HEALTH
Ali Forney Expands Services for Trans Clients Hormone therapy available to limited number of clients
GAY CITY NEWS
Heather Gay, deputy executive director of programs at the Ali Forney Center.
BY DUNCAN OSBORNE
A
leading group that serves homeless LGBT youth has begun providing hormone therapy for its transgender clients at its West 125th Street drop
in center. “It felt like we were doing a disservice to our trans clients by not doing this on site,” said Heather Gay, deputy executive director of programs at the Ali Forney Center (AFC), which
helps homeless LGBT youth aged 16 to 24. “We certainly had a number of clients who expressed to us that they do want hormones.” In an indication of the demand, the program, which is roughly two weeks old, has eight people enrolled with the potential to enroll another dozen. Only those who are 18 or older can participate. “We’re going to start it small with a pilot group,” Gay said. “Many of the clients we’re starting with we’ve known for a while.” Developing the program took more than two years. The effort uses an adapted protocol for helping transgender clients that was originally written by the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, the clinic for LGBT people. Callen-Lorde maintains a waiting list of transgender clients who want services. “[Callen-Lorde] does most of this work in the city,” said Elisa Wallman, Institute for Family Health’s (IFH) director of community programs, which provides care for the homeless at eight Manhattan locations, including AFC. “They have a long waiting list so there is an unmet need.” AFC has an existing relationship with IFH, a non-profit that helps “medically underserved communities.” IFH already has a registered nurse at AFC three days a week, and a doctor on site one day a week. “The idea that we discussed with Ali Forney is we’re going to roll this out slowly because we
don’t know what the burden is going to be on our staff,” Wallman said, adding that IFH anticipates increasing the service over time. For transgender clients, this is significant. It means they will have an experienced medical provider delivering their healthcare in a friendly environment. Previously, such services were available, but finding a knowledgeable and available doctor was difficult and paying for them was even tougher. New York is one of 10 states, along with the nation’s capital, that require that private insurers pay for medically necessary healthcare for transgender people. Eight of those 10, including New York, require Medicaid, the government health insurance program for the poor, to pay for such care. New York only enacted these requirements in late 2014. Medicaid in New York will only pay for counseling for transgender people under 18. Previously, transgender people were forced to pay for such services themselves if they had a private insurer that did not cover them. Clients can buy hormones on the street or over the Internet, where the quality and safety of the product may be questionable. They can buy from friends, which may assure a safer drug, but not necessarily a reliable supply. They may not have access to clean needles to inject some of the drugs if they buy on the street. And the clients may lack knowledge about dosing, scheduling, and general care for transgender people. “We know that a lot of the young people were
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ALI FORNEY, continued on p.17
EDUCATION
NY State Codifies Fair Treatment for Trans Students
Guidelines follow NYCLU study showing widespread discrimination in schools BY ANDY HUMM
T
ransgender students are entitled to respect for their preferred names and pronouns, confidentiality, and access to restrooms and locker rooms that correspond to their gender identity under a new guidance issued by the New York State Education Department. “The purpose of this guidance is to assist school districts in fostering an educational environment for all students that is safe and free from discrimination — regardless of sex, gender identity, or expression — and to facilitate compliance with local, state and federal laws concerning bullying, harassment,
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discrimination, and student privacy,” read the document, which was issued on July 20. The new guidelines encourage training of all staff on transgender issues and say resources should be provided to faculty to educate themselves and their students. The guidance comes on the heels of a four -year study, which was issued in June, by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) that found “pervasive discrimination and harassment faced by transgender and gender nonconforming youth in New York public schools across the state.” The NYCLU study prompted Governor Andrew Cuomo to write the Education Department four days later expressing “outrage”
over the department’s failure to protect transgender students, adding, “I demand that you conduct a review of your full DASA [Dignity for All Students Act] compliance for all protected groups” within three weeks. DASA is a state anti-bullying law that was enacted in 2010, but took effect in 2012 and 2013. Cuomo does not directly control the education department and often emphasizes his differences with it. Merryl Tisch, chancellor of the State Board of Regents, which oversees all educational activities in the state, responded in a radio interview on WCNY supporting doing more for transgender students, but saying it “would be very helpful if people would stop whacking the
State Education Department” and help fund it. Lauren Frederico, the NYCLU’s lead organizer on the study, said their call for action was prompted by a steady stream of complaints from transgender students and their parents about mistreatment in schools. “The data collected under [DASA] is not sufficient,” Frederico said. “A third of all schools did not report any acts of discrimination.” The largest category of reported incidents was a combination of sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex. “Transgender youth will never report incidents to school staff
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TRANS STUDENTS, continued on p.16
August 06 - 19, 2015 | GayCityNews.nyc