melvin whitehead

Moving to any new environment always means adjustment: Taking a new job, starting a new family, moving to a new city. With each of these shifts often comes a new culture and a new social circle. And while building that circle can be at least somewhat difficult for most people, it’s particularly more onerous if you belong to a community that is not widely accepted or even understood. Combine that with any other minority status and the intersectionality of those identities can compound those adjustments. And what if that new culture is one that tends to be significantly more conservative? Tonight we have two guests that have recently made moves from larger cities in the North and Midwest to the Deep South state of Georgia and we are going to talk to them about their experience of ‘Adjusting to Southern Intersections’.

Guests:
Melvin Whitehead
Morgan Rich

Resources:
America In Transition: http://americaintransition.org/

This show is a special one because this show marks the beginning of a new flavor of The Strong Stance: Storytelling. These particular episodes will feature all types of stories from all types of trans and gender non-conforming people. The aim is to showcase our community’s voices and lived experiences and to provide an outlet for art and expression. We are continually looking for stories and at the end of the show, I’ll give you more information about how to submit those stories. As a fan of storytelling and storytelling podcasts, this is something I have wanted to do for quite a while now, so I have high hopes for where this stream of The Strong Stance can go.

But let’s talk about today’s episode. I’m calling today’s show ‘About Face’. These stories showcase a few of the ways in which we present ourselves to the world around us and how those performances and presentations affect our lives moving forward. Is the face that we show to the world the same one we see in the mirror? How do we view society and how are we viewed in it? And will these experiences change the trajectory of our future and how we move through our daily lives? Welcome...to The Strong Stance Stories.

Episode 1 Story Tellers
Tracee McDaniel is a transgender advocate, author and the Founder and CEO of the Juxtaposed Center for Transformation in Atlanta. You can find Tracee on the web at www.thejct.org.
Melvin Whitehead engages with his community through leading a local support group for transgender and gender non-conforming people, serving as a core member of the Trans Oral History Project, and working to make his church an affirming place for LGBTQ people. He can be reached at whitehead.melvin@gmail.com

Trigger Warning: We will be talking about our personal experiences tonight and as with most topics on this show, we’re not always certain what roads this conversation might lead down. We’re going to do our best to keep this PG-13, but we want to warn folks that if someone feels compelled to share a negative experience, we are certainly not going to squelch that.

Very often trans people are reduced. They are reduced to their names, their pronouns, their parts and their surgeries. Trans people are constantly subject to inappropriate questions, assumptions and stereotypes about any number of experiences in their lives: not least of which are our sexual experiences. Being constantly surrounded by those speculations and expectations can and often do invariably affect how trans and gender non-conforming people view themselves in the context of what is being touted as the norm. So tonight we’re going to talk about that. We’re going to talk about those experiences and societal assumptions and what impact they have played on trans lives.

Co-Host: Melvin Whitehead

Guest: Rachel Sanchez

Resources:

Aydian Dowling/Adam Levine photo: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/20/transgender-model-adam-levine-nude_n_6717064.html

FDA Blood Donation Policy Articles: http://www.buzzfeed.com/dominicholden/fda-clings-to-arbitrary-incoherent-rules-for-transgender-peo
http://www.advocate.com/health/2015/02/02/fda-everyone-transgender-gay-man

Episode Featured Music
"Who Have I Become" from Be Steadwell http://bsteady.bandcamp.com/

Outing Post-Transition: Last week, ESPN's Grantland ran an article about trans golf-club inventor Essay Anne Vanderbilt (Dr. V). The lengthy article used her trans identity to sensationalize the story; and, Dr. V committed suicide in the midst of the writer researching the story. Tonight on The Strong Stance, Melvin Whitehead will join me as we reflect on how we feel about ESPN's handling (or lack of) on the situation.  We're also going to talk about outing/disclosure and transphobia.  Yes, the gloves are off, emotions are checked at the door; and, we've got the labels on the table.  We're taking The Strong Stance. Are you?