Tag: LGBTQIA

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An Explanation of TERF Ideology

By Jeremiah Ancheta

Introduction

The term TERF, or Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist, has become more known in recent years as the fight for (and unfortunately, the fight against) trans rights continues. But what exactly is the deal with TERFs and what relevance do they have with trans people?

This post will give an explanation of TERF ideology and why it is harmful towards transgender people.

Feminism and Radical Feminism

First, what is feminism? I like the simple definition given by bell hooks that encompasses various strands of feminism throughout history – “Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression.” Radical feminism can be described as a strand of feminism which seeks to eliminate the patriarchy with a re-ordering and re-structuration of society. 

Feminists and radical feminists point out the existence of the patriarchy, which can be roughly described as a social system in place that advantages men and disadvantages women in various social aspects of their lives. Such social aspects include one’s social standing, access to material resources, how they are affected in the political sphere, etc. The advantages that men have in society in virtue of being men is what makes them privileged, in contrast with women who are oppressed due to the disadvantages they have in virtue of being women.

Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism

Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminism, or TERF, can be described as believing in these two points:

  1. Following feminism in seeking to end oppression towards women
  2. Gender is identical to sex and is thus a biological phenomenon

As explained in a previous post by Cloud Dancers, those who believe that gender is a biological phenomenon believe that whether a person is a man/woman is based on biological features, typically one’s sex chromosome make-up and their sex organs. For such people, what it is to be a woman is to be a person with XX sex chromosomes and a vagina. This is also how one’s gender is assigned at birth.

Those who believe that gender is a strictly biological phenomenon typically deny the existence and identity of transgender people – people whose gender does not align with one’s sex assigned at birth. 

So for TERFs, trans-women do not count as women. As such, they are excluded from being considered oppressed as women in following their project of feminism. 

Furthermore, it is seemingly the case that those associated with the term TERF also vehemently criticize trans activism. For instance, J.K. Rowling and Dave Chappelle are two such notable individuals and have criticized trans activism and trans people within their fields of work. For more on this, see Cloud Dancer’s posts on Rowling and Chappelle. 

As seen through the actions and reception towards Rowling and Chappelle, those associated with TERFs see much support due to their public endorsement of feminist ideals, yet their ideology continues to hurt trans people by denying their existence and identity or painting their activism in a negative light.

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Missouri’s Restrictions on Gender-Affirming Care

By Jeremiah Ancheta

On April 13, 2023, an emergency rule from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey was introduced that restricts gender-affirming care for transgender people in the state. According to an article by AP News, the ruling “will impose numerous restrictions on both adults and children before they can receive puberty blocking drugs, hormones or surgeries ‘for the purpose of transitioning gender.’” It goes into effect on April 27 and expires in February 2024.

Such restrictions include:

  • Transgender patients must have undergone at least 15 hour-long sessions in therapy over a course of at least 18 months prior to seeking gender-affirming care
  • Patients must be screened for autism and “social-media addiction,” 
  • Patients with psychiatric symptoms due to mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety, must first be treated and resolved

As we can see, Missouri has made it nearly impossible for transgender people to attain gender-affirming care. As noted in previous posts from Cloud Dancers, transgender people often go through various mental health struggles due to the discrimination and stigma they face. 

In fact, according to the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, “research demonstrates that gender-affirming care… greatly improves the mental health and overall well-being of gender diverse, transgender, and non-binary children and adolescents.” Furthermore, a 2021 study in the Journal of Adolescent Health involving 11,000 gender-diverse youth found that access to such care reduced depression and suicidality.

Additionally, the ruling is harmful in an intersectional manner as it denies access to gender-affirming care to autistic transgender people. In other words, the ruling is harmful towards transgender people, autistic people, and autistic transgender people.

Unfortunately, Missouri isn’t the only state to see bans on gender-affirming care. Other states such as Alabama and Florida have had similar rulings implemented.

Not too long ago, “[Texas] Gov. Greg Abbott told state health agencies… that medical treatments provided to transgender adolescents, widely considered to be the standard of care in medicine, should be classified as ‘child abuse’ under existing state law” according to a 2022 article by the New York Times.

Many organizations are already looking to challenge this ruling. For instance, the ACLU and Lambda Legal said in a joint statement that they would “take any necessary legal action” and urged those affected to call, according to another article by AP News.

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The Importance of Data Collection

By Jeremiah Ancheta

The Current State of the Data on the Trans Community

According to the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), “Transgender people, and the issues they face, are under-studied because surveys of the general population rarely ask whether a respondent is transgender.” Furthermore, “Without including questions to determine whether a person is transgender on general population surveys, we lack official information about unemployment rates, income and poverty, drug and alcohol abuse, suicide, and all other data that are regularly measured in the general population.”

This point is echoed by the U.S. Foundation Funding for Trans Communities, stating that “Many federal programs and major surveys do not collect data on gender identity. This lack of data has made it difficult to identify and fully understand the unique needs of transgender communities.”

The Importance of Data Collection

As noted above, the lack of data on transgender people has made it difficult to accurately identify and understand the depth of the issues they face. As such, it is clear that the more data we have on trans people, the better we are able to understand their plights and act accordingly to deal with those issues.

For instance, let’s consider the importance of data collection in other social spheres. This article by the NCBI notes that “Racial and ethnic disparities in health have been extensively documented… Making progress toward the goal of eliminating disparities will require widespread, reliable, and consistent data about the racial and ethnic characteristics of the U.S. population.”

Insofar as there are health disparities between the trans community and the general population (and there definitely are), then eliminating these disparities will also require collecting reliable and consistent data on trans people.

The health sphere is only one kind of the many disparities between transgender people and the general population. Other disparities include suicide risk and ideation, being victims of violent crimes, and being at greater risk of unemployment and poverty.

Next Steps

First, we encourage transgender people to participate in the NCTE’s United States Transgender Survey (USTS). The 2015 USTS has been to date the largest national survey that has collected information on transgender people, covering their experiences and the issues they face. The next one started in October 2022. The more transgender people that participate in the survey, the more accurate data we will have on the community.

Second, we call for more investigations and research into transgender people and the issues they face. As noted above, transgender people and the issues they face are under-studied. 

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Explaining J.K. Rowling’s Transphobia

By Jeremiah Ancheta

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, has made several transphobic remarks in the last couple of years. Despite the criticism she has received from trans people and activists, Rowling continues to make such comments and doubles down on them in the face of trans people. Unfortunately, it seems that most in the public sphere are in support of Rowling, characterizing the attacks towards her as unjustified and simply due to “cancel culture.”

The public debate has re-emerged in popularity with the recent release of the popular video game Hogwarts Legacy which is based on Rowling’s Harry Potter novels.

This post will give a comprehensive explanation of why J.K Rowling is transphobic. 

Rowling’s Support for Maya Forstater

In 2019, Maya Forstater, a researcher who worked for the Center for Global Development, “lost her job at a thinktank after tweeting that transgender women cannot change their biological sex” according to a piece by The Guardian.

Forstater has a history of transphobic comments on Twitter. She has previously tweeted “… male people are not women. I dont think being a woman/female is a matter of identity or womanly feelings. It is biology.” Additionally, she has misgendered Pips Bunce, a non-binary and gender fluid person who was listed on the Top 100 Female Executives in 2018 by HERoes, having tweeted “he is a man who likes to express himself part of the week by wearing a dress.”

In response to Forstater’s losing her job, Rowling sent out a tweet in December 2019 that said: 

Dress however you please. Call yourself whatever you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace and security. But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? 

#IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill

Obviously, Forstater said more than “sex is real.” She has denied the existence and identity of trans people. By standing with Maya Forstater, it is clear that Rowling is defending Forstater’s transphobic comments and is in agreement with them. 

Rowling’s Problematic Conception of a Woman

A June 2020 tweet by Rowling revealed her conception of a woman – a person who menstruates. While this has the strange entailment of excluding some cis-women from being considered women due to a hysterectomy or menopause (people that I’m sure Rowling herself would consider as being women), it also excludes trans-women from being considered women and counts trans-men who menstruate as being women.

Rowling’s Transphobic Essay

In response to the criticism that she has received, Rowling published an essay on her website discussing her views on trans issues and problems she has with trans activism. Despite Rowling’s attempt to justify her comments and stances on trans issues, Rowling only revealed more of her transphobia.

Magdalen Berns

Rowling talks about the criticism she received after following Magdalen Berns, who unfortunately passed away years ago from an aggressive brain tumor.

Months later, I compounded my accidental ‘like’ crime by following Magdalen Berns on Twitter. Magdalen was an immensely brave young feminist and lesbian who was dying of an aggressive brain tumour. I followed her because I wanted to contact her directly, which I succeeded in doing. However, as Magdalen was a great believer in the importance of biological sex, and didn’t believe lesbians should be called bigots for not dating trans women with penises, dots were joined in the heads of twitter trans activists, and the level of social media abuse increased.

Here, Rowling seems to characterize the criticism she has received as unjustified  by painting Berns as an unproblematic individual fighting for feminism. Just as she did with Forstater, Rowling characterizes Berns as merely making claims about biological sex. However, what Rowling failed to mention was the more blatant transphobic remarks made by Berns, which is the actual reason why such criticism was made in the first place by trans people and activists. 

For instance, Berns has denied trans women their identity and existence, saying that “trans women are male” in a YouTube video of hers. Furthermore, she has previously likened trans women to “blackface actors,” calling them men who pretend to be women for perverted reasons. This was reported by The Guardian and an image of the original tweet can be found here. 

Rowling’s Vilification of Trans Activism

In the second half of her essay, Rowling gives her reasons for being worried about trans activism. 

First, she says that:

It’s been clear to me for a while that the new trans activism is… pushing to erode the legal definition of sex and replace it with gender.

This definitely isn’t happening and it’s hard to believe Rowling when she doesn’t give examples of any organized activist efforts to replace the legal definition of sex with gender.

Second, she says:

I’m an ex-teacher and the founder of a children’s charity, which gives me an interest in both education and safeguarding. Like many others, I have deep concerns about the effect the trans rights movement is having on both.

Again, Rowling doesn’t give any substantial examples of the effects that trans activism has on education and safeguarding.

In her third reason, she simply says:

As a much-banned author, I’m interested in freedom of speech and have publicly defended it, even unto Donald Trump.

Rowling seems to be saying that trans activism is a threat to freedom of speech, perhaps due to the criticism she has received for her remarks. As Rowling doesn’t give an explanation of how trans activism threatens freedom of speech, there isn’t much to respond to.

Given all this, we see that Rowling is vilifying the trans movement, stating that it is a threat to the legal definition of sex, education and safeguarding, freedom of speech. Despite these concerns, Rowling doesn’t give any evidence or explanation of how the trans movement threatens all these things.

Perpetuating Predator Myths

In December 2021, Scottish police stated that they will “record rapes as being committed by a woman if a male attacker simply identifies as a female” according to a piece by The Scottish Sun. Rowling responded to this by tweeting:

War is Peace. 

Freedom is Slavery. 

Ignorance is Strength. 

The Penised Individual Who Raped You Is a Woman.

To be clear, the first three lines come from George Orwell’s 1984 and are meant to convey contradictions present in the fictional world of the book. By saying “the penised individual who raped you is a woman,” Rowling conveys that this message is a contradiction and that in fact a person who identifies as a woman and has a penis is a man. 

Not only is Rowling, again, denying the identity of trans people; she is perpetuating the myth that trans people, particularly women with male genitalia, are sexual predators and only identify as women in order to find opportunities to commit sexual assault towards other women. Proponents of this claim typically believe that such sexual assaults would occur if we allow trans people to use public restrooms that correspond with their gender.

Despite this popular myth, there is absolutely no evidence to back it up. In fact, a 2019 study in the Sexuality Research and Social Policy journal found that the enactment of laws permitting trans people to use public restrooms that correspond with their gender “is not related to the number of frequency or criminal incidents in these spaces. Additionally, the study finds that reports of privacy and safety violations in public restrooms, locker rooms, and changing rooms are exceedingly rare.”

Final Words

As we have seen, Rowling has made various transphobic remarks the last couple of years – showing support for other transphobes, vilifying trans activism, and perpetuating trans predator myths. 

Much of her justification of her stances involve obfuscation or lack of context that make it seem like the criticism towards her as unjustified, For instance, she characterizes Maya Forstater and Magdalen Berns is simply being believers in biological sex, leaving out the fact that they have made blatant transphobic remarks. In failing to mention these latter facts, people learning about the controversy through her own words do not get the whole picture. Rather, they get an embellished one that paints Rowling as a “victim” of trans activism.

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The Importance of Transgender Storytelling

By Jeremiah Ancheta

One of the key focus areas of the Cloud Dancers Foundation is documenting transgender stories. We have previously documented the stories of trans seniors such as Petra Wenham and Maeve DuVally who have shared their journeys in becoming their true selves and the hardships they faced along the way. But why is it so important to document the stories of trans people?

Feminist Standpoints and Situated Knowledge

Storytelling is important because it allows people to listen to and better understand the realities of marginalized individuals. These stories consist of the personal experiences of marginalized people, experiences that non-marginalized people never had. As such, people who don’t identify with certain marginalized groups have a harder time identifying and understanding the issues that these groups face. Such theses are discussed within feminist social philosophy, mostly in the idea of standpoint theory.

From the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, two relevant claims of feminist standpoint theory are “(1) Knowledge is socially situated. (2) Marginalized groups are socially situated in ways that make it more possible for them to be aware of things and ask questions than it is for the non-marginalized.” 

The idea is that insofar as the situations and experiences of marginalized groups are different from that of non-marginalized groups, they will come to have different understandings and interpretations of their social situations. As Sandra Harding, one of the seminal authors on standpoint theory, puts it, “knowledge is supposed to be based on experiences, and so different experiences should enable different perceptions of ourselves and our environments.”

One important aspect of this concerns matters of discrimination and oppression. Oppression is typically taken to involve two parties – the oppressed and the oppressors. Given the nature of oppression, the social situation of the two groups is radically different. While one experiences privilege and advantages along some social dimension (e.g. economic, material, etc.), the other experiences discrimination and disadvantages along those same dimensions. As such, the oppressed group who experience systematic disadvantages are in a better position to understand their plights than the non-oppressed group, who do not experience disadvantages and thus are not usually conscious of the issues that marginalized groups face.

It’s important to clarify that belonging to one marginalized group doesn’t mean you better understand the plights of other marginalized groups. For instance, being a cisgender black woman doesn’t mean you better understand the experiences of trans people than trans people themselves. To draw back on the main thesis of standpoint theory, this is because cisgender black women have never experienced what it is like to be trans. 

This is a point made in a previous Cloud Dancers blog post concerning Dave Chappelle’s comments on the transgender community. As a non-trans individual, Chappelle has never experienced what it is like to be transgender and thus has never experienced transphobia. Despite this, Chappelle makes claims that imply he understands transphobia better than trans people themselves. However, his claims are uninformed by the actual realities of trans people and what they are saying. 

Storytelling – Critical Race Theory

These sentiments are also echoed in the works of critical race theorists. One of the basic tenets of Critical Race Theory is what Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic call the voice-of-color thesis. Due to the different experiences that individuals from marginalized groups have, especially with respect to discrimination and oppression, they are able to communicate matters that non-marginalized individuals are unlikely to know. Within the context of race, it is difficult for America’s dominant racial group to understand what being non-white is like.

With this in mind, critical race scholars promote the practice of storytelling – for black and brown people to describe their personal experiences. The goal of storytelling is to describe the realities of marginalized individuals, realities that involve experiencing discrimination and systematic disadvantages, realities that non black and brown people will likely have a harder time understanding.

Transgender Storytelling

Similarly, Cloud Dancers looks to document the stories of transgender people, to cover their journeys and hardships in order for non-trans people to better identify and understand the issues that they face. From the activism within feminism, which brings attention to the realities of women, and critical race theory, which brings attention to the realities of non-white people, a similar practice can be made with respect to transgender storytelling, which brings attention to the realities of transgender people.

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Respecting Gay Bars and Keeping Them Queer

As the number of queer bars in the United States dwindles, discourse increases over how to preserve those that remain as safe spaces for the LGBTQ+ community. To many, this means asking cishet individuals to respect these spaces and keep them queer.

This may seem exclusionary for a group that relies on acceptance and love for all identities. However, the exact point here is that many LGBTQ+ people feel excluded almost everywhere else. The default assumption of society is that a person is cisgender and heterosexual until they come out as queer (and maybe even then, too). In queer bars, though, this script is flipped. It creates an atmosphere that allows people to have experiences as their true selves. It’s an opportunity to feel celebrated rather than studied.

Unfortunately, some have had this experience tarnished by cishet people who treat the space as they would a traditionally “straight” bar. Women on TikTok recount being harassed by straight men who wouldn’t leave them alone even after they said they’re lesbians. Others report being made fun of for approaching a woman in these spaces who then reveal they’re straight.

These experiences are all-too-common in day-to-day life, but the purpose of queer bars is to prevent them from happening there. This raises the question, then, of when and how it’s respectful for cishet people to enter these queer spaces.

Some request that cishet people not go to gay bars in general, others don’t have an issue with it, and more think it’s respectful to go in a group that includes queer people. This means, then, that we don’t have a clear answer for when it’s respectful for cishet people to enter these spaces. It seems, though, that the intent behind going is more important.

Gay bars are a lot of fun, and the accepting environment can make cishet individuals feel comfortable and safe as well. However, this openness is maintained by celebrating what makes us different and not judging people for living lives different from our own. Everyone entering these spaces – cishet or queer – needs to respect this.

They’re not places to ogle or judge. They’re not places to superficially preach allyship. They’re places where allyship must be practiced. They’re places to go support queer friends. They’re places that allow LGBTQ+ individuals to be celebrated for the part of their identity that has been oppressed for so many years and that continues to be today.

We have very few of these unique spaces left, yet they are so vital to the LGBTQ+ community. Make the ones we have left count, and keep them safe and uplifting spaces regardless of your sexual orientation or gender identity.

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National Depression Screening Day

By, Meghan Serceki

October 8, 2022 is National Depression Screening Day, a day that encourages individuals to screen for mental health issues and be aware of conditions that may be affecting them.

This is important for everyone to participate in, especially for members of the LGBTQ+ community and trans* individuals who face these challenges at higher rates than the general population (See: “The Stigma of Seeking Help”).

It’s important to address these issues as soon as possible once they arise. On a personal note, I began suffering from depression early in my childhood, but I went undiagnosed until I was 16. I felt it becoming harder and harder to control, and by the time I got treatment, it was more difficult to correct my unhealthy way of thinking as I was combating years of unhelpful habits that had built up.

Studies have shown that the chance of full remission from depression decreases the longer the illness goes untreated. There is always hope for remission, and you can take control of that hope today by getting screened.

Because of the stigma surrounding mental health issues, it’s difficult to admit you need help, and you can’t always rely on other people to notice the signs for you. That’s why it’s important to seek treatment and get screened to monitor your health.

We have yearly physical exams, so please consider this your yearly mental exam. Take a screening here or consult a healthcare professional to take care of yourself sooner rather than later. You have so much value and there are people equipped to help you. This is the first step in accessing this support.

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Coming Out and Staying Out

I came out in 2020. And by that, I mean I came out for the first time in 2020. I say “for the first time” because coming out is a process, an ongoing conversation, not a finite moment in time. 

Every time I meet a new person or begin forming a relationship with someone, I come out. This looks different with certain people, and sometimes it’s as simple as someone noticing that my necklace has a carabiner on it. Other times I have to be more explicit about it. Sometimes I’m explicit about it while wearing my carabiner necklace, Doc Martens, cuffed Levi’s, and a thrifted men’s shirt, but it still doesn’t seem to register.

It’s not that I go up to every stranger and announce that I’m gay; I just don’t hide that part of my identity in conversation and would rather people know that about me sooner before it turns into a big coming out discussion. Because the thing is, no matter how many carabiners and crystals I accessorize with, most people are going to assume I’m straight until I say otherwise. I feel a closet being built around me. Mentioning going to Pride or joking about the straight guys who show up on lesbian Hinge lets me break that closet down before the walls get reinforced.

There have been times, though, (especially at the beginning of my journey) where I considered allowing this closet to be built up again. When restaurants reopened, my first girlfriend and I walked hand-in-hand downtown for a night out. It’s not that we got bad looks that I noticed, but there were definitely lingering gazes or second glances as we walked past. I remember worrying that we might pass the wrong person in the wrong headspace.

The solution to this particular problem could have been just not holding hands in public, but if I was straight, this thought never would have crossed my mind. I’m an affectionate person who just wanted to hold my girlfriend’s hand on our first big night out, and I didn’t want to take away something so simple but that meant so much to me simply out of fear for how others would react.

Recent anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and social patterns have stirred up these questions for me once again. I love who I’ve allowed myself to be since first coming out, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t consider a future where I would have to give up some of these freedoms.

I want to make this clear: I’m privileged. I’m a white, femme lesbian from an upper-middle class family. I could ditch the carabiners, Docs, and sense of humor, be miserable in a relationship with a man, and Gilead would be none-the-wiser. I wouldn’t suffer with gender dysphoria because of this or feel like I need to suppress huge parts of who I am. Walking down the street, I’m not risking as much as a trans* person would be – especially a BIPOC trans* person. But I feel at risk nonetheless.

I also feel, however, the lingering pain that came with suppressing this part of me for 20 years. I was raised in a conservative area and was brought up in the Catholic Church. Unlike my other queer friends from elementary school, I did know that queer people existed but I didn’t feel that I could be queer. So I kept my feelings bottled up, I convinced myself I wanted to have straight hair and wear muted colors like everyone else, and I felt confused and broken every time I realized something about me was different. 

I refuse to go back in the closet, and I refuse to stand by while a closet is built around me. I could live my life differently and perhaps be accepted more readily by society, but that would mean never fully accepting myself. There’s no shame in staying in the closet until you feel ready and comfortable, but when you do just know there’s a community of people here for you who will accept the parts of you that you had to accept about yourself. Don’t let yourself feel pressured or bullied into giving that up.

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The Next Frontier: an Interview with Dr. Jeff Day

Dr. Day is an assistant professor at NYU Meyers, where his new course will launch in the fall.

by Jay Samson

image sourced from https://nursing.nyu.edu/directory/faculty/jeff-day

Smiling as he looked into the camera, head slightly tilted in thought, Dr. Jeff Day, an assistant clinical professor at New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing, said, “I went to San Francisco. I remember very clearly walking down the street and seeing a trans woman ahead of me, and I remember thinking,

that’s the next frontier.”

He was discussing his upcoming course at NYU — a series of lectures focused on LGBTQ health — and we had begun to chat about his inspiration and why he felt the course was important. The course dives into the deeper waters of queer health, focusing not only on the “big picture” but on individual communities and issues. The conversation was filled with moments like these; moments in which we could truly see the engagement and care Dr. Day had for the subject he would begin to teach this upcoming semester.

Dr. Day is a nurse practitioner with the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai, board-certified by the American Nurses Credentialing Center as an adult-gerontology primary care nurse practitioner and certified by the National League for Nursing as an academic clinical nurse educator, and is an active member and chair-elect of the Nursing Section of the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, dedicated to ensuring equality for LGBTQ individuals and healthcare professionals. Dr. Day’s current pursuit is a course at NYU focused on LGBTQ+ health. This course has one clear goal — to educate the next generation of healthcare professionals and to “take care of LGBT individuals.”

Interestingly enough, the course came to fruition both out of Dr. Day’s belief that the topic went under-teached and out of the request of students. It wasn’t simply one or two students who would come to Dr. Day about feeling underprepared for helping queer patients; several students came to him with questions on queer health and a interest in learning much more than he was able to share in the moment. 

“I identify as gay, and I have had my fair share of poor treatment in healthcare… I had a friend who was trans and had an abysmal treatment in healthcare and ended up taking her own life,” Dr. Day told us, somber, and then added, “I needed something that was my own.” That opportunity came in the form of this course: the issue was clearly prevalent and on the minds of students, and Dr. Day knew he had to step in.

The course, which begins this upcoming fall semester, caters to students with little to no experience in LGBTQ+ healthcare, although those already informed on the topic are also able to participate. Curriculum is divided into week-long chunks, with, for example, one week dedicated to HIV/AIDs care and chronic conditions, one week dedicated to intersex care, and two weeks dedicated to general transgender care. Although Dr. Day created the course for those already interested in LGBTQ+ healthcare, he shared with us his ultimate hope for the future of education: “Ideally, LGBTQ+ content would be weaved into curriculum… Ideally, we would make space in each of those classes, such as Pharmacology or those medical-surgical courses, dedicated to LGBTQ care,” and while he “felt it was important to open up an elective for those who have a passion for it,” he believes that expanding LGBTQ+ care to be part of general study is important.

When asked why he thinks LGBTQ+ healthcare hasn’t become a general topic found in all courses yet, Dr. Day, with a sigh, shared he believes it is because professors lack understanding of queer health. In fact, a study conducted in 2011 concluded some disappointing facts: many medical students only received, at the time, around five total hours of education relating to queer health — and many of these rising physicians felt as if they were inadequately trained for working with queer patients. Although this study concluded a decade ago, these numbers have hardly changed. Many students still feel uncomfortable working with queer, especially transgender and intersex, patients, with many reporting that they feel as though they are uninformed on the subject of transgender/intersex care, according to this 2017 study. 

Ideally, LGBTQ+ content would be weaved into curriculum.

The amount of students who came to Dr. Day asking for more clarity on LGBTQ+ health only proves this lack of education.

How can medical schools improve? According to Dr. Day, “We need trans, gender nonbinary, gender nonconforming, gay, bisexual, we need all of this literature provided to students before they get to the classroom. It will make students more sensitive that way. In a way, they’ll understand what they’re getting into… I also think we need to tackle it from a faculty perspective. We need better training.” The problem goes beyond what students are being taught now; the issue began decades ago. If professors received improper training in their education and proceeded to avoid queer healthcare, never properly learning themselves, how could they teach the next generation any better? 

Still, it’s no excuse, and Dr. Day agrees. Professors have a duty to not only their students, but to their students’ future patients. Even the smallest changes, such as introducing oneself with one’s identities present and explaining that one has a different viewpoint and experience than those one is working with, can go a long way. As we continued to chat, Dr. Day offered advice for professors struggling with feeling inadequate, or as if they might make their students uncomfortable, explaining that in his course, “My ultimate goal is to bring in some guest speakers. I frame my lectures by saying, ‘I am not a person of trans experience,’ ‘I am not a person of color experience.’” These disclaimers mixed with the real-world experience of those impacted directly can do quite a bit for students who might, in many ways, also feel as though they could never understand queer health or would always be walking on eggshells with queer patients.

I frame my lectures by saying, ‘I am not a person of trans experience,’ ‘I am not a person of color experience.’

Disclaimers can encourage acceptance and growth, according to Dr. Day.

This ability to recognize one’s identities and experiences contrasted with the identities and experiences of others allows one to accept their own drawbacks, and even accept their own possible failures. That acceptance is an early step in moving forward. Optimistically, Dr. Day added, “I do anecdotally hear that there is some improvement in nursing schools… I am getting word that it seems to be helping. I do hope to one day have students come back and tell me about their experiences.”

This care is not only rewarding to the patient, but to the physician as well. “I had a patient who tied balloons to their bed, because they had gotten gender affirmation surgery and was celebrating their first birthday, and you hear me get choked up about that now… There’s something super special about working in that area,” Dr. Day shared with us, his excitement obvious. 

It’s clear: there’s nothing Dr. Day wants more than to bring these experiences to both his students and their future patients who might otherwise never receive such care. The Rory Meyers College, where Dr. Day is leading this course, works with future nurses, a field in which the relationship between oneself and the patient is of utmost importance. The impact of a nurse on a patient can influence a variety of things, including, but not limited to, the patient’s decision to receive treatment, the patient’s comfort with said treatment, and the patient’s willingness to continue to seek the aforementioned treatment. 

To see a patient thrive under one’s treatment — that is what inclusivity is for. Dr. Day shared with us an experience he had working with a transgender patient who had received surgery to raise her voice, and it is impossible to say that she did not thrive. “(T)he sheer joy she experienced coming in and preparing for this was just infectious,” he said, “We talked about her past surgeries… I just see people sail as a result of these procedures that I don’t often see in other individuals.”

Hundreds of patients await experiences such as these, but due to a lack of education and a lack of access catered to queer patients, many are unable to proceed with the care they deserve. That is also part of why Dr. Day is so adamant about his course, and courses like it: they are not simply taught for fun, but for the betterment of millions of people.

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Corporate Social Responsibility: Salt & Straw Cofounder, Kim Malek

Kim Malek
Kim Malek

In 2011, Kim Malek and her cousin, Tyler Malek, founded the ice cream company Salt & Straw to create a community gathering place where people can treat themselves and experience “moments of wonder” together.

We Welcome All Ampersand

As such, the company embraces people from every walk of life. Each store window displays a sign that states, “We Welcome All,” and they take steps to make each person who walks through the door feel comfortable being their authentic self.

Cofounder and CEO Kim Malek spoke with Cloud Dancers about her views on the role of business in the pursuit of social responsibility and the steps she has taken to make her workplace better for all, especially those who identify as trans*.

Malek’s kind nature and excitement over having these meaningful conversations are immediately apparent even in the age of video conference interviews. “Yay! We did it!” she exclaimed when we entered the meeting. Immediately I was put at ease, glad to know she was as eager to do this interview as I was.

Collaborating with other organizations or foundations like ours is nothing new to Malek, as she believes in working together to bring about social change. Malek grew up wanting to go into politics, but instead went into business when she realized the advocacy that was possible in the private sector. 

She observes, “Business has to be at the table and part of those conversations. The government can’t do it all on its own. Nonprofits and governmental agencies can’t do it all on their own. All three have to come together to make change.” She continues, “It’s good business to be investing in the right ways. Not only is it the right thing to do for society, but it’s actually just good for your business.”

“It’s good business to be investing in the right ways. Not only is it the right thing to do for society, but it’s actually just good for your business.”

When reflecting on this idea of social responsibility, Malek says it goes beyond writing a check. “To me, it’s looking into the core of your business and how you do business, breaking apart each of those components to figure out how you can use your business to make a difference in the world.”

She gives examples (and there are a lot) of Salt & Straw’s business practices that work toward this goal. “For instance, we buy a lot of ingredients,” she says. “The cost of entry today is that you would buy organic ingredients that don’t harm the environment. You would expect us to do that.” 

Social responsibility, though, goes beyond meeting basic expectations. “Let’s go to a deeper level and ask, ‘can we buy from mostly minority or women-owned businesses so we can use our purchasing power to help a first-generation farmer in the Bay Area where we’re her largest customer? And then can we use our marketing power to promote her and make her known?’” The question, Malek continues is, “‘How can you take what you’re doing every day and use that to invest in the community in a unique way?’”

Kim and Tyler Malek
Kim and Tyler Malek work together to dream up unique flavors which benefit the community.

With over one thousand employees, Malek says hiring is a huge opportunity to make business more equitable and safe for all. “We ask ourselves, can we use that to offer first jobs to people and train them in unique ways? Can we use our hiring to offer jobs to people who are reentering the workforce? How can we format our training program so that we’re known as a company that, if you used to work there you have these incredible skills? And maybe we even hold job fairs with different industries at the end of the summer to say, ‘We have this incredible talent pool that we’ve just trained – hire them!’ It’s radical that you would do that because you want to hold onto your people (and we do, by the way), but at the same time, could we be a launching pad for employment in other places?”

“And while you’re here, look at our benefits!” she exclaims. “Since Day One, we’ve offered benefits for people who are transitioning and just making sure that, if we get complaints, we hold everyone accountable and we have a culture where that’s not swept under the rug. We investigate and take care of issues. We’re not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we’re on a journey to take the right next step each time.”

“Since Day One, we’ve offered benefits for people who are transitioning”

Supporting trans* individuals has been a “no brainer” since founding the company. Salt & Straw set up its benefits program in 2011, and Malek states, “Maybe it was a little newer to offer that benefit back then, but it was available, so it was like ‘of course we’re going to do that!’”

Beyond this financial assistance, she notes, “I think the challenge we’ve had over the years is making sure that we as a company are prepared and educated to support people who are transitioning. It’s one thing to give that benefit, but how does the company provide the right support? There’s a lot going on in your life when that’s happening, so what accommodations can we make more broadly so that you can be successful as you transition?”

The transgender community cites safety as its number one concern in the workplace (McKinsey), and these best practices along with Salt & Straw’s zero tolerance policy for any sort of safety concerns seek to mitigate this fear. Malek states, “We educate people about that on day one. Whether it’s from customers or coworkers or members of the community.”

Again, looking into the core of her business, Malek reflects, “We’ve done that successfully and I think sometimes we haven’t. Probably our biggest area of opportunity is to continue to make sure that it feels like a safe, supportive place as someone’s going through that.”

Malek’s response to this is training, focusing on the management, and ensuring that each level of the business reflects these values. She raises the question,  “If you’re a manager at a Salt & Straw and you have a team member who’s transitioning, how do you talk to them or the rest of the team and explain what’s going on in a way that’s supportive? And even how do you handle customer conversations? Because that can be hard too!”

Malek continues to work directly with guests, even in her role as CEO.

She stresses the importance of having training around this and communicating a plan for employees should these situations take place. “You need to have a plan of what to do because otherwise, you don’t know what to do in the moment. You need to talk about it with your coworkers, with your manager, and then when it hits you, you’re like ‘oh yeah, I know what to do!’ Otherwise, in the moment it’s too hard to navigate.”

“I honestly believe that there are a good number of organizations out there that would advocate for their team members,” she continues, “I just honestly don’t know if they’re thinking about it. So we need to talk about it and get best practices out there. Because there’s no environment where someone working in the hospitality industry should be made to feel like they have to endure that kind of thing. And it’s serious. And it happens.”

“There’s no environment where someone working in the hospitality industry should be made to feel like they have to endure that”

Society as a whole might be slow to catch up, but Malek cites this as a reason to take swift action where necessary. “If there’s any whisper of a concern, then the management team will be willing to face that, get involved, and take action,” Malek says. 

She adds, “This is really hard to do, and you hear companies all the time saying they don’t want to go through that. But you have to. Every single time. Every time.”

Malek says advocacy doesn’t stop at her business. Rather, her business is a form of advocacy. Salt & Straw has a number of exciting new programs and partnerships in the works, so stay posted and treat yourself to some ice cream – we all deserve to have moments of wonder.