[pics] Grooby Travels North to Gender Odyssey

by Kristel Penn

I have returned from Seattle’s sunshine (it’s actually quite nice during the summer) and feeling pumped up from attending the Gender Odyssey Professional Conference. Both personally and professionally, I think it’s important to educate ourselves on trans-specific issues and topics that relevant to the people in our industry. As an LGBTQ identified person, this conference was a really important opportunity for me to support my community.

From the official website:
Gender Odyssey’s conference programming is focused on the needs and interests of transgender and gender non-conforming people from across North America and around the world. Gender Odyssey is a place where we can gather together, learn from one another, and celebrate our growing communities. By creating a place where we can share our collective experience, Gender Odyssey’s primary objective is to offer tools to navigate obstacles and provide pathways to individual and community empowerment.

I wish I could have stayed in Seattle longer to connect with friends, but it just means I’ll need to come back again soon!

Ready to start the day – I thought my pin seemed a relevant choice for the conference.

All badged up and ready for the Gender Odyssey Professional Conference!

First panel of the day!

The first workshop I attended discussed the obstacles many trans and gender-nonconforming people face with receiving transition-related care. Even after big decisions have been made, a scarier question becomes more apparent: how will I pay for the medical services I’m seeking? The landscape for this topic was quite vast and there was no way for the panelists to cover everything extensively, but they did discuss the Affordable Care Act, private insurance, Medicaid and Medi-cal, to name a few. The main takeaway from this session was to keep submitting paperwork to have procedures covered even when you are denied the first time. In the photo above, you can read short bios about the panelists. I also encourage you to visit and support their organizations.

Another workshop that was of particular interest to me was titled Transition Part 2: Maintaining Relationships. Speaker Ryan K. Sallans discussed the his own gender transition and how it affected his partner at the time. When they first met, Ryan identified as a lesbian as did his partner, and Ryan’s eventual transition was a conflicted place for his partner because of her own identity.

This sparked a thought provoking (and lively) discussion about the journey a partner goes through when the other is transitioning. I remember someone compared part of the experience as grieving, which I thought was an interesting point to make. Sallans noted how the stress of the transition can be hard for both people in the relationship and that partners often find themselves in an advocate/educator role with others while providing the bulk of the emotional support to their transitioning spouse.

Near the end of the day, I sat in on workshop called Complicated Case Studies, which discussed the complex variables that accompany a single person’s journey and how it makes it difficult for providers to know what issues/areas to tackle (when or even if). The roundtable conversatio included many mental health professionals who discussed their challenges and takeaways, all with the intention of asking and learning helpful ways to support their trans patients. It was a heartwarming to see so many therapists and case workers discussing how they can better service their trans clients in a way that was sincere and affirming.

Time for a drink! Afterwards, my friend and I (who was also in town for conference) headed down to Seattle’s famous gay area: Capitol Hill. This was a cool sign to see out front at one of the bars we passed by.

Ahhh! Just like being back in Los Angeles. Except I was surrounded by nice people.

I don’t drink alcohol from a can – unless the packaging is pretty. Also, this was delicious.

Post-drink, we headed down to the famous Elliott Bay Bookstore after saw a very eclectic collection of items in their LGBT section. I also spotted Dave Naz’s book, Genderqueer: and other Gender Identities , on the shelf!