>> michael: Good morning, this is michael
munson again.
Let’s get started, because we have a really
full time together today, this morning.
I’m really excited to be here and share
with you information about serving transgender
survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence.
I’m joined today both with Nebraska Coalition
staff, as well as some of FORGE’s staff,
Loree Cook-Daniels and Katie Taylor, so we’re
all really happy to be here.
This webinar is a general overview, so it’s
going to be highlighting some key aspects
that many advocates and providers working
in sexual and domestic violence may want to
know to better serve transgender survivors.
So consider this a little bit of an overview,
and we’ll point out some areas where you
can learn more in-depth information if you’d
like to pursue some of those different areas.
So I’m really glad that you joined us today.
I’m very grateful that the Nebraska Coalition
reached out to us and asked us to be part
of this webinar today, because it’s a great
opportunity for us to learn remotely and share
the space together, so thank you all for being
here.
So some of you I know have been on FORGE webinars
in the past, and many of you have seen this
image, and we like to always start with both
a welcome, ‘cause we’re really glad that
you’re here, as well as some housekeeping.
So we really encourage you to take care of
yourself.
We know that sometimes, the content that we
talk about, even if we work with it every
day, can be sometimes painful and sometimes
difficult to hear.
So what I’d like you to know is that, you
know, please do what it is that you need to
do to take care of yourself, and know that
we’ll be sending the PowerPoints after the
webinar, as well as we’ll be recording the
webinar so you can listen to it at any point
in time afterward, so it’s generally up
within 24 to 48 hours after the event.
So please know that, and do what you need
to do to take care of yourself throughout
the webinar.
So one piece of housekeeping, again, with
the navigation tools.
Lot of you are familiar with webinar software,
most of it’s pretty common, but if you have
questions throughout, please feel free to
type those questions in the question box.
We have a couple of people that are monitoring
that area.
This’ll be where you can ask both technical
questions, if something’s not working, as
well as questions about content.
We’ll probably save all of those questions
until the end, so please don’t think that
we’re ignoring your questions if we don’t
get to it right away.
As I hope that you’ve seen, we have a worksheet
that will help kind of guide us through the
majority of our time today, so if you haven’t
downloaded it, the url is on the screen right
now, and it also should be in that control
panel of the webinar software.
So I encourage you to download it or print
it or have it in front of you.
If you can’t do that, it’s totally fine,
and I think you’ll get just as much out
of the webinar without having that in front
of you, but it might make it a little bit
more fun and exciting.
So let me turn things over for a minute to
Michelle from the Nebraska Coalition, and
she can share a little bit about the Coalition.
>> Michelle: Good morning everyone, and welcome
to the webinar.
I want to echo michael’s comments about
just being very pleased to be able to work
together to sponsor this webinar with FORGE,
and we are really excited to have them, as
the presenter for this webinar, and to hear
all of the great information that they are
going to share with all of us.
The Nebraska Coalition to End Sexual and Domestic
Violence is a statewide membership organization
that works with our local domestic violence
and sexual assault programs across the state.
Nebraska is primarily a rural state, and so
that’s one of the areas that we sometimes
struggle with in working with a variety of
different needs with various survivors.
One of the things we--our webinars dreamed
up, and this is of course one of them.
One of the things that I would like to let
everyone know is that if you would like a
certificate of attendance for this webinar,
please contact me.
You have my email address and the phone number
on this screen.
I will send out a certificate of attendance.
Might take a day or two after the webinar,
but we’ll get those out as soon as we can.
You will also receive a link to an evaluation
after the webinar ends.
We really encourage people to complete the
evaluation.
It should only take a few minutes of your
time.
And please give us honest feedback.
We use those here at the Coalition to improve
both our webinars and our in-person events,
and feedback is really crucial for us.
We’ll send a follow-up email in a few days
with a link, in case you’re really packed
today and you don’t have a chance to do
the evaluation right after the webinar.
And we will of course cover all that information
with FORGE as well, as the presenter of this
webinar.
But otherwise, welcome everyone, I’m so
glad to have such a large attendance at this
webinar, and I will turn it back over to michael.
Thank you.
>> michael: Great, thanks a lot.
So again, we have a really, really packed
90 minutes today, so I’d like to keep us
rolling and moving along quickly.
What we want to start with today is some discussion
around some trans basics, because we know
that everybody comes from a slightly different
perspective about knowing who trans people
are, and knowing who trans survivors are.
So we’ll take a little bit of time looking
at some basically 101 issues around trans
people.
We’ll then shift over to Loree Cook-Daniels
who will talk about data, and we’ll cover
some basic data about trans violence rates,
kind of mostly geared toward prevalence rates
and a little bit of some other interesting
data that you might find valuable.
We’ll spend a great deal of time today talking
about trans-specific barriers, and how we’ve
set it up is, we’ll talk about a barrier,
and then we’ll try to add in some rural
implications of what that--how that may play
out.
We’ll talk very very briefly about shelter
and safety planning; that’s a topic that
we could be spending days talking about, so
I’ll point you to some resources, and we
can potentially have some future conversations
about it.
And then we’ll end today talking about some
practical things that you can do, and I’m
hoping that we have time at the end for questions.
So that’s our basic agenda.
Let me tell you a little bit about who FORGE
is.
We are basically a trans organization who
is 100% funded and focused on anti-violence
work related to trans survivors.
And I say we’re basically a trans organization
because it’s kind of hard sometimes to know
if we’re a trans organization or an anti-violence
organization.
But we were founded 21 years ago, predominantly
as a trans social support group, and we have
since moved into this anti-violence focus
in our work.
We are headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
but we have staff that are in other states
as well, and all of our work is national,
so we have around 75% of our time we do training
and technical assistance, so webinars like
this, conferences, trainings, and around 25%
of our time is doing direct services with
transgender survivors and loved ones, and
all of that work is virtual, so by the internet,
and not usually in person.
So we have two foundational principles that
guide all of our work.
When we engage with both survivors and providers,
our first goal is to approach the work through
a trauma-informed lens.
And the second foundational principle, again
in how we work both with survivors and providers,
is to focus on empowerment, so through highlighting
resilience, building on existing knowledge,
and promoting a sense of confidence.
So this basically to me kind of sums down
to: we know that you all do your jobs really
well, and our job is to help you learn more
about transgender survivors so you can do
your job well when you have a transgender
survivor or loved one enter your office.
So again, we have a very small staff, and
I know sometimes people like to have kind
of an image of who’s talking and who’s
gonna--who’s involved.
So we have three people.
I’m the co-founder and Executive Director,
again for all of those 21 years.
Loree Cook-Daniels is our Policy and Program
Director, joining us in 2000.
And Katie Taylor is our Project Coordinator
for several different projects, and she joined
us in the last year, so new additions.
Let me briefly tell you a little bit about
what we can offer before we dive into the
content.
So, like I mentioned, we’re a training and
technical assistance provider, and what that
means is that we can definitely offer you
one-on-one support, we do webinars like this
one, we do a lot of training across the country,
and we have publications.
Many of those things are on our website.
The webinars are--we’ve done in the past--we
have, I think, 50 hours worth of webinars
that are archived, so we encourage folks to
look back at those and have access to that
free training.
The support that we offer for transgender
survivors is oftentimes useful for providers
as well, so some of those things that we offer
for survivors are: A listserv which is available
24/7 if somebody needs to reach out.
We have a fairly large referral database,
mostly of therapists and LGBT-focused anti-violence
programs.
We have run, in the past, Writing to Heal
groups, so an online group that will allow
trans folks to access healing services remotely.
One of our current projects is the Espavo
Project, and you’ll be seeing some of the
photos of that project; it’s a photographic
and narrative project that focuses on trans
survivors’ resilience.
So you’ll see some of those images as we
go through today.
And the other thing that we offer survivors
is some publications as well, and we find
that many times the providers are finding
those publications directed toward survivors
as just as useful as they are.
So that’s a little nutshell of what we can
offer you.
So you’ll see many images today as we go
through, and like I mentioned, many of them
are from the Espavo Project.
This photo, for example, is from 2013, and
we’ve had many many more since then.
We really believe that it’s critical to
put an actual face to some of the stories
and data that we’re talking about, and although
most of these images won’t be directly linked
to specific content, we know that providers
really want to have a better sense of kind
of the “who trans people are”.
And we obviously recognize that seeing a picture
is not helping you know who trans people are,
but sometimes it helps us feel a little bit
more connected to the people that we’re
talking about.
So I hope that the images do help you feel
more connected and kind of in line with who
we’re talking about today.
We definitely have permission to use all the
images, and we’re really mindful of that,
and so I hope that you find benefit in seeing
some of them.
So let’s get started with talking about
transgender basics.
So we really want to make sure that we all
kind of are on the same page, or at least
in the same book, when we’re talking about
transgender people.
So I didn’t set up any polls for this webinar,
‘cause sometimes they’re a little bit
clunky and difficult to do, but you have a
handout, and so this is the first question
on that handout, so: what percentage of the
population is transgender?
So the options that we listed are: 0.5%, 1.7%,
or 3%.
And the answer is that it really depends.
There’s a lot of factors that go into it.
We don’t really know how many people are
transgender in the US, or in the country,
or in the world.
The prevalence rates are really difficult
to determine because everyone defines “transgender”
differently, and includes or excludes different
factions of people and identities.
In addition, not everyone who has a transgender
history would self-identify as transgender
now.
There are many many factors that contribute
to us not fully knowing what percentage of
the population is transgender, and those are
just a couple of the reasons.
However, it’s fairly safe to assume that
someplace between 0.3% of the population and
slightly greater than 1% of the population
is transgender.
Because the 1% is more commonly found, we
tend to use that as our reference point, so
that 1% of the population is trans.
You can all do the math on your communities
to kind of gauge how many trans people might
be in your local area.
One of the things that we like to talk about
when we frame Transgender 101 discussions
is talking about two concepts, and the first
one is about “master status”.
And this is something that was developed a
long time ago, in the 1940s by Everett Hughes,
who called it “master status”, and then
about 15 years later Gordon Allport, in his
book The Nature of Prejudice, named it the
“label of primary potency”, and these
two things are the exact same thing.
So both terms refer to the tendency of people
to believe that one label or one demographic
category is “more significant than any other
aspect of [that person’s] background, behavior,
or performance.”
And that’s kind of a mouthful of language
that may not be clear.
So how this commonly plays out for transgender
people is that providers oftentimes learn
that a client is transgender, and then presume
that all things, like medical conditions,
might be related to being transgender, that
being trans has caused a sexual assault, that
all relationship strains are due to being
transgender, that any kind of job loss might
be due to being transgender.
But the reality oftentimes is that people
may have medical conditions that are unrelated
to being trans.
They may have relationship struggles because
they have poor communication.
They might lose their job because maybe they
have poor performance or don’t show up.
So we want to be really careful to not make
an assumption about, we know somebody’s
trans and so we therefore then think these
other things about them.
The second concept that we like to talk about
when we look at Trans 101 issues is the, what
we call the “terms paradox”.
So, terms are really really crucial.
We all, you know, value hearing our name,
our pronoun, having words that we use reflected
back to us, and those terms are really crucial
for providers in terms of showing respect
and openness to our clients.
And at the same time, those terms are kind
of meaningless, in that you don’t necessarily
know what you need to know to provide services
to them--appropriate services--to the people
that you’re working with just based on those
terms.
So, an example that I like to give frequently
is, if someone comes in and says that their
name is John Smith, we want to refer to them
as John, and if they say, “My pronouns are
‘he’ and ‘him’,” we want to use
those pronouns.
But that name, and those pronouns, or that
gender marker, may not be what’s on their
health insurance card.
So the meaningless part is, we still have
to bill their health insurance in a way that
we’re going to get payment or billing for
them.
So the terms paradox can apply to a lot of
different things.
It can apply to identity labels, or experiences,
personal history, body part names, pronouns,
or basically any part of or component of who
a person is.
So if somebody, you know, like I said, says
what their name is, that’s something that
we want to reflect back to them, but it may
not tell us more of what we need to know.
So who are we talking about when we talk about
transgender people?
When we hear or see the word “transgender”,
or any of the other hundreds of words that
might be synonymous or closely allied words,
we have--we each have an image of what comes
to mind for us.
So for each of us, if asked, we would probably
describe who transgender people are a little
bit differently, and I think that’s a really
good thing, that we have slightly different
definitions of who we think trans people are.
So each of us brings with us a different mental
image, maybe a different theoretical framework,
maybe a different academic construct about
what “transgender” means, and who we’re
talking about when somebody says the word
“transgender”.
And unlike a few years ago, just a few years
ago, nearly everyone right now has some kind
of connection to trans people or trans issues.
For example, you know, the hot thing in the
news right now is like 20 million people watched
Diane Sawyer talk about Caitlyn Jenner.
Others might watch TV shows like Transparent
or Orange is the New Black.
Others of you may have kids, and those--your
kids are involved in school districts who
are adopting trans-inclusive policies.
You might have family members or loved ones
who are transgender.
You might have worked with clients who are
trans, or have co-workers or neighbors, or
other folks that identify as transgender.
So I’m hoping by the end of this webinar,
you’ll have--whatever your current knowledge
is right now, you’ll have a little bit more
of an idea of who trans people are and how
to better work with transgender survivors
who come for services.
So one of the things that we’ve recently
shifted to is not defining terms, because
we’re finding that defining terms just gives
folks more labels to assign to people, rather
than truly understanding who each person is.
So I’m going to talk about kind of who is
under the transgender umbrella, but not give
a lot of those one-to-one terms and definitions.
So who are we talking about?
So when we use the word “transgender”
or when we’re talking about who is included
in this very broad spectrum of people, we
are including some of these types of people.
So we’re including people that are gender
non-conforming, so people that may, intentionally
or not, blur stereotypical cultural gender
lines of binary gender.
So the male/female is binary gender.
We’re talking about people who transition
from one gender to another gender; might not
be from male to female, might be from male
to androgynous, male to something else, female
to something else.
We’re talking about people who are questioning
of their gender, or who may not feel like
their gender that they were assigned at birth,
the sex that they were assigned at birth fits
who they are today.
We’re also talking about people who don’t
fit into the binary, so people who may identify
with a gender other than male and female.
We are also talking about gender-conforming
people of trans history, and this is something
that some of us don’t think about very much.
So oftentimes, people that do transition from
one gender to another may live fully as male
or female now, and don’t consider themselves
trans anymore, but they do have a transgender
history.
Other people who we’re including under this
big umbrella are people who are multiply gendered,
so people who may live parts of their life--lives--in
different genders at different times, or who
may identify as more than one gender.
And at FORGE, we consider SOFFAs, or Significant
Others, Friends, Family, and Allies, under
this large trans umbrella, and we do so for
many reasons, but one of them is that we know
that violence and discrimination impacts both
transgender people as well as those people
who are close to them.
So those are just a little bit of an idea
of who we’re including under that big umbrella.
Sometimes pictures end up speaking a little
bit louder than words.
So, I know that not all of you have access
to a screen, but on the screen are four images
of trans-feminine identified people.
So just to give you an example, you might
hear these people refer to themselves as:
trans women, women of trans history, transgender,
male-to-female transsexual, crossdresser,
formerly transgender, or any number of other
words.
For some people, one or more of these terms
might be really offensive, but for others,
they really embrace one or more of those words.
These individuals are assigned male at birth
and don’t identify as male anymore, so they
might be living some or all of their life
as women, or in a more feminine way, stereotypically
feminine by our culture’s standards.
So the next screen is of four trans-masculine
individuals.
And again, these individuals may consider
themselves, or use language like: trans men,
men of trans history, female-to-male, stud,
drag king, or any number of other words that
would describe who they feel they are, who
they are inside.
And again, people who are trans-masculine
will really relate to some words, and other
people will oppose those very same words.
So these are folks who were assigned female
at birth and who live some or all of their
time as men or in a more masculine way.
And then this third slide, just to give us
some images to go with it, has the most change
and language diversity.
So this is, these are four images of gender
non-binary or agender people, and the language
has just shifted incredibly over the last
several years, and it’s critical for us
to keep in mind that not everybody identifies
as either male or female, or as even heading
in one of those two directions.
So many people identify as multiple genders,
or no gender at all.
Some people intentionally challenge gender
binary norms, and other people may live in
ways that don’t conform to socially constructed
gender, or reinforced binary types of gender.
So people who are gender non-conforming, or
agender, or non-binary in their gender identity
or in their gender expression may have been
assigned male at birth, female at birth, or
in some rare cases they might have been assigned
intersex.
They may or may not take steps to socially,
legally, or medically transition, just like
the folks on the previous slides, but they
also may take steps.
So one of the things that I hear a lot, is
people say, “I just don’t get it.
I don’t get the language thing, you know,
just tell me what the right words are and
tell me what the wrong words are.”
And this is a really difficult thing.
And what I tend to tell people is, the reality
is that the right words are what your client
tells you.
Those are the right words to use with that
client.
And, conversely, the only really “wrong”
words, and I’m using really big air quotes
here, the “wrong” words, “wrong” language,
are using words that are intentionally in
contradiction with what your client has indicated
is comfortable for them and aligns with their
identity and experience.
So, “How do I get it right?” is another
question that we commonly hear, and, “If
there isn’t a “right” or “wrong”
list of terms and definitions to study and
learn, you know, how do you get it right?”
And the answer is really fairly simple, but
it’s also fairly difficult, and the answer
is to listen, and listen really carefully,
and sometimes that’s a lot easier said than
done.
But when we listen carefully, and we ask relevant
questions, then we listen some more, we ask
maybe more clarifying questions, and then
we listen some more, we’ll generally be
treating people with an incredible amount
of respect and dignity.
So that is a fairly brief Trans 101, and I’m
going to turn things over to Loree, who’s
going to talk about data.
So again, if you haven’t downloaded that
handout, we encourage you to do so, because
more of those questions will be coming up
through this section.
>> Loree: Great.
Thank you, michael.
I just--there is a question that just came
up on our screen a couple moments ago on this
webinar saying “What are your preferred
pronouns, michael?”, so would you please
model this and respond to that question?
>> michael: Sure.
Most people use “he”, “him”, and “his”
for me.
I do not have any preferred pronouns.
I will respond to just about anything as long
as you catch my attention.
>> Loree: So thank you for that question.
That was great modeling.
So I’m Loree, and I’m going to share a
little bit of numeric data about the rates
of violence that transgender people experience.
Many of you know who Brene Brown is.
Those who don’t, she’s a researcher.
Mostly she focuses on change and vulnerability.
If you haven’t read her books or watched
one of her TED talks, we encourage you to
check her out.
She has some very powerful quotes.
On the screen is one that is so relevant to
the information we’ll be sharing next.
She writes, “Stories are just data with
a soul.”
As we go through the next slides, we’d like
you to keep in mind that every single number
we talk about today has a story behind it.
Those numbers represent real people’s lives.
It is sometimes easy to forget that, when
we are looking at bar charts and percentages.
This next quote is an excellent summary and
reminder of the types of violence and inequities
transgender people often face.
It is from the Executive Summary from the
2001--I’m sorry, the 2011 report “Injustice
at Every Turn”, a report by the National
Center for Transgender Equality.
They said, “Transgender and gender-nonconforming
people face injustice at every turn: in childhood
homes, in school systems that promise to shelter
and educate, in harsh and exclusionary workplaces,
at the grocery store, the hotel front desk,
in doctors’ offices and emergency rooms,
before judges and at the hands of landlords,
police officers, health care workers and other
service providers.”
We are using that data from the National Center
for Transgender Equality; that is the source
of a lot of our data that we’ll be giving
you in the next few slides.
A lot of the data also comes from FORGE’s
own surveys, particularly surveys from 2004,
2007, and 2011.
So, back to the handout.
The question number two is, “What percentage
of trans people experience sexual violence?”
And the possible answers we give you is 18%,
33%, or 50%.
The answer is C. Rates of sexual violence
for transgender people is between 50 and 66
percent.
Multiple studies indicate that the rates are
at least 50%, but some studies show rates
as high as 66%.
This is compared to the general population,
which generally the accepted statistics are
about 1 in 3 girls and women, and 1 in 6 boys
and men.
In one of our early surveys, we asked trans
survivors if they believed that their gender
identity or expression was a contributing
factor in their abuse or assault.
We--michael mentioned this earlier, that the
concept that--a “master status”, when
people think that transgender people--oftentimes
people think that transgender people who’ve
been sexually assaulted were sexually assaulted
because they were transgender.
When we asked transgender people what they
thought motivated the sexual assault, only
43% said they thought that gender identity
or gender expression was part of what motivated
their perpetrators.
The rest thought that there was a different
motive, or they didn’t know.
The next question on your handout is 3.
“How many transgender individuals have experienced
sexual violence when in grades K through 12?”
Our suggested answers are 12%, 21%, and 35%.
The answer is 12%.
This data is from the National Center for
Transgender Equality’s “Injustice at Every
Turn”.
In K through 12, 78% of the children that
were identified or visibly trans were harassed
based on gender identity or expression, 35%
were physically assaulted and 12% were sexually
assaulted, and those rates include abuse by
both students and teachers or staff.
The bottom of the screen is also important.
It has how many kids were expelled, 6%, and
how many kids dropped out of school due to
the harassment they experienced, 15%.
What this means is that as many as 21% of
trans young people didn’t finish high school
because of harassment or expelsion--expulsion,
I’m sorry.
Some of them may go on to get their GEDs,
but many do not, and that leads them to higher
risk survival behaviors such as engaging in
sex work or under--other underground economy
activities.
Although many youth and adults are resilient
in finding some way to survive, when young
people are surviving on the streets, they
are at much higher risk for experiencing other
forms of violence, such as sexual assault,
physical assault, stalking, mugging, et cetera.
Question number 4...
“How many trans people were sexually assaulted
by a female perpetrator?”
A is 12, B is 18, and C is 29%.
The answer is C. 29% of the transgender sexual
violence surveyed survivors FORGE studied
in 2004 had at least one female perpetrator.
Initially we thought this was a highly unusual
finding, and so we started digging into the
literature.
It turns out that there are many studies of
the general public, not just those who present
to police or rape crisis lines, that indicate
that women make up approximately one quarter
or more of sexual assault perpetrators.
On the left side of this slide, you can see
that 12% of the perpetrators were trans.
When looking at a marginalized population,
we often only look at rates of violence against
them, not perpetrated by them.
It’s important to remember that trans people,
just like everyone else, are capable of sexually
assaulting someone else as well as of being
a victim.
Question 5 is, “How many trans people are
physically assaulted by a health care provider?”
16%, 26%, or 36%?
The answer is B, 26%.
That means that 1 in 4 transgender people
have experienced physical assault at the hands
of a health care provider.
In addition, 10% have experienced sexual assault,
again, in a health care setting.
For those who haven’t directly experienced
physical or sexual assault by health care
professionals, many have been turned away
and denied services altogether, and most have
heard accounts of negative experiences from
friends or other people in the community.
For these reasons, it is easy to understand
why some transgender people may fear or avoid
health care settings or seeking medical care,
even after a sexual assault.
Next question is, “Domestic violence is
lower, the same, or higher for trans people
(compared to non-trans people)?”
The answers of both B and C are correct.
Rates of intimate partner violence are roughly
the same for people of all gender identities
and sexual orientations.
There is some newer research that is suggesting
that rates may be higher for transgender and
lesbian, gay, and bisexual people, but the
data is still not conclusive.
The next question on your handout is, “Of
trans people who access homeless shelters,
how many are sexually assaulted?”
22, 25, or 29%?
[pause] The answer is A, 22%.
Transgender people are particularly vulnerable
in homeless shelters.
We mentioned earlier that many transgender
people are unemployed due to anti-transgender
job discrimination.
This, and other factors, have resulted in
a substantial number of transgender people
using a homeless shelter at some point in
their lives.
In many communities, domestic violence shelters
are full, and/or have not made the necessary
changes in their policies and practice to
house transgender survivors.
When domestic violence shelters are not available,
those who need shelter often seek homeless
shelters, and yet 55% of transgender people
who have tried to access homeless shelters
were harassed there, 25% were physically assaulted,
and 22% were sexually assaulted.
Perpetrators were both staff and other residents.
Trans women’s rates were higher than trans
men’s, and people of color experienced more
violence than white people.
It is highly likely that even more abuse would
be happening in homeless shelters if transgender
people were not leaving due to poor treatment.
47% of transgender people who try to access
homeless shelters end up leaving because of
how they are treated.
Although HUD rules and other federal laws
are changing quickly, changing quickly to
include non-discrimination clauses that include
gender identity and expression, many shelters,
both homeless and domestic violence shelters,
still force people into gender-segregated
services.
As you can see on this slide, 42% of those
who have accessed homeless shelters were forced
to stay in a facility designated for a gender
they did not identify with, and that included
35% of those who had surgically transitioned.
The basic dignity of being able to determine
your own gender is critical, and unfortunately
does not happen often enough.
The result of these types of systemic discrimination
can be that victims end up going back to their
offending partner or back to dangerous living
or social situations.
Question 8.
“How many trans people have attempted suicide?”
11%, 21%, and 41%.
>> Katie: Hey Loree?
>> Loree: Yes.
>> Katie: Hi, this is Katie.
I’m going to pause really quick because
we have a question, and I’m going to--I’m
going to ask it and then leave it up to you
if you’d like to address it later or now.
The question is, “How do these numbers compare
to numbers in rural Nebraska?”
>> Loree: The answer to that is, there’s
been no studies of trans people in rural Nebraska.
So we cannot answer that question.
>> Katie: Okay, very good.
>> Loree: Sorry.
>> Katie: Thank you.
>> Loree: Thank you.
[pause] So, you might be wondering why we
are including suicide statistics in a webinar
about sexual assault and domestic violence.
Suicidal thoughts and actions are common for
people who have experienced assault, and,
as you will see, is extremely common for transgender
individuals.
As you can see, the disparity between how
many non-trans people attempt suicide, and
those who are trans and attempt suicide, is
profoundly different, with only 1.6% of the
general US population attempting suicide,
and 41% or more of trans people attempting.
We can imagine some of the reasons why trans
people may be more likely to take action to
end their lives.
We know that due to the high rates of violence,
discrimination, and other forms of abuse,
trans people may be more vulnerable and may
feel more helpless and hopeless.
This is especially true if trans people are
un- or under-employed and are living without
insurance that would allow them to access
competent mental health care services.
As we saw in the previous slides, in the trans
community there are high suicide rates and
challenges with homelessness, and some who
engage in sex work or other survival strategies.
It’s vitally important to see how abuse
relates to other health factors in people’s
lives.
On this slide, we can see four categories,
and a comparison of transgender people who
have experienced intimate partner violence
compared to transgender people who have not
experienced intimate partner violence.
Intimate partner violence survivors were twice
as likely to attempt suicide, 65%, than those
who had not experienced IPV.
Rates of homelessness are extremely different
between IPV survivors and non-survivors.
48% of those who experienced IPV have been
homeless at some point, compared to 9% of
the non-IPV people.
It’s no surprise, either, that substance
abuse is higher for those who experience IPV.
47% of trans IPV survivors use substances
to cope, versus 19% of non-IPV.
And the last comparative statistic we’ll
share today is about those who engage in sex
work or survival sex.
IPV survivors are four times as likely, 29%,
to engage in sex work, versus their non--versus
their peers who have not experienced intimate
partner violence.
These disparities are keen reminders that
we need to look at barriers and needs of trans
people who might be in abusive relationships.
Their abuse impacts nearly every area of their
life.
[pause]
There are two more data slides before we move
on to discussing barriers.
This slide may surprise some people.
In FORGE’s 2011 findings, we saw that trans-masculine
individuals overall experienced higher rates
of violence than trans-feminine people.
Most of the published data has noted that
trans women experience higher rates of violence.
While this may be true for hate-motivated
violence and street-based violence, it seems
to be less true for intimate crimes.
As you can see on the slide, the rates of
violence are close to identical in most categories
for those who are trans-feminine and those
who are trans-masculine.
In some cases, trans men have slightly higher
rates of violence.
This chart, on polyvictimization, is also
from FORGE’s 2011 survey.
What this chart means is that 84% of people
who checked the box for stalking, for example,
who had it saying that they had experienced
stalking, had also experienced one other form
of the violence listed, which again is hate-motivated
violence, stalking, intimate partner violence,
dating violence, adult sexual assault, and
child sexual assault.
This chart indicates that trans individuals
are experiencing not only high rates of violence
that we just discussed, but also multiple
types of violence.
At this point, that ends our data, and I’m
going to turn it back to michael.
>> michael: Great, thanks Loree.
So we’re going to head into talking about
barriers now, and we’re going to be talking
about barriers from a data perspective, so
we’re going to be looking at some qualitative
data.
Again, this data that we’re going to be
sharing with you is from the large survey
that we did in 2011.
We had 1005 valid respondents, and we worked
with those data a lot to try to piece out
what some of the barriers were, what people’s
experiences were, and what we’re going to
talk about today are a list of barriers that
are roughly in hierarchical order from most
to least, but I wanted to note that we analyzed
this data and looked at it from different
geographic areas, and many different ways,
and there were some communities that ended
up having very different orders of these barriers.
So just keep in mind that your particular
area may be slightly different in terms of
the ranking of these barriers, but almost
all of them are going to be relevant
to any community.
So we’re going to go through ten commonly
experienced barriers that trans people face
when trying to access sexual assault or domestic
violence related services.
So the first barrier, unfortunately, is around
fear.
And what we saw was just really pervasive
fear in a number of different areas.
So we saw that people were afraid of abuse
by service providers, you know, fearful of
hostility or rejection or judgment or discrimination,
again, by service providers, not necessarily
from what they just experienced as sexual
assault or domestic violence.
People were concerned about being outed, they
were very fearful of being outed, again, by
service providers and sometimes by other clients.
People were fearful of other clients, how
people would respond to them.
People were fearful of being denied services,
and we know from other data, both from the
National Center for Transgender Equality data
and many other sources, that people are routinely
denied services at extremely high rates.
Trans people are often very fearful of police
misconduct, and as we’ve been seeing in
our country lately, there’s a lot of talk
about police misconduct, both in terms of
race and in terms of other minority populations,
and transgender people have a higher than
probably average rate of experiences with
police misconduct.
And trans people are often fearful of being
the only trans person in a room or in the
group, and feeling isolated because of that
fact.
So if we look at fear from a little bit of
a different perspective, one of the ways that
people may be outed as trans is through their
documentation.
So, “incongruent” is in big quotes because
it may or may not be incongruent with somebody’s
gender identity, but only 41%--sorry, 41%
of trans folks do not have identification
that matches their gender identity, and so
what that might mean is that if somebody shows
their driver’s license or health insurance
card, there’s a good chance that their appearance
and their gender identity doesn’t match
their driver’s license, their identity documents.
And sometimes providers can use that mismatch
to deny services, or it may just make a trans
person very fearful that they will be outed
as trans, and they may not even want to access
services because of that fear.
And one thing that a lot of providers ask
me is, like,“Well, why don’t people just
change their identity documents?” and one
of the answers is, because people don’t
always want to change their identity documents,
but one of the also important answers is that
cost can be a major barrier.
It costs money to change identity documents,
and some trans people just do not have that
fund--those funds.
We haven’t commented on a lot of the images,
but the image that’s coming up on the screen
is one that I really love, that shows that
disparity between what somebody’s driver’s
license might have on it and what the rest
of their appearance is, so a masculine appearing
person with a driver’s license that has
a very different image on it.
So when we look at rural settings, again,
the fear of being outed is really really prevalent
everywhere, but when there are small communities
people know everyone’s, you know, business
and history, and sometimes people are not--haven’t
disclosed their transgender status to people.
So, small communities, information can travel
fast.
So people are worried about that.
There also is concern around confidentiality
and those dual relationships that people have,
so people may know people in multiple contexts,
and may feel uncomfortable or unsafe accessing
services with people that maybe they, you
know, engage in social activities with, or
go to church with, or see in everyday interactions.
And people may also be fearful of splitting
the community.
And this may be about splitting the trans
community if they come forward and seek care,
or splitting the local community, so kind
of a division of alliances with that.
So the second barrier is around trans welcoming,
or creating a trans-friendly environment.
So this is the second highest reason why people
are not accessing services.
And by trans-welcoming I mean, does a trans
person sense that the environment and attitude
are friendly and respectful?
So this tends to be more about an individual
provider’s attitude, or the attitudes of
an agency.
It can also be about the little signs and
signals that send the message of being welcoming.
So one of the things I like to kind of equate
this to, to kind of make it more memorable
is that being trans-welcoming is like, if
I invite somebody over for dinner, I’m welcoming
them into my home, I’m making a gesture
of having a friendly and welcoming attitude
towards them.
So how this relates to trans people in a service
context is that trans people have reported
things like, you know, questioning “Will
people be comfortable with me?
Will I be accepted in this environment?
Will people be hostile towards me?”
So one of the challenges in rural communities
is that oftentimes, not every time, rural
communities are a little bit more conservative
and may have more traditional values, which
may include homophobic or transphobic attitudes
that are pervasive.
On the positive side of that, rural communities
are also doing a really great job in general
of kind of taking after their own, so making
sure that everybody gets taken care of, even
if there might be some political differences.
So the third barrier is around cultural competency.
So by cultural competency, we mean “Is an
agency informed on how to respectfully treat
trans people when they walk in the door?”
So this is about skills.
So the first one is about attitudes; this
one is about skills.
So if we look at trans welcoming as the invitation
to, you know, come over to my house for dinner,
cultural competency is about maybe my cooking
skills and if I’m actually going to prepare
a meal that is safe to eat and won’t create
food poisoning for somebody.
So it can also go a little bit farther into
a cultural realm of, you know, do I know you
well enough to know that you’re Jewish and
you don’t eat pork?
Do I know that you’re gluten intolerant?
So how can I--I know you, and be culturally
competent, culturally responsive to your needs,
in creating a meal that is safe and is prepared
with skill and things like that.
So I know that’s a little bit of a weird
example, but I like to compare those two because
they’re really different between being trans-welcoming,
which is important, and being culturally competent,
again around skills, which is equally important.
So when we go back to a DV or SA context,
trans people might be wondering, “Will I
be asked invasive questions?”
Trans people can usually tell many stories
about how many times they’ve been asked
about their genitals, or their surgical status,
which is almost never appropriate.
Trans people might be wondering, “Will they
use my name and pronouns correctly?
Will I have to educate my provider?”
This is a major concern of trans people who
are regularly paying for services, but then
end up needing to educate their provider.
So when a client is in crisis, this is not
the best time for them to act as a teacher.
Another question that people are commonly
asking is, “Can they deal with my body?”
So many trans people are not comfortable with
their bodies, or have bodies that are often
uncomfortable to--in terms of their alignment
to their identity and their bodily experience.
And so if they need medical care or a forensic
exam, that may be really challenging, of,
you know, is a provider going to treat a trans
body--the trans person and their body--with
respect and care.
So if we look again at how cultural competency
plays out in rural communities, you know,
again we know rural communities are smaller
and possibly more conservative, and because
of those things, and because of--many times
we have people that are working many jobs,
overworked, and trying to play many roles,
there might be staff that’s less trained
on transgender-specific issues.
So, the cultural competency just plays out
in terms of, you know, how much training or
exposure has somebody had to transgender people
and transgender issues.
So the fourth barrier is about not knowing
what a service is, or finding that it’s
unavailable.
So one thing we found was that a lot of people
didn’t know what certain services were.
Like, a common example was that people didn’t
know about victim--crime victim compensation.
So along with not knowing what a service was,
many people were uninformed about, like, what
might be involved.
For example, many people thought that they
had to engage with the police in order to
have evidence collected, which is not true
in almost every area in the country.
So there might be some truth to what people
believe, but oftentimes there’s some misconceptions
or misbeliefs.
So if we look at rural communities, and people
not knowing what services are, or not knowing
if they’re available, we know that rural
survivors may not have access in their area.
The nearest rape crisis center or domestic
violence service agency might be, you know,
dozens if not hundreds of miles away.
So it literally may be kind of out of reach
for people who live in remote areas.
And the other piece of this is that a lot
of times, trans people in general, and rural
trans people in particular, and especially
youth, often look for support online, and
we all know that online access can be really
great and can connect us to really positive
and accurate information, but it can also
connect people to mistruth--you know, untruths
and untrue information--and may lead people
to believing that there’s no hope or there’s
no services for them.
So, reputation is the fifth barrier that I’ll
share with you today, and although it ranks
as number five in this list, I really want
to stress that this is something that is very
very important to trans people, and it comes
up in a lot of different ways, and when we
ask people questions about what’s important,
this is really something that comes up a lot.
So the trans community is very interconnected
and tightly knit, so when one person has a
negative experience at an agency or with a
particular environment or provider, the word
spreads extremely quickly.
One person’s negative experience, they might
share it with somebody else; it can dramatically
influence an entire community and paint a
service agency as being unwelcoming or culturally
incompetent or any number of other negative
things.
It might not be true; so somebody might be
spreading some comments that are not true,
but that spreading by word of mouth really
influences an agency’s reputation and the
willingness of other trans people to seek
services there.
So, again, you know, one of those--one negative
experience can really quickly reverse a positive
reputation that an agency has, or really taint
it very quickly, and it’s very difficult,
unfortunately, to regain that sense of trust
within communities, and again, it’s not
necessarily that an agency is doing something
wrong, but it’s about what does get spread
through the community.
So when we look at how this impacts rural
communities, we know that there’s oftentimes
a broad range of services that are provided
by a single agency.
So, if somebody’s experiencing different
things throughout their life, they may end
up having to go back to that same agency,
so if they’ve had a negative experience
at one agency, and they have to go back there
again, that may be very difficult if they
didn’t have a good experience.
So there might be some safety concerns again
around reputation, and again, you know, it
can’t be stated enough, I think people--everybody
knows everyone, so how does that reputation
fold in when people know a lot of everybody’s
business?
So the sixth barrier is around an agency being
woman-focused.
Sexual assault and domestic violence movements
have emerged out of the women’s and the
feminist movements, and violence against women
has been the focus of many anti-violence programs
and agencies for a long time.
And we know that times are changing a bit,
partly in--due to the fact that non-female
survivors are stepping forward and not tolerating
sexual abuse, sexual assault, and domestic
violence.
So think about things like the Penn State’s
issue with all of the abuse happening on campus
and in that community, or the priest abuse
cases.
So we’re seeing an increase in public visibility
of male survivors.
We’re also seeing an increase in transgender
survivors who are able and willing to be open
and disclose their survivor status.
However, a lot of agencies still have an agency
name that’s very female sounding, the Women’s
Center, or Kathy’s Home, or something that
sends a clear message to people that that
agency serves women.
And so people wonder if they are not identifying
as a woman, so if they’re male-identified
or if they’re transgender in any way, they
may wonder if they would be welcome there.
A lot of times what we see is that the agency’s
language may be only referencing women, so
on a website they may only use female pronouns
or female examples or female images.
That really sends a message, and can create
a feeling of erasure for transgender people
who would like to access services, but are
seeing messages that say, “We don’t really
welcome you here because of how we talk about
survivors and what we show of survivors”.
And all of those things together can really
create a sense of hopelessness of where somebody
feels that they can seek services, and oftentimes
that translates to people thinking that they
can’t seek services anywhere.
So when we look at rural communities and women-focused,
again, some rural communities may have more
“traditional” beliefs and “traditional”
models of service.
So it might be a little bit older-school,
where focusing on women was the norm before,
and maybe things haven’t changed in some
communities.
And again, sometimes things have changed.
But those traditional beliefs may impinge
on a survivor’s willingness--on a transgender
survivor’s willingness--to make that phone
call or enter the doors.
So the seventh issue of barrier is around
shame, embarrassment, and stigma.
And of course we know that these three generalized
topics are really, really common for just
about every survivor.
There are some trans-specific themes that
go through this that might be a little bit
different.
For example, if they need or want medical
care or a forensic exam, they’re likely
going to have to add in that additional layer
to wade through, and it may create a sense
of embarrassment.
For example, if a trans man was vaginally
sexually assaulted, it may be difficult for
him to seek care for that part of his body,
and it may be both more physically painful
or emotionally painful to even think about
having a physical exam related to that part
of his body.
There may also be concerns around trans people
who survive through sex work.
So these trans people may be worried about
how others will react to their employment,
may wonder if they will be blamed for the
type of work they do, they might be concerned
that they won’t be treated respectfully.
There’s clearly a stigma associated with
sex work and, you know, that may be a fear
that comes through.
And included in the reasons for why some folks
are not accessing services is the belief that
some trans survivors have that “sexual assault
can’t happen to me”, and we’re seeing
this a lot with trans men, who transition
and are oftentimes male-appearing, and really
comfortable in their masculinity, and sometimes
what happens is their belief is “it can’t
happen to me because sexual assualt doesn’t
happen to men” or “domestic violence doesn’t
happen to men”.
And so when it does happen, it can be really
devastating, and it can really rock their
world in a very devastating way.
So when we take shame, embarrassment, and
stigma, and we put it into a rural context,
there might be some complicated issues around
self-blame.
So, it may be due to the isolation of not
knowing many other trans people or being connected
to other trans communities that might help
trans people kind of normalize their experiences,
their identity, the things that are generally
faced every day.
Many trans people may also choose to live
in smaller communities because they appreciate
the isolation of not having so many people
around.
Others may not--sorry, others may know of
their trans history and they may keep it to
themselves.
If they seek services after an assault or
an abusive interaction, they may need to disclose
their trans status or their trans history
to a service provider, whch might bring about
some feelings of shame or stigma.
So this is going to be true in rural situations
or in urban situations as well.
So since people know each other in smaller
communities, it might be difficult to broach
the subject of being trans if others don’t
already know, because trans people might be
worried that if they disclose in one setting,
it may not be confidential and it may spread
throughout the community.
So number eight for barriers is about making
things worse.
As Loree showed us earlier, polyvictimization
is really common, so a lot of times, by the
time a trans person as an adult is potentially
seeking services for sexual assault or domestic
violence, they may have experienced previous
incidences of other forms of harm.
So they might be concerned that seeking help
now will trigger past memories, or remind
them of previous unhelpful experiences or
negative experiences with service providers
in the past.
People are always wondering, too, about, like,
if there’s a lack of knowledge, and that’s
not just for providers, but sometimes survivors
don’t have the knowledge that they don’t
have to tell their story, like, to the police
like I mentioned before, or that they may
not even need to disclose that they’re trans
if they have, perhaps, like, a cut on their
arm that they need to have stitched up.
So sometimes people are not in the know about
what rights they have and what things they
can do so that they can make their experience
a more positive one instead of making things
worse.
So if we go back again and look at rural communities
and how this concept of making things worse
is a barrier, a lot of times people think
that there will be retaliation.
So small communities, people may know that
they went to the police, went to a sexual
assault agency, and they’re fearful of retaliation.
And sometimes those retaliations move into
a single person who’s the offender to more
of gang assaults as a secondary assault.
You know, when I was preparing this, I was
thinking about the film Boys Don’t Cry,
and Brandon Teena, and how in small communities,
sometimes there’s this attitude and this
belief and this kind of ganging up on folks
who are different or who are marginalized.
One thing we all know too is that in small
communities we can’t always get away from
certain people, and that means we can’t
necessarily get away from a perpetrator or
an offender either.
And there might be some pressure to not “air
out dirty laundry”, so people may feel the
concern that they can’t come forward, because
if they talk about it, it will make things
worse for their community, again, their trans
community or their rural community geographically.
So barrier number nine is around systemic
problems, and again this is something that
is true for both trans survivors and non-trans
survivors, so people are concerned about not
being believed, about how legal systems might
re-victimize people, about having few successful
prosecutions, or needing to jump through dozens
and dozens of hoops in order to get access
to services or prosecution or legal help,
and a lot of times that means waiting for
months and months without any justice happening.
So a lot of those are really common for any
survivor, and some of the additional things
for trans folks might be some issues with
documentation, or the consequences of getting
a restraining order which may out them in
the process of doing that; there are lots
of things that can be trans-specific as well
as the regular problems that every single
person might be experiencing when accessing
systems.
So when we look at what might happen systemically
in rural communities, it’s possible that
health care providers and law enforcement
agencies and other service agencies may be
few in numbers, geographically dispersed,
so there may not be as many people literally
that are doing the work that can help people
with those legal and health care challenges.
There may also be some social inequities that
affect healthcare and justice options.
That may be in terms of economics, or any
number of other factors that go into that.
[pause]
So the last barrier I wanted to mention was--is
about cost, and one of the things that we
know in great detail is that trans people
experience low-paying jobs, are often unemployed,
experience discrimination when they are employed;
laws don’t always affect if someone stays
employed or if discrimination is happening.
So what that oftentimes means is that people
have no or minimal health insurance, it may
mean that people have high out of pocket costs,
so if they’re on hormones, they may need
to pay for their hormones out of their own
income and not out of health insurance, which
decreases the amount of money that they have
for other things.
And one of the ironies is that sometimes agencies
have free services, and sometimes people think
that if something is free, it’s going to
be poorer quality, so there’s kind of a
catch-22 there of when agencies do offer free
services, is there a concern by the users
that it’s going to be lesser quality?
So one of the things that I wanted to bring
up when we look at cost is kind of the Maslow’s
hierarchy of things.
So because trans people may be living at poverty
levels or below, there might be more of a
need to have food and shelter than there is
to get care following a sexual assault or
domestic violence incident.
So, you know, it might be far more important
for the person that’s seeking care to have
a sandwich offered to them than to have their
medical or emotional needs taken care of.
So that’s something for us all to think
about, is, “Do we make sure somebody has
their basic needs met before we move on to
helping them with other issues?”
So, again, in rural communities, cost may
play out just by the fact that some rural
communities are very poor as a whole community,
and some of the agencies in those communities
may also have limited resources, or be not
as flush as agencies in larger cities.
So just a quick kind of catch-up reminder
that, you know, everyone deserves to have
access to healing services and not have their
life be ruled by trauma.
So we just talked about a lot of barriers
that make it challenging, and there’s not
always easy solutions, but we’re going to
talk about some of them in a minute.
And one of the things that I wanted to remind
folks of in a rural context is that, you know,
again, trans people are diverse, rural communities
are also diverse and complex, and it’s true
that trans people do live in the country or
in small communities or in remote areas, and
trans people don’t always live there because
they have to, but sometimes trans people live
there because they want to, and they find
happiness and joy in being in those rural
communities.
So as I mentioned in the very beginning, we
wanted to mention shelter because it’s a
really important issue, and it’s also something
that we could spend days and days and weeks
and weeks talking about.
So I’m going to point you more towards resources
and some concepts, and we’re going to not
talk too much in detail about the nitty-gritty
of shelter.
So one of the things that I think many of
us think about are--you know, there’s kind
of the difference between something being
moral or the right thing to do, and something
being the law, or what’s required.
So providing safety and shelter to all survivors
is both the right thing to do and, in a lot
of cases, it’s also required by law.
So it’s really important to know, like if
you receive...
Violence Against Women funds, that there’s
a requirement to serve all people.
Loree, would you be willing to step in and
read this slide for us?
>> Loree: Yes.
“No person in the United States shall, on
the basis of actual or perceived race, color,
religion, national origin, sex, gender identity,
sexual orientation, or disability be excluded
from participation in, be denied the benefits
of, or be subjected to discrimination under
any program or activity funded in whole or
in part with funds made available under the
Violence Against Women Act, and any other
program or activity funded in whole or in
part with funds appropriated for grants, cooperative
agreements, and other assistance administered
by the Office on Violence Against Women.”
>> michael: Thank you.
So this is one of the critical statements
that is in the Frequently Asked Questions
that was developed by the Office for Civil
Rights.
And for those of you who don’t know, the
Violence Against Women Act was reauthorized
in 2013, and President Obama signed it into
law in 2013, and one of the really great things
for transgender people is that, as you can
see in this quote, gender identity is now
included in a protected class and needs to
be honored.
So what I’d like to do is to just show you
where you can access more information, and
we strongly encourage you to look at the FAQs
that are developed by the Department of Justice.
So these guidance were created on April 9th
of 2014, and it’s a really, really easy
read; it provides answers to commonly asked
questions that OVW grantees might have about
the new non-discrimination provisions.
So I really encourage you to look at it and
start having some discussions in your agencies
about sex-segregated services and sex-specific
services, and where you can reach out for
more information.
So I wanted to point out a couple of other
resources to you.
One is an article that we wrote based on the
ask of the National Resource Center on Domestic
Violence.
They really wanted to look at sheltering trans
women and providing more welcoming services.
So this article is currently available, and
we are in the process of creating two additional
documents: one on sheltering transgender men
and one on sheltering gender non-binary individuals.
So hopefully by the end of the year, those
two documents will be out, as well as a couple
of other documents on shelter.
One of the things that is really critical
to anyone who’s in an abusive relationship
is around safety planning, and a lot of times
it’s difficult to know what some of the
differences are, based on cultural diversity
and different populations.
So a couple years ago we developed a Safety
Planning Tool that is specific to transgender
issues and transgender people.
So the URL is on the screen and we’ll mail
this out to you as well, and we encourage
folks to look at this; whether somebody is
able to access shelter or not access shelter,
this tool is really helpful in looking at
trans-specific concerns.
It’s IPV focused, it can be used as a self-help
tool for trans people who are experiencing
domestic violence, and it can also be a useful
guide for service providers to walk through
with their clients.
So let’s take the next couple of minutes
to talk about what you can do, and I’m going
to zip through this fairly quickly ‘cause
we’ve talked about a lot of these issues
already.
So the first one is the reminder of the terms
paradox.
So terms are crucial; we want to listen to
what our clients are saying, use their language,
show respect by using that language, and also
know that what their words are, are not necessarily
what we need to know to better serve them.
So this is the reminder to listen carefully
and ask the questions that are necessary to
providing services.
The second reminder and practical tip is around
the “master status” concept.
So we want to kind of say “no” to the
label of primary potency, and say “yes”
to this “and”-and-“both” kind of mentality.
So, yes, you’re trans, and you’re an assault
survivor, and you’re a person of color,
and you’re disabled.
What do we need to say “yes” to?
What do we need to listen to?
So again this is about listening carefully
to our clients and being responsive to their
needs.
Another action step is around having inclusive
forms and systems.
So one of the first interactions that a survivor
may have with your organization is the information
that might be gathered by somebody doing a
phone intake or what they fill out as an intake
form.
So, want to make sure that your paperwork
and your computer systems allow for options
that might fit trans people.
So have call logs that have multiple options
for gender, not just male and female.
We want to have intake forms, again, that
have multiple options, not just male and female.
May want to look at other things, like relationship
status.
Is it only referring to heterosexual couples
or people that are in monogamous relationships?
Looking at things that might be showing the
diversity of who might be entering your door.
Name and pronouns are really critically important
for all of us.
I think we all like to hear our correct name
and our correct pronoun, and so I really encourage
you to ask the person, and ask all of your
clients, what name and pronoun they use, listen
carefully to what their response is, remember
what their response is, and then consistently
use that name and pronoun that they shared
with you.
And, you know, we kind of modeled this in
the beginning because somebody did ask the
question, but one of the ways that we recommend
asking is, when you introduce yourself to
a client, you could say, “Hi, my name is
michael.
I use ‘he’, ‘him’, and ‘his’ pronouns.
What name and pronouns would you like me to
use for you?”
So that’s one way of just saying, you know,
“Hi, I’m acknowledging that pronouns may
be different than what my expectation is.”
Bathrooms are also something that is critically
important for folks.
Lot of trans people experience violence and
harassment in bathrooms, so as an agency it’s
important for us to make those environments
as safe as possible and as comfortable as
possible for trans clients as well as all
of our clients.
The image that’s on the screen is actually
a fairly new all-gender restroom that’s
in the White House, so that’s like a super
cool new addition to the White House.
But we know that sometimes, agencies cannot
change the physical structure of their building,
so you might not have the option of making
an all-gender restroom if you’re renting
space in another building.
But one of the things you can do, if you can’t
designate a bathroom that is private or single-stall,
is to have signage up in those bathrooms or
signage up in your agency that says “We
respect people’s right to use the bathroom
that aligns with their gender,” you know,
“We expect people to be treated with respect
with regard to what bathroom they use.”
So those are important ways of trying to make
a safe environment for people so they can
take care of some of their basic needs.
Another action step is around having LGBT
materials in your waiting room or your literature
racks, and we know that sometimes having trans-specific
literature is just too small of a population,
so we do encourage you to have a subscription
to a national LGBT magazine, or if your state
has an LGBT newspaper, to have that available.
But I also wanted you to know that we have
materials that we can send you.
It’s not geographically specific.
The brochure that’s on the screen is “It’s
never too late”.
We’d be happy to send you as many copies
as you’d like of it, and you can have it
in the back office or in the front office,
and hand clients that are trans this brochure
that will help them feel that they’re seen
and heard in your office.
So another action step, and this is more of
a homework step, is again around the VAWA
non-discrimination conditions.
So I really encourage you to do the homework
of downloading the Frequently Asked Questions,
reading them, and having some discussion with
other staff members and other community members
about what you need to do to kind of reach
that point of better serving all of the people
who are protected classes and all the people
just in general who need services.
Another action is knowing what resources are
available.
So I’m sure that most of you know what resources
are available in your community in terms of
sexual assault or domestic violence, but,
you know, do you know what LGBT resources
are available, or what trans groups are available?
And also, do you know what the national landscape
is for resources that are available to you.
You know, if you’re on the webinar now,
you know about FORGE and the fact that we
have resources, so I encourage you to reach
out to us for some of those resources, reach
out to us to help your clients get the resources
that they need as well.
Another action step is around addressing the
survivor’s needs.
So, address the needs that they have, not
the needs that you might think that they have.
So stay focused on what your client’s telling
you, and connecting--get them connected to
the resources that are appropriate for their
needs.
And keep learning is--it’s something that’s
kind of obvious, but, you know, I know I’m
somebody that likes to continue to learn,
and I think those of us who are always, you
know, asking curious questions in a professional
way, not to our clients, but, asking questions
about, “Well, I need to know more about
this,” oftentimes end up doing better work
when we actually see clients.
So I encourage you to check out, you know,
both FORGE’s resources as well as, you know,
the hundreds and hundreds of other resources
on trans people, as well as trauma-informed
care, and anything else that you may feel
the need to expand your knowledge on.
And this slide is something that I think is
really obvious and logical to a lot of people,
but, the reminder that all survivors need
to be believed and heard.
And one of the things that I keep on hearing
over and over from trans clients is that what
they value so much in providers is when people
have patience, because trust doesn’t always
happen very quickly with trans people who
have experienced harm in situations in the
past.
Having a sense of persistence, so that’s
kind of keeping an open door and just gently
saying, “I’m still here for you.
I’m still here.”
And having compassion.
And oftentimes I think that compassion goes
far farther than having actual trans-specific
knowledge.
So having those just basic human client-centered
care things in the back of your head, and
putting those into practice, may actually
serve your clients better than having bookloads
of knowledge.
And one of the things that I wanted to share
with you as we end up today is this quote
from our colleague Helen Boyd who posted this
on her blog a couple days ago, and this is
a great reminder for all of us.
So she said, “Maybe I’ve been doing this
too long, but in preparing to do a presentation
for a local organization this week, all I
keep on thinking is that I want to walk in
and say ‘trans women are women, trans men
are men, and some people are neither or both.
Don’t worry about their genitals, their
socialization, or anything except whatever
services you’re providing for them.
Ask everyone what name & pronoun they prefer
for themselves, and then use them.’”
And then she writes, “.
And obviously I know it’s not that simple
but it really kind of is, isn’t it?”
And I thought that was a great summary of
kind of what we’ve talked about today, and
a great summary in general.
So just a couple more slides.
I want to remind folks that you can find us
on the web at forge-forward.org, lots of webinars,
lots of resources online, lots of ways to
contact us.
If you’d like to be informed about what’s
going on, both what we’re doing as well
as what’s going on in the community, for
more resources, we really encourage you to
follow us on social media, Facebook, Twitter,
or Instagram, where we have an active presence
on all three of those platforms.
And before we open it into questions, I just
wanted to make a shout-out to our funder,
Office on Violence Against Women, who we’re
really grateful for, that they continue to
fund us to do webinars like this and other
trainings across the country, and be able
to support you and the work that you’re
doing.
So I’m wondering if Loree or Michelle or
Katie have gathered some of the questions
that we have, that people have asked along
the way.
>> Loree: Yes, I do have a question.
We answered most of the questions as we went.
Someone did ask, “What gender should a transgender
person put on their driver’s license?”
>> michael: I’m sorry, there was a little
bit of cut-out, could you repeat the question?
>> Loree: Sure!
“What gender should a transgender person
put on their driver’s license?”
>> michael: That’s a good question.
Loree, do you want to answer that?
>> Loree: [laughs]
>> michael: [laughs] I’m happy to answer
it.
>> Loree: Yeah, why don’t you answer it?
>> michael: The basic answer is, whatever
gender they would like to have on their driver’s
license.
Some trans people like to have a new gender
marker if they move into--if they transition,
or move into a new social presentation of
their gender.
Sometimes people like to maintain their original
gender marker.
It really depends on the person.
>> Michelle: michael, would you say that that’s--would
it be a similar response if it’s something
like a tax form?
Like if they needed to fill out a W9 form
for a job or something like that?
>> michael: Yeah, that’s a little bit different.
Generally--I mean, that’s a legal form,
and generally what a person will want to do
is have the name that aligns with their “legal”
identity, and “legal” is in major quotes
because it’s hard to know [laughs] which
document is “legal”.
Oftentimes for work, people use the name that’s
on their Social Security records.
And again, those records can be changed, but
sometimes people haven’t changed them yet,
or don’t want to change them.
>> Loree: One of the things to note about
a driver’s license is that this is what
you present to the world a lot of times, and
if the picture and the information on the
card does not line up with the person they
see in front of them, there can be a lot of
problems.
Just imagine a police officer pulls you over,
and you produce a driver’s license that
shows you as male, and what the police officer
is seeing is a woman.
The police officer may assume that this is
a stolen license, or that it’s some attempt
to be fraudulent.
So that is one of the things that trans people
have to think about, is, “What are the risks
that I’m running when I put my identity
out there, and which identity do I put out
there?”
>> michael: And obviously--
>> Loree: Okay, and--
>> michael: I’m sorry, just to add onto
that, there’s obviously sometimes a conflict
between what somebody’s identity is and
what they may feel they need to do for safety.
So some people may change their identity documents
because it creates a safer environment for
them, like Loree just mentioned being pulled
over by the police, or having to show ID at
a bank or something like that.
Sometimes it feels safer when that document
looks and feels the same as what people are
seeing in front of them.
And some other people say, “I’m not going
to do that, because that’s not what my identity
is.”
>> Loree: Okay, another question that we answered
privately, that--but that I’d like to put
to you publicly, is, there was some questions
around when you talked about transgender people
being assaulted in public bathrooms, and one
of the questions was, “The door is closed.
How do people know that someone is transgender?”
>> michael: That’s a really good question.
And this is kind of a politically sensitive
area to talk about.
Sometimes people perceive other individuals
to be something other than male or female,
non-trans male or female, and so they may
make a lot of presumptions about somebody’s
gender identity based on their appearance.
So they may be assaulting somebody, not behind
the closed stall door, but as they’re walking
in or out of a restroom.
And it really is oftentimes based on what
somebody looks like, how they’re presenting
their gender, not necessarily what their gender
identity is.
Does that makes sense?
[pause]
>> Loree: I am waiting for more questions
to come through, so this is your opportunity
to ask another question, if you can type it
in in the next minute or two.
>> Katie: And I do have one.
This is Katie.
I do have one from earlier that I thought
I would bring up at this time.
A person says that they were hoping you, michael
or Loree, would cover “transgender” versus
“transgendered” with the “-ed” on
the end.
This person says, “A lot of well-intentioned
people get tangled up in the extra ‘-ed’,
you know, on the end, in our community and
there’s been some backlash there.”
So do you want to discuss the difference between
the terms?
>> michael: Sure.
Definitely.
Right now there’s been a lot of community
shifting in language, and a long time ago--actually,
not a long time ago--not too long ago, “transgendered”
with an “-ed” on the end of it was fairly
commonly used within the trans community and
outside of it, and in the last probably five
or so years, five or ten years, that language
has shifted to no “-ed” at the end of
it.
So, what we’re seeing, though, a lot of
times is that the word “transgender” with
no “-ed” is kind of what the politically
correct language is, it’s the language that’s
used by people who are writing about trans
issues, and it’s oftentimes in more academic
settings, and in larger cities where people
who are politically active.
What we notice a lot is that smaller communities,
who may not have access, you know, to other
transgender people, other transgender support
groups, providers who don’t necessarily
have access either, haven’t caught up with
the change in the trend of what language is
being used.
So I would strongly recommend that people
use “transgender” with no “-ed” at
the end of it, just because that is currently
what is most commonly accepted.
>> Loree: However, you may have clients that
describe themselves as “transgendered”.
The--I have two other questions.
“What is the--” Actually, I have several,
which we probably can’t answer.
“What’s the best introduction to transgender
issues book that you would recommend?” and
“What would a changed intake form look like?”
>> michael: Best transgender book: I would
recommend Ari Lev’s book, and I’m blocking
on the title right now--Loree, do you remember
the title of Ari Lev’s book?
>> Loree: Emergence, I believe.
>> michael: Emergence.
If you Google Ari Lev, A-R-I L-E-V, you’ll
find her book, and it’s very long, but it’s
very--it’s a very solid book.
That’s the place that I would recommend
to start.
And the second one was--what was the second
question?
>> Loree: “What would an intake form--changed
intake form look like?”
>> michael: I would be happy to send people
some examples of that, and I’m aware that
we’re basically out of time today, but I
would be happy to include a sample intake
form when I send out the follow-up.
[pause] And I am aware that we are out of
time, and I think now’s a good time for
us to break.
I would be more than happy to answer other
questions if people would like to email either
me or Loree.
I wanted to thank again the Nebraska Coalition
for asking us to be part of this today, to
kind of run the show today, and for all of
you for being here listening to such a very
dense time and dense topic, so thank you for
being here.
We will be sending out the evaluation that
will go directly to the Nebraska Coalition,
and we’d be happy to entertain any more
questions by email or in any other way following
the webinar.
That’ll be available for re-viewing if you
want to share it with your colleagues, and
we’ll post it on the FORGE website, and
I believe we’ll also have it available for
the Nebraska Coalition if they’d like to
share that as well.
So thank you everyone--
>> Michelle: Wait a minute, michael--
>> michael: Sorry.
>> Michelle: I, with the Coalition, I want
to just take a moment to thank michael, Loree,
and Katie with FORGE for doing the webinar
for us, and I’d also like to remind people
that if you would like a certificate of attendance
for the webinar, the Nebraska Coalition will
be handling that, and you can call me at 402-476-6256.
You can also email me at michellez, and it’s
Michelle with two L’s and then the letter
Z as in zebra, at nebraskacoalition dot org.
When you get a copy of the PowerPoint, that
is towards the beginning, but I wanted to
share it now as well.
>> michael: Great.
>> Michelle: Thank you all for participating.
>> michael: Thanks very much, everybody.
