WPATH Honored in Palm Springs
This past month (September 2018), the WPATH Global Education Initiative trainers and staff have been busier than ever, conducting training in three US cities: Portland, OR, Cincinnati, OH, and Palm Springs, CA. All three, in addition to the 10 previous training sessions held this year in the US were well-attended and enthusiastically received. In Palm Springs, however, Drs. Lin Fraser and Gail Knudson, co-chairs of GEI, were surprised by the presentation of a Proclamation from the Mayor and all City Council Members, delivered by Council Member Lisa Middleton, a transgender woman. Palm Springs, Ms. Middleton informed us, is the first city in the US to be led by an entirely LGBT council and mayor. The proclamation noted WPATH's mission and vision--and the Standards of Care--and welcomed WPATH to Palm Springs, expressing the Council's "appreciation for WPATH's work in support of transgender and gender-nonconforming people everywhere." A scan of the proclamation will be posted on the WPATH website. The final GEI training session of 2018 will be held November 2-3 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and then the GEI Team gets a bit of rest before the 2019 training season begins.
In our Transgender Health section below, most of the stories of the past couple of weeks have been positive (for a change!), and even those stories with a slightly negative edge to them, like the one about the Values Voter Summit, are presented from a trans-positive perspective. There are also good--or at least hopeful--stories from Canada and Chile and more legal victories in the US for trans peoples' employment rights and the right to serve in the military.
The story in our WPATH In the News section below features two of our members from New Zealand: Jack Byrne, and newly-elected Board of Directors member, Dr. Jaimie Veale, and the important research they are engaged in surveying "the health and wellbeing of trans and non-binary people in Aotearoa." I'm sure the results of this work will be received with great interest and their conclusions will have a far-reaching effect.
Jamison Green, PhD
Communications Director |
