Many Transgender people feel isolated until they find a way to connect with other Transgender folks. Life becomes a whole lot easier once this connection is made.
There have been many Transgender peer support groups started and many have failed for various reasons. Some groups have failed due to poor communication, lack of an experienced facilitator, a lack of boundaries between participants, and frequently a lack of empathy towards others' issues.
Successful peer support groups prosper and grow with patience, understanding and empathy. If the Transgender peer support group is functional and balanced and not driven by personal agendas, new participants will join.
On a side note, the following article contains some questionable statistics. The writter references the United States Census as providing the number of LGBTQ people living in the Portland, Oragon area. In the past, The U.S. Census has not reported such statistics on sexual orientation or gender identity. The 2010 Census will be the first to recognize same sex households.
Fledgling transgender student group
Founder hopes to create a safe place for students
By Joe Hannan
Vanguard staff
Published: Friday, February 26, 2010
Updated: Friday, February 26, 2010
“I want to let people know there will be a safe place on campus that they can go to, that they are experiencing the same problems, and we can come together and help each other,” sophomore Amaya Taína said with regard to the transgender community at PSU.
Taína, a Student Senator for the Associated Students of Portland State University, is soon to become the official representative for gay, lesbian, bi, transgender and queer students, and she hopes to begin an on-campus transgender student group.
The GLBTQ community in Portland is large. According to the U.S. Census, 35,413 GLBTQ -oriented people live in the metropolitan area. This number is about 8 percent of the total Portland population.
“While I am working on forming this group with other students, I will be working as the queer representative from the ASPSU Student Senate on issues that affect the GLBTQ community. This group is not part of my ASPSU work—it is personal,” Taína said.
She hopes for the group to be a safe place on campus where “we can bond and be ourselves.”
Taína said the idea to start the group “came from my harassment last term on campus. Those boys were killing the female spirit that is trapped inside my body because they only want the horrid mess of a boy that is on the outside. Their hate speech was and is intolerable.”
Taína hopes a sense of community on campus will be one of the group’s objectives. Also, she would like the group to create kinship in a community where peers would encourage and build esteem with one another.
“I want to gather my fellow trans folk in a group where we can support each other and unite as a power that will fight to not be marginalized anymore. I implore transgender students to join this student group because it will benefit them tremendously. Allies are welcomed to join this group as well,” Taína said.
Taína encourages transgender students to come forward to help get the group started. She hopes that having more members will spur more people to come out and create an even larger community.
Aside from gathering a larger transgender community, Taína also hopes that she can bring more awareness to PSU and to Portland at large.
“A reason why we may not have so many transgendered students out would be because it is frightening when you don’t have people like you to talk with,” Taína said.
Since PSU is a commuter school, it’s hard to reach students and let them know that communicating like this is a possibility. However, Taína expects once word gets out, transgender students will want to join the group.
She needs five members to officially start a student group on campus. The group remains unofficial until it can find more members and cannot register until the beginning of spring term. “I still have to find others that are interested,” Taína said. “I remember the Transgender Day of Remembrance and how it felt so good to be in a room full of transgender people. Why not try and bring that colorful array of people to a weekly meeting where we can bond and support each other?”
Taína also mentions the Sexual and Gender Equality Task Force as a prime resource for transgender students. SAGE helped pioneer the first-ever PSU health care plan for transgender students and the inclusion of unisex bathrooms on campus.
For more information, Taína can be reached at the ASPSU office.
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