my pronouns as my friends pronouns
change is that I I practice and I do it
in front of a mirror and I practice with
my friends and before we move on this is
being since we have a little bit of time
just one thing that I wanted to
highlight that I know some of you have
mentioned in the in the chat and I think
really speaks to the heart of what we're
getting at when we talk about really
implementing and committing to
implementing gender inclusive language
is that when we do that with our patrons
hopefully we'll also be doing that with
each other with our colleagues and doing
that I think will not only strengthen
our public service but it will also
strengthen our internal organizational
cultures and what how I like to think of
that is that when we talk about in the
field of library
says wanting to diversify wanting to see
more black and brown people more trans
and gender non-conforming people more
people with disabilities like you know
being in our profession and finding a
home in our profession I mean the only
way that we can do that is by creating
that space together and so when you know
reads suggesting that you practice
gender inclusive language and doing that
on your own and doing that with friends
we hope we hope that you'll also make
the vulnerable move of inviting your
colleagues to do that with you because I
mean for one thing it will strengthen
the internal organizational culture
wherever you are absolutely but you know
the person that you are speaking to on
your team may be a trans person who
hasn't felt safe enough or comfortable
enough to share their gender identity
with you and making real concrete steps
to inviting more gender inclusive
language into your workplace will just
make it a safer place for everybody
including each other as as co-workers
yeah thank you being that's a really
great point um okay so this next slide
this one is I've heard I've seen some on
the chat today people are asking when is
it appropriate to ask about pronouns or
there has have been expressions of fear
of getting pronouns wrong and so not
asking and that's really common I just
want to say that a lot of people feel
that and and that's great that you're
sharing that so thank you all for
sharing that this slide is for you and
me and all of us mistakes happen so I
just want to talk a little bit about
some ways that we can apologize that
might feel good I can speak from my own
personal experience and that when people
have gotten my pronouns wrong and they
have made a big deal of it there are
some really bad ways that you can
apologize and it's pretty harmful and
pretty hurtful when people apologize in
ways that
Center other people's experiences rather
than the person like myself who might be
getting misgendered so these are just
some guidelines I would encourage you
again to practice this with people ask a
friend for consent and misgendering them
we did this in our workshop it worked
out really well ask somebody for consent
to misgender them and then practice
misgendering them and apologizing figure
out what your way of apologizing is but
here are some guidelines so make the
apology really brief but genuine it
doesn't have to be lengthy and I think
that's the first thing that people do is
make it a really lengthy apology try to
tell you why it happened and they're so
sorry and although there's such a bad
person and it doesn't make you a bad
person to misgender somebody at all it's
it's really it really happens all the
time you're not a bad person for doing
it but make your apology brief don't
make it about you and make it really
genuine again move on move on from that
apology and I think this is really
important don't ask trans folks to
correct yourself to correct you take it
take it upon yourself to to correct
yourself when you know that you've made
a mistake or you think you've made a
mistake and the only way that you'll
know if if you're not sure is if you ask
and you don't always need to know
somebody's pronouns so somebody asked
you know when is it appropriate to ask
you don't always need to know so ask
yourself do I actually need another
pronouns with this person if you really
do or if you gendered a person and you
think that you'd like to know if you
misgendered then it's totally
appropriate to ask and there's a lot of
times where I'll tell somebody my
pronouns and they'll be like oh correct
me if I'm wrong cuz I'll get it wrong
and that I'm I do it a lot in
professional spaces because I think
that's what's asked of me and
professional spaces but I would love to
change that I would love for people to
not ask me to correct them and I would
love for them to correct themselves and
so this is this is an offering for all
of you correct yourself don't ask the
people in your life too
to you and again don't make assumptions
about people it really just digs a hole
deeper and learning from your mistakes
is a really important piece so we're
gonna model some of this for you and
you're gonna hear Micah and sunny and
being give several scenarios of Micah
being misgendered and again Micah uses
faith and pronouns and you're first
gonna hear sunny in Micah and sunny is
gonna give an apology and then we're
gonna hear being give a different
apology and I would just like to welcome
all of you to listen to how these are
presented great this is Micah
um so I'm just gonna give a little
background for our scenario here so I am
working at the information desk at my
usual branch and there are two
volunteers one meet sunny and one being
bean and they misgender me in a
conversation I mean they're both
separately going to apologize to me so
they're not gonna know how the other one
apologized and so we're gonna give
examples and then I'm gonna let you know
at the end how they made me feel and I'm
also gonna give an example of another
good apology I actually received
yesterday that I really appreciated so
this is Sony's apology for misgendering
me hey Micah um I just I really um I'm
so sorry I'm really upset right now
because earlier I called you he and you
know like I'm not a bad person but like
this is so hard
it's so hard for me to remember that you
use they I mean they is plural and I
just I don't really get it anyway I'm
really sorry and I hope you'll forgive
me um yeah thanks I appreciate that
sunny so that's one example and now
being you know ten minutes later is
gonna come up and also apologized for
using he pronounced for me hey Micah I
think I am misgendered you a little bit
ago and yeah I just wanted to say I'm
sorry about it I know you use they
pronouns and I'll just use they pronouns
for you from now on so I hope that you
all could hear the difference between
those and beans apology felt super
grounding for me and because they were
brief about it they acknowledge their
mistake and they shared that they were
gonna do better in the future
um with Sonny's apology it really felt
like Sonny was asking for reassurance
that they wanted me to remind them that
they're not a bad person for making a
mistake and really centered themselves
in that as like you know I'm so upset I
can't believe I messed up and also you
know kind of discounted my identity by
being like oh they is plural and so with
that those are two examples I also
wanted to share one more as we were kind
of talking about Surinam earlier so this
actually happened yesterday I was
chatting online with someone that I'm
getting to know right now and he said to
me yes ma'am I like it and then before I
even had a chance to reply said shoot
sorry about the ma'am I'm from the South
I mean it was taught to me by my parents
it won't happen again so that was a
really great example of someone that I
don't know super well who made a mistake
and immediately corrected themselves
actually before I even saw the initial
message from them so that's just kind of
another example of a good apology and
how that you know the person just shared
quickly that they made a mistake and
that they were gonna do better in the
future so from here it's actually me
again and so give me one moment to
change slides
there we go um we're doing shared can
share control of one screen and it's
tripping me up a little bit so this is
still mica I wanted to share some
additional best practices with you all
because we've talked a little bit about
how to apologize I'm an in this all also
talk about how to ask for pronouns or
how to share your own pronouns because
that came up in the chat so the first
thing and we've mentioned this is do not
assume gender ever because remember the
gender unicorn the gender identity was
the rainbow in the head so I'm like no
matter how well you know someone you
cannot know their gender identity unless
they tell you about it it's not
something that's visible so you cannot
assume gender because it's not it's not
visible you can see gender expression
but that doesn't necessarily align with
gender identity and then again if
someone tells you their pronouns use
them even if they're not around to hear
especially if they're not around to hear
you use them when you're talking to
other people use them in writing just
practice and it's something that you can
you know work on and get better at I see
that someone asked in the chat if using
Bey pronouns for folks who identify as
male or female or a man or woman is
considered misgendering and it can be
yes so sometimes I will default to using
they pronouns if I really don't know
someone's gender identity and I'm making
you know kind of a passing thing but
also that's what we do when someone's
like oh they forgot their wallet when we
don't know you know we have no idea
whose wallet it is and so it's always
best to ask although you know sometimes
at the library you know someone might
leave their keys and you'll have seen
them from a distance you have no idea
what their gender is and so it is
sometimes appropriate but if you know
someone's pronouns use them so if
someone tells you that their pronouns
are seeing her use her for that person
if you don't know someone's pronouns try
to connect with them and ask but
obviously
not going to be possible with all of our
library patrons one way that I navigate
that is you know if I'm telling a
colleague to go help someone I'll say
can you go help that person in the green
jacket over by the DVDs and my colleague
will have a chance to go over and talk
with that person and then um I okay I
want to make sure that I'm getting to
all this these we still have some good
we still have some time ahead of us
so is it helpful for cisgender folks to
have their gender pronouns on their
library nametag email signature zoom
chat name yes that normalizes asking for
pronouns and sharing pronouns um so
that's really important and while I'm on
that subject how to ask for and share
your pronouns so one way that I really
appreciate and that I've seen a lot of
our teen service librarians doing at the
Seattle Public Library when they're
working with like service learning and
young adults they might when they
initially are introducing themselves
this is an example of my cot one of my
colleagues at the Ballard branch that we
have whenever she's doing programs and
she'll say hi my name is Lynn I use
she/her pronouns and that's a way for
her to invite young folks to share their
pronouns without putting them on the
spot to do so and then if you want to
ask someone's pronouns another way of
doing that is like hi I'm Micah
I used Avon pronouns and what pronouns
would you like me to use for you um I
like to say it like that because
sometimes people might use different
pronouns in different settings of their
life perhaps they're not out at work or
perhaps they think you know their
parents won't use the correct pronouns
for them and so that's a way to ask
folks and it's also kind of more
affirming terminology than saying
preferred pronouns because pronouns
aren't preferred they are the thing that
folks use and so it can be good to just
ask what are your pronouns and and again
as library employees we might be putting
and folks on the spot so it sometimes
can be good to just volunteer your own
and then folks can mirror your language
and getting back to the slides it looks
like we've kind of covered those related
questions and I mentioned this with
pronouns and gender if someone tells you
their gender use that gender to refer to
them later so you know if you are
writing you know some sort of shift log
or incident report and someone has told
you that they identify as a non-binary
and let's say that person got their you
know phone stolen and you're doing a
report about it you know there's the
gender thing you can write make sure to
write in non-binary regardless of how
that person's gender expression is um
and then kind of another note about
inclusive words the words transgender
and trans are words that are currently
the most inclusive words to use
obviously language always changes so you
know five years from now everything
we're telling you not everything but
some of the stuff we're telling you
probably won't be current anymore but
those are words that are always followed
by nouns so you don't say a transgender
it's a transgender person a like trans
folks versus I guess just saying the
trans is so oh yes so the mayor of
Seattle actually recently made a mistake
about this at the library training so
yes you want to make sure that you
follow this so that you don't get groans
from an audience of seven hundred
library employees just saying and and
then to really more important facts and
this is more about when you're
interacting with trans individuals do
not under any circumstances ask them
about the particulars or the of their
body or the surgeries they've had or
want to have or any you know medical
things that they're doing with their
transition that's information that that
individual can share with you if you
want to but that like how would you feel
if someone asked you about your genitals
it's a pretty inappropriate thing to ask
and similarly don't ask them what their
birth name is or ever use it if you
happen to know what it is it is
incredibly disrespectful
so I'm gonna turn it over to sunny for
the next slide
oh oh okay great one more question
transgendered that is actually not a
word so let's think about this in terms
of other identities um so let's see it's
sunny can you support me in this I'm
facing on my good okay you got Gaede all
right you know it's like transgender is
that a verb back you know I don't know
yeah that way yeah that is that is
exactly where I was going so if you
think about it it's not something that
happened to you it's a part of who you
are I'm so transgender with the IDI I'm
at the end not a word and can can really
rub folks the wrong way and then yes you
don't say that someone got feminine you
would say that someone is dressing
feminine late that day just a different
part of speech and it looks like there's
some good information about the glad
media guide that they put out and that's
actually something that they continue to
update and that shares terms and their
definition and kind of appropriate
settings for using them now I will turn
it over to Sonny okay so we don't have
that much time but we did want to talk
about what aside from your one-on-one
interactions with patrons in the library
or with your co-workers um what is this
what else does this look like for your
work within the library so we want we
have some basic guidelines but if folks
want to also chime in with things that
they've done or have seen other people
do in libraries please do share in the
chat box so the first thing is just
don't segregate queer and trans
inclusion to just the one month of the
year and this applies for every
marginalized group like if you're doing
a display once a year for XYZ type of
person and that type of person is never
seen in any of your other
work throughout the year that is a huge
problem don't do that so this goes for
book displays collection development
when you are recommending books the what
books you face out in on your shelves
the choices you make for story times the
types of team programming that you send
out all of this all of these areas are
should include as many different types
of voices from your community as
possible and the second point is when
you're actually thinking about which
stories to include please please please
be sure to Center books actually written
by trans folks I can't tell you how
hurtful it is to read a book that one of
the jillion awards from entirely
cisgender award panels that actually
have harmful messaging and that has
happened a lot actually
so as much as you can try and seek out
reviewers who are trans and who are
writing about books that are written by
trans folks and those resources do exist
out there and next this is like leveling
up if you want to think about it that
way if you're if you can do programming
that actually includes input from the
community that is kind of like the a
really good ultimate goal so for example
at Seattle Public Library we've had a
number of different programs that Center
the thinking and brilliance of queer and
trans folks and and I want to actually
turn it over to mica to talk about a
really fun program that they came up
with for one of our branches yes so I
until very recently I was working at the
University branch of the Seattle Public
Library which is in the U district and
we have a lot of young adults that come
into our branch mostly at ages 18
through 26 so I am a member of the trans
community here and I was able to work
with you know some of my community
connections in conjunction with our
young adult services librarian Chris
I'm to put on a program that was part of
the translations Film Festival which is
actually the largest transgender Film
Festival in the world so what we did was
an event called trans shorts and speed
friending and we've actually done a very
similar event with the queer community
one time before and what that involved
was showing two shorts from the film
festival is about 30 minutes of film
time and we then did a speed friending
program which was an opportunity kind of
things speed dating but instead of
dating imagine Community Connection so
we had 34 attendees are we had survey
responses from two-thirds of our
attendees and they rated the program a
nine and a half we primarily had we had
more than 50% transgender attendees and
then I think all but maybe one person
who was an attendee identified in some
way as LGBT um so we were really able to
connect with our our community and we
did that by having connections with
local organizations that are led by
trans folks and this program because we
partnered with them cost us $50 for
snacks and staff time and that was it
and you know if we had gotten donations
that for food it could have cost us
significantly less so that was really
awesome and it was the second time we've
done it and it's been super successful
back to sunny okay so the top three
points are really about programs and
then the next two points are a lot about
our policies and our facilities so we
went into this it's much more depth than
our four-hour session but what I want to
say here is basically if you are asking
your patrons for information really
think about why you need that
information so when we were doing our
four hour session we heard from some
folks that their library system actually
does put in a pronoun and we also
learned that some systems are very
strict about what name can be in there
so our system if you are a young person
you can have the name that you
want to go by whether it's your legal
name or not if you're an adult you can
use an initial but those were changes
that had to be flat for Micah thank you
so much for leading the charge on that
but the the what we want to get at is
that there are lots of ways in which our
libraries actually create barriers for
trans and gender non-conforming Caesaria
information or by assuming information
so as much as you can think about and
challenge people in your institution
like why are we collecting this do we
need to collect this or if we do can we
make it self determined you know so ask
some of those questions and then the
next thing is facilities are really
tough because for most people you don't
have the money to totally redo your
building right so how are you going to
accommodate trans folks in Washington
State legally you're not allowed to
question the bathroom of choice for
folks right yes folks are legally
allowed to use whatever restroom they
feel most comfortable using whichever I
done it whichever they feel most closely
aligns with their gender identity and
that is Washington state law and I know
that when you're working in a library
sometimes you might have someone come up
to you and be like that person's in the
the wrong restroom right and it's a lot
of times they come at you because
they're afraid right and so sometimes
it's like yes a cisgender person is in
not the restroom that would normally use
but a lot of the times in my experience
it's been somebody who whose gender
identity wasn't totally clear to that
person and they were alarmed by it so
what do you do in that case right well
you let the patron those complaining
like these do it's none of their
business but no it looks a nice way to
do it I don't do it very nicely yeah so
the one light is better
one way that I have framed this with
folks is like you know we don't question
the restroom that a patron uses it's
important that we it's important to let
folks use whatever restroom feels most
comfortable to them I'm your
welcome to use this restroom upstairs or
wait until another time to use the
restroom I will give that person an
option the person who's complaining an
option to use a different restroom
I won't will not under any circumstances
relocate the person who is using the
restroom successfully mm hmm hmm
is using the restroom the way that they
need to use it right they're just in
there using the facility somebody in the
chat sorry your name got cut off but
mentioned that having maps or having an
idea of where nearby gender inclusive
bathrooms are or and/or single stall
restrooms that would be helpful so if
you you're on a campus for instance and
the the sink the multi stall single
gendered restrooms are on one floor that
most people go to do you know where the
other options are and if you don't find
out and if you realize that the other
options are super far away is there any
advocacy you can do with your university
this is a totally different for public
libraries where you have branches and
most branches only have one set of
restrooms so you know what are the
restrooms in your nearby community I
know that across the street from my
branch there's a Safeway that has a
restroom right so what are the options
for folks and then the final point I
want to make is just that and we brought
this up earlier when we talked about
intersecting oppressions like racism
ableism classism just keep in mind that
people are not just trans right like
people are trans kids of immigrants like
me people are you know like maybe
they're a straight transgender person
who grew up poor like there are so many
different ways our identities
intersecting and those different
intersections actually really impact the
access and quality of service that
people receive and so to illustrate this
example I can't I mean like the people
in my life who are black and brown and
queer and have a disability have
experienced the most horrific
stories that I have heard from people
right and it is because of those
intersecting intersecting identities
that they have that much worse of an
experience and so when we're talking
about trans inclusion let's not stop at
including privilege transgender folks
middle class white transgender folks
college educated transgender folks let's
really think about all of our community
and and strive to include everybody so
yeah I started rambling and I think I'm
done with my slides now
so we oh sorry and read in the chat said
intersectionality is actually a term
coined by a black legal scholar kimberlé
crenshaw when she was talking about the
unique experience of black women in the
legal system and activists and
organizers have really taken that and
helped guide our work in the future
so prison abolitionists for instance
have done a lot of thinking about
intersectionality because how can the
how can an unjust criminal legal system
actually deliver justice for one person
for one type of identity well creating
tons and tons of harm for other
identities right so it's something that
helps us think about the complicated
ways in which oppression intersects and
causes different levels of oppression
for books so we recognize that we have
three minutes left so if you all want to
type in any questions that you have into
the chat at this time we will follow up
and put our answers into the Google
document and we just want to make sure
that we have last minute opportunity to
get questions for folks and I know that
the folks from the Washington State
libraries want us to mention that you do
have a survey that will pop up when you
close this window that's very important
for their funding so please please
please fill that out let us know if you
have any feedback questions and thank
you for being here today
I like to add real quickly as far as the
time goes we say the end is 10 o'clock
a lot of people have to get on the desk
or the like if you need to take a little
more time to answer your questions
please feel free we're recording
everything so if anybody does have to
log off they can access the recording
later on to get access to those
questions the answer sessions and this
is Reed and I just want to say that the
tiny URL link we sent out that has all
of the resources on it there is
something at the there's some resources
at the end with handouts that we had
from our workshop that I think could be
really useful and there's one thing that
we did in our workshop which was an
institutional policy review which went
over a lot of the different questions we
asked you to think about such as
facilities and bathrooms and I think
that that can be a really useful tool to
take back to your institution to think
more more complexly about the
environment that you create in your
library and I would encourage all of you
to do that with your coworkers
so one question that I saw pop up is if
we do any workshops for library staff
and we have done several but I'm not we
don't have any others currently planned
at this point in time it is a labor of
love it can be really difficult as
transgender individuals to put our to
put in this emotional labor so we do not
currently have any continuing workshops
happening but again we do have pretty
copious amounts of resources available
to for you all to review on that tinyurl
let's see looking for any other
questions making sure we didn't miss
anything if this is read again and I
just want to say in terms of trainings I
would I think that's also important to
know if your institutions or wherever
you work if if your environment offers
any trainings and if you know that they
don't this is something to look into
further I know that you dub has the cue
Center which is the student-run like
LGBTQ Center has a training that is for
students staff and faculty that they do
I don't I don't think it's big enough
that it really can serve the whole camp
as well but if your library doesn't have
a training figure out how to start one
and make it somewhat required for
everybody to do this is Ben and I just
wanted to point out that Steven
mentioned there will be a presentation
at the Ala this year on serving trans
folks and libraries so if you happened
to be going stay tuned for that
okay and in this last moment there's a
question should we assume someone shares
their gender identity or pronouns but
this is how we'll refer to them as such
in front of everyone in other words you
know how can you avoid outing people
Katie thanks for asking
question I think it's very important
everybody's take on this might be
different I'm I'd be curious about like
Reid and sunny a might go to chime in
but outing people is a very real danger
when it comes to taking your the
information that you have about
someone's gender identity and pronouns
into future interactions and if if you
think of it I do think it's perfectly
respectful to to ask when you when you
ask someone hey um what pronouns do you
use it's to also say like should I use
those pronouns in front of our patrons
or you know is it okay if I use these
pronouns for you you know in the
workroom and that can that can be just
one quick way to get that information
and what I like to do when I when I
learn that someone's gender pronouns are
different from what other people tend to
use for them sometimes I just until I
can find out whether I would be outing
them or not
I try to use their name exclusively
rather than reveal a pronoun and that
way I'm doing what I can to respect the
gender identity that I know them as
without potentially outing them in front
of people who they don't actually want
to share that information with I think
along this is read again and I think
along with that a really great practice
is to ask people when they share their
pronouns if you if they would like for
you to correct other people when when
they're either there or not there is a
really great practice and some people
don't want others to correct people when
when they get their pronouns wrong and
other people feel very strongly yes
please please do correct people please
inform people of what their pronouns are
so I would add that into the suite of
tools that you are adding to your belt
in terms of pronoun usage a good example
of what that might look like if you are
correcting someone with consent of the
person who is being referenced would be
let's say a
colleague uses she pronouns to refer to
someone that uses they pronounce it
might be like hey I don't know if you
know but this person actually uses they
pronouns it's it's honestly just that
simple
oh that was my cup by the way well thank
you all so much for sharing your morning
with us as library workers we all know
how difficult it can be to have the time
to do these things and to get our
institutions to prioritize the time for
us to do these things in this moment
Reid is the only one of us who's on the
clock so we appreciate your time and are
doing this also as a labor of love and
you have our information and I think we
got to all of the questions in the feed
and it sounds like WSL will be sharing
not only the this the recording but also
the slides so you will have access or
the chat not the slides I'm well the
slides too but you'll have access to all
of this and as you can see up here on
your screen we have our contact
information our email addresses and
we've we've shared that information with
you because we would really welcome any
further questions that you think of
feedback that you have ideas that you
want to bounce and I you know and I said
this in the chat just a moment ago but
particularly for the trans folks who are
in attendance today we would love to
hear from you especially if you have
ideas for how we can improve the
information that we're presenting oh and
actually here's another thing after our
four hour session we got some
commitments for action from folks so
people who were present they said I will
do this I will check to see if my
library does this I will do XYZ so if
anybody who is still online and
participating if you want to take a
minute and think about what action you
can commit to going forward not just oh
I went to this cool
webinar at the end think about one thing
that you can implement that you learned
today and and that will spiral to bigger
things so thank you so much everybody
for attending
