Last night I was honored to participate on a panel discussion that discussed mental health and the trans community The panel was entitled 50 Shades Of Me: Mental Health And The Transgender Community and took place in the Jordan-Leland Public Affairs Building on the Texas Southern University campus.
In addition to some blogger y'all know about, the panel included Atlantis Capri, Marie Angel Hernandez, Jude Feng, and Dr. Natalie Walker, and moderated by Dr. Dominique Broussard, one of the organizers of it along with Dr Andrea Shelton.
It was also the first panel I've done on a HBCU campus, and it was gratifying to me it happened on a campus in which I have deep familial ties.
The 50 Shades Of Me panel was a two hour event in which after a greeting by Dr Broussard and an opening statement by Jarvis Calhoun, there was a video played about a young trans kid named Ryland before we dove into the moderated topic of mental health and the trans community.
We discussed the impact of society, the microaggressions and macroaggressions, our personal recollections about it, and other issues that transpeople face that affect them mental health wise. It was also enlightening to have J Feng there to not only represent the transmasculine end of it, but talk about trans issues from an Asian-American perspective.
It was also nice to have Dr Walker there to talk about it as a cis feminine therapist who has trans clients perspective.
A pleasant surprise was Dee Dee Watters showing up in the auditorium with roses to present to the panelists.
The panel's last 30 minutes was opened to audience Q&A before it wrapped up at 8 PM.
This was the first in a series of conversations involving the trans community that will take place on the TSU campus, and Dr Shelton and Dr.Broussard are committed to keeping this dialogue going because it needs to happen.
This was just the beginning of an ongoing conversation, and looking forward to the next one that happens.
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