What I Do and Why

Warmest greetings to those who champion diversity in community engagement, in higher education, in for-profit and non-profit institutions, and in the to-and-fro of everyday living. Fundamentally, we are attracted to, and compelled by, ideas about justice.

I offer participants in workshops, seminars, and community meetings an inside track on the transgender experience: what it means to decide and act upon the fact of one’s identity –- and to live it openly and proudly. I’ve spoken in a wide variety of forums, including groups of medical students, nurses and medical professionals, grad students and undergrads in the service professions, keynote presentations, professional associations, and adult groups and faith communities of all kinds.

Why? According to Forbes Magazine (May 19, 2021): “The numbers are stark, worrisome, and should set off alarm bells: 52% of all transgender and nonbinary young people in the U.S. seriously contemplated killing themselves in 2020. More than half thought it would be better to be dead, rather than trying to live with rejection, isolation, loneliness, and bullying…”