Community panel sparks transgender awareness and candid conversation

Tampa – On August 31, 2015, Tampa Bay locals gathered at Metro Wellness for a community panel designed to provide an open discussion about transgender and gender queer issues.

The panel consisted of four members and moderator Tristan Byrnes, licensed mental health counselor. After panelists shared their individual stories, the floor was opened for questions and community information sharing.

Claire Elisan, panel attendee and founder of nonprofit Project No Labels, says out of all the transgender community meetings she has attended, Metro’s panel had the highest attendance she has ever encountered.

“I think the original plan for the panel was to bring the LGB allies out to learn more about the transgender community and find out what issues they’re having,” Elisan says. “A lot of people want to support the transgender community but don’t have a platform to do that.”

Andrew Citino, FTM (Female to Male) panelist, says the high turnout was the most rewarding outcome of the evening. However, Citino says he would like to reach even more audiences in the future.

“I loved the format and the diversity of the transgender people represented on the panel,” Citino says. “I think we had a really good mix of people and I definitely think the audience was who we were looking for.”

One attendee asked what the most positive and most challenging issues are currently for the transgender community. The most positive issue identified was that the transgender community is gaining more visibility. The most challenging issue identified was that transgender people often feel pressure to subscribe to a binary gender identity not only in everyday life but also from fellow transgender people.

Some other topics of the evening included how youth-serving agencies can improve services to transgender youth, the stigma attached to transgender sex workers, what the transgender community needs from allies, and mental health issues transgender people might experience.

“I did hear some generalizations made and a lot of ‘all’ stuff from people asking questions,” Byrnes says. “Part of me wanted to step up and say that sweeping generalizations aren’t the way to go, but I also didn’t want to take away from the personal stories. I wanted the mood to be one of openness and people feeling like they could ask questions.”

“I think there was only one surgery question asked which was really cool,” Citino says. “It’s a huge change from panels in the past. It seems people now want to know more about the real issues.”

Byrnes says he considered incorporating more terminology education, but felt the audience would find personal stories more rewarding.

“From what I heard afterward, people learned more about the community,” Byrnes says. “They learned from the panelists’ personal stories and that’s what I wanted, for people to say they heard stories from four transgender people and know they’re human and that all stories are different.”

In the future, Elisan says having transgender allies as panelists would be helpful in getting community members engaged.

“It’s great to break people out of their comfort zones and put people up there with different perspectives,” Elisan says. “It might not be exactly what we want to hear, but they will be the ones to make the most impact.”

Byrnes says he would like to hold more transgender panels, so anyone who would like to participate in a future panel may contact him directly at www.tristanbyrneslmhc.com. Additionally, all community members are encouraged to fill out the confidential 15-minute Tampa Bay Transgender Needs Survey at http://fltranssurvey.questionpro.com to share their experience and help identify needs within the transgender community.

“Nothing can change a heart or mind more than hearing a personal story,” Byrnes says. “You can’t argue with that.”

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