Your Y Chromosome Ain’t Got Nothin On Me turned 3 today!
Got a nice email from Tumblr letting me know that this blog turned 3 today. It’s actually about 4 then because you longtime followers will remember that the entire blog was sadly deleted either accidentally by Tumblr or maliciously by hackers. I’m take a lovely trip down memory lane thinking about how the community pulled together using RSS feeds, reblogs, caches, etc. to help me rebuild xxboy.
And here we are 4 years later and xxboy lives on as mainly an archive. Are y’all following my twitter? @NotQuiteDrBarr <— It’s less personal than the yesteryears of xxboy, but covers trans psychology, trans news/advocacy, the trials & tribulations of grad school, productivity tips, and general psychology/psychotherapy stuff. Not for everyone, but check it out if you feel so inclined. I’ll be posting some stuff from my trip to Philly Trans Health over the next week!
(Source: assets)
Hey y’all! I’m really looking forward to this year’s Philadelphia Trans Health Conference in June. I’ve actually never been but have wanted to for the past 3 or 4 years. And now not only do I get to go, but I’ll be involved in a workshop and I’ll be presenting some early findings from the research survey you all so helpfully circulated.
There are a lot of really great presentations that I’m excited about, but I thought I would give you all info on the workshops my research and advocacy/activism lab at University of Louisville is involved in.
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Okay first of all, one of my colleagues and I will be presenting our research at the Graduate Student Research Symposium, which is on June 15 and is divided into two sessions, 8:45-10:10 & 10:25-11:40.
My presentation is based on analyses Dr. Budge and I conducted on the data I collected in January and February, and is titled Transgender Identity Integration as a Factor in the Emotional Well-being of Post-transition Individuals.
My colleague, Kinton Rossman, will be presenting their research in a presentation titled “Just Because I Commanded That Respect - I Got the Privilege”: Qualitative Examination of Privilege in the Trans* Community.
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Workshops are listed below in chronological order:
This is last you will hear about this survey I PROMISE. The Survey Will Close February 17!!
Participation has been really amazing so far and because of people’s thoughtful answers, it looks like even more research will come out of this than originally planned. For example, I may in the future be able to do qualitative analysis on some of the responses to questions like how someone defines a gender transition.
So if you participate your answers will likely be informing a really wide range of research and publications about identity, transition, and more! Please see the recruitment email below and if you’d be ever so kind as to circulate this on social networking sites today, maybe we can get a nice spike in the final two days. The more people who participate the more representative this work will be!
Thank you again to everyone who has participated and/or helped spread the word.
—UPDATE: SURVEY WILL CLOSE ON FEBRUARY 17—
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Sebastian Barr and I am currently conducting a research project under the supervision of Dr. Stephanie Budge as part of my doctoral program. This project explores well-being in individuals who have undergone a gender transition (including but not limited to people who identify as female, male, genderqueer, transgender female, transgender male, stealth, binary, non-binary). To qualify for the study, participants must have undergone some degree of a social and/or medical gender transition (for many participants this can be phrased as living as a gender different from the sex they were assigned at birth) and be over the age of 18. Participation involves completing an online questionnaire that will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.
The information collected may or may not benefit you directly; however, you will have the opportunity to reflect on a range of life experiences and emotions (both seemingly related and unrelated to transition). Some people may find this to be helpful. Additionally, the information learned in this study may be helpful to others in understanding how different approaches to individuals’ identities can result in higher levels of well-being. This could lead to important applications in therapy and counseling.
It is important to us that the research reflects the wide range of identities and experiences of those who have gone through a gender transition, so we strongly encourage the participation of individuals who are often left out of other studies, e.g., those who live stealth or do not identify as transgender and people with non-binary identities.
If you are interested in being a part of this study, you can complete the questionnaire here:http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TransitionAndIdentityStudy.
If you have any questions, please contact Sebastian Barr at smbarr01@louisville.edu or Stephanie Budge,slbudg01@louisville.edu.
Thank you,
Sebastian Mitchell Barr
Doctoral Student, Counseling Psychology
Educational and Counseling Psychology
University of Louisville
(via autostraddle)
I’ve been debating writing and sharing this. I don’t want to politicize the death of someone whom I greatly cared for nor do I want people to misinterpret this as politicizing. But I also think the world needs to know the results of our culture(s) of intolerance.
Last week a young person killed himself. He was 14. He was a boy with a bright smile who happened to have been female assigned at birth and to have lived his first 13 years with a different name and different pronouns. I saw his parents express fear and sadness and anger as they grappled with understanding their son’s gender and the realities of a gender transition and a life post-transition. I sat with them in those emotions and assured them that his struggle and their struggle would be well worth the benefits that would come from living as who he truly was. He didn’t get to see my promise come true, and neither did they.
I could barely contain my joy when I saw pictures of him with his hair cut, when I saw that his Facebook had been updated to his new name, when I saw his big smile in photos with a group of LGBTQ youth and their allies.
I remember the first time he came to the weekly meeting of this group. I think it was the first time he had seen people his age that were able to freely express their wide array of identities, and it was maybe the first time his gender and experience were actually celebrated. He had three hours a week of this acceptance and celebration and freedom. What is three hours a week up against seven days of incorrect pronouns? Against five days a week of bullying? Against media that doesn’t show boys that look like you or men that grew up with your history? Against textbooks that equate your gender with body parts that don’t match yours? Against a future of sports teams you won’t be allowed on? Against adults you respect using language that negates your identity and experiences? Against a religious community you were once a part of telling you that you must choose between hiding who you are and going to hell? Against a lifetime of people trying to tell you how you have to identify, what groups you belong to, and what your gender and history mean about you as a person?
When someone takes their own life there are almost always multiple factors involved. But I one hundred percent believe that this young man would still be living if the world understood him, accepted him, and treated him as normal. Bullying is a problem, but we need to be more critical of the environment that fosters the bullying and allows the bullying to continue. And we need to talk about the difficulties trans* youth face outside of bullying – there is a whole society that is set up in a way that others them.
This should not have happened. He should not be dead. The world will suffer without the contributions he was going to make. Countless people have lost someone they cared about and/or respected. It is a tragedy that cannot be erased. There are lessons to be learned here, and I want everyone to think about this boy and his family and this tragedy and reflect upon the way we each contribute to a society that excludes trans* people, whether that is by allowing only for two genders or by making rules for who gets to identify as those genders. This is far more pervasive a problem than bullying and blatant transphobia. In my experience, the blatant hate is a lot easier to handle than a society that subtly and constantly tells me I don’t belong. Neither are easy, and neither should be anything a young person (or anyone) has to deal with.
Looking to get the survey request on some community boards there. Shoot me an email: smbarr01@louisville.edu if you want to help! It would be greatly appreciated.
Hello everyone! I successfully survived my first semester as a doctoral student and have already been launched into many research projects!
I’m really excited about a project I’ve developed and am launching right now. I’m using an anonymous online survey to study the identity, body image, and emotional well-being of people who have undergone a gender transition (people who live as a gender that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth). The implications of this study could potentially be huge in the field of counseling psychology and will hopefully impact people’s experiences with therapists and psychologists. You must be 18 to complete the survey. The official recruitment letter and the link for the survey are pasted below. Please spread far and wide. Successful results require a large number of responses!
:) :) :)
To Whom It May Concern:
My name is Sebastian Barr and I am currently conducting a research project under the supervision of Dr. Stephanie Budge as part of my doctoral program. This project explores well-being in individuals who have undergone a gender transition (including but not limited to people who identify as female, male, genderqueer, transgender female, transgender male, stealth, binary, non-binary). To qualify for the study, participants must have undergone some degree of a social and/or medical gender transition (for many participants this can be phrased as living as a gender different from the sex they were assigned at birth) and be over the age of 18. Participation involves completing an online questionnaire that will take approximately 10-15 minutes to complete.
The information collected may or may not benefit you directly; however, you will have the opportunity to reflect on a range of life experiences and emotions (both seemingly related and unrelated to transition). Some people may find this to be helpful. Additionally, the information learned in this study may be helpful to others in understanding how different approaches to individuals’ identities can result in higher levels of well-being. This could lead to important applications in therapy and counseling.
It is important to us that the research reflects the wide range of identities and experiences of those who have gone through a gender transition, so we strongly encourage the participation of individuals who are often left out of other studies, e.g., those who live stealth or do not identify as transgender and people with non-binary identities.
If you are interested in being a part of this study, you can complete the questionnaire here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/TransitionAndIdentityStudy.
If you have any questions, please contact Sebastian Barr at smbarr01@louisville.edu or Stephanie Budge, slbudg01@louisville.edu.
Thank you,
Sebastian Mitchell Barr
Doctoral Student, Counseling Psychology
Educational and Counseling Psychology
University of Louisville
(Source: twitter.com)
