Trust Trans Experts

Like most trans people who have been working in healthcare for the past 15 years, I've frequently done Trans 101 type trainings for free. As a program assistant in my early 20s, I trained medical residents and faculty about trans health because there apparently wasn't someone more qualified to do it. As a research coordinator in a role with no connection to LGBTQ+ issues, I was expected to "help out" and train colleagues on trans issues for free.

I've spent enough time offering career coaching to trans professionals to know that these experiences are not uncommon. We are often expected to train, for free, on trans-related issues, regardless of our role.

So it's been odd, the past few years, to notice a sudden uptick in cis-led LGBTQ+ organizations charging significant amounts, sometimes $2,000 or more per session, to cover the same material that trans professionals were told for years that there was no budget to pay us for.

The trainings offered by these cis-led organizations typically rely on unpaid intellectual work developed by trans community educators over the past two decades. Many utilize some variation of the "Genderbread Person" graphic, in some cases without any attribution to Sam Killermann, who deliberately uncopyrighted this work on behalf of the greater good of the community.

While I'm happy that finally the work of TGNC education is being financially valued, it's exceptionally disturbing that this appears to have resulted in a significant flow of resources toward cis-led LGBTQ+ organizations (even if trans educators are employed for the trainings,) rather than to the trans-led organizations and trans educators who pioneered this work over decades for little or no pay.

And unfortunately, this appears to be just one example of a broader phenomenon. A desire to focus on TGNC issues in philanthropy is not always matched by a commitment to fund TGNC-led organizations, rather than cis-led LGBTQ+ organizations, even when grassroots TGNC-led organizations pioneered work in the TGNC community when no one else wanted to do it.

I have to be honest, this isn't the future I imagined when I was 23 years old and training literal doctors in trans health for free.

But I do feel really inspired by the work of the Transgender Strategy Center in leveraging resources for TGNC-led organizations and for raising up TGNC expertise and community leadership. I'm proud to be a capacity coach with you all!

We need more of this.

Because, honestly, I don't know why hospitals pay cis-led organizations to train on trans issues when they could pay TGNC-led organizations or independent educators. Do they not think this expertise and leadership exists within the TGNC community?

We need to end the myth of scarcity of TGNC expertise and TGNC leadership. Our community has been doing this work all along. We are the experts.

When it comes to TGNC topics, insist on TGNC expertise, not that of allies. Insist on leadership from TGNC individuals, not allies.

And pay us for it.