By Dr. Amy Marsh
Here’s the affirmation: “All persons have the potential to live fully functioning and emotionally healthy lives throughout the lifespan along the full spectrum of gender identity and gender expression.” That’s a quote from the newly released “ALGBTIC Competencies for Counseling Transgender Clients.” (ALGBTIC is a division of the American Counseling Association.)
Here’s the reality or, rather, one piece of it: “In California, transgender female clients of publicly-funded counseling and testing sites have higher rates of HIV diagnosis (6%) than all other risk categories, including MSM (4%) and partners of people living with HIV (5%), and African American transgender women have a substantially higher rate of HIV diagnosis (29%) than all other racial or ethnic groups of transwomen (16). Estimates from California’s urban centers also suggest that HIV prevalence rates among transgender women are extremely high, especially for transgender women of color and African American transgender women in particular (2, 15)…” And that’s from a 2008 study called “Serving Transgender People in California: Assessing Progress, Advancing Excellence.”
So here’s a little something you can do: attend the 1st Annual Alameda County Transgender Health and Resource Conference, on Friday, May 15th, from 10 AM to 4 PM, Preservation Park – Nile Hall, 1233 Preservation Park Way, Oakland, CA. According to Tiffany Woods, conference organizer and program director of TransVision, the conference is “a day of visibility and empowerment” for the East Bay trans community and is designed to bring trans-identified people into contact with service and resource providers in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. I am planning to attend.
The event is endorsed by Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-9), Congressman George Miller (D-7), and Senator Ellen Corbett (D-10). A representative from Congressman Miller’s office will be attending, however, due to scheduling conflicts; Senator Corbett will not be to attend.
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