Tomorrow at St Paul’s Metro State University, the Minnesota Transgender Health Coalition is holding their annual Trans Health and Wellness Conference, offering the Minnesota trans and allied community a range of educational opportunities, from consultations by surgeons and voice coaches, sexually transmitted infection screenings, workshops for partners and allies, and a free legal clinic.
According to conference co-organizer Max Gries, over 300 people have pre-registered for Saturday’s 44 workshops, guaranteeing them free breakfast and lunch, but the event is open to anyone, and no registration is necessary.
Gries told TheColu.mn that in addition to free consultations being offered by three prominent gender conformation surgeons, an electrolysis expert, voice coaches, and pharmacists will be offering free consultations all day. Other workshops will include sex discussions, workshops for partners of trans people, and a legal clinic focused on creating medical directives – documents that make sure doctors follow your wishes in treating you if you’re incapacitated, and giving partners or friends the legal right to make treatment decisions for you in similar situations.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff for partners,” Gries pointed out. “A lot of partners say ‘it’s my transition, too!'”
Saturday will also include a keynote speech by Yosenio Lewis, a San Francisco-area trans activist and actor.
In a world where many trans people avoid doctors’ visits through fear of prejudice, or where they may not even have the money to pay for a doctor’s visit, Gries said, there remain a number of barriers to effective healthcare for trans people.
“So many people who are gender non-conforming are discriminated against in the workplace,” said Gries. “It’s not legal but it obviously still happens. They may loose their housing, their job, [and thus] their health insurance.”
“Even if they have insurance, if they’re seeking gender-related treatment it’s usually not covered,” Gries said. “Hormones and surgery are often paid for out of pocket in completely unsustainable ways like credit cards.”
Part of the problem, Gries noted, was the lack of educational opportunities in the nation’s medical schools.
“There’s a lot of movement locally,” Gries said, pointing out the work done by the University of Minnesota’s Project in Human Sexuality,” but the medical establishment is slow to change.”
To change this, the Transgender Health Coalition does trainings at medical schools and nursing programs, and includes a “provider day” as part of the Health and Wellness Conference, Gries said, where they try to educate providers about everything from basic terminology through explaining the medical and health issues around transitioning, and what a clinic visit might be like from the perspective of a trans patient