Thoughts From A Psychotherapist Archives

This is a collection of all of my Blog Posts.

May 2023

Why Gender Exploratory Therapy is a BAD thing

Cathy Hanville, LCSW2023-05-05T15:53:48+00:00May 3rd, 2023|Gender identity, Thoughts From A Psychotherapist|

Recently the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists printed a letter to the Editor promoting Gender Exploratory Therapy. For those of us in the community we saw the language and knew this was a bad thing. But if you go to their website they state things in a gentle way that does not show their true agenda. Their agenda is clearly to not allow children to transition at all. That is conversion therapy which is illegal in CA. Many of us let CAMFT know what we thought about them publishing such a horrific letter. I am grateful to be a social worker our professional organizations would never publish something like that.

However, for a parent seeking out therapy for their gender-curious kid, this therapy might look like a good thing. It plays up all the reasons that a parent might be thinking about. A parent might worry it is a trend or their kid was influenced by others (there is no scientific evidence to back this claim). A parent will of course want there to be a thoughtful process with their child and they want to make sure that their child is not influenced. And although that is what good gender therapists do the right-wing extremists claim otherwise. A parent worries about what transition would be like for their child and fears that they will change their minds (again the rate of de-transitioning is very low and has not been studied alongside family support). So a parent can easily be sold on this group of therapists.

Questions a parent might ask a gender therapist for their child

How many clients have you supported through transition?
What are the main obstacles you see for a child struggling with gender?
How do you feel about puberty blockers?
What is your training in working with gender-diverse children?
How do you collaborate with parents, medical providers, and the schools?

A good therapist will collaborate with other providers. A good therapist will be open to puberty blockers at the right time. A good therapist will cite that family support is the main protective factor for transgender children. A good therapist will work with the child and family where they are at and let the child show the way on their journey. They will let your kid be your kid in ways that are authentic for them. A good therapist never has an agenda for the outcome of therapy.

Gender Exploratory Therapy is a repacking of therapy known as conversion therapy. This therapy started with therapists trying to treat the gay out of clients and now expanded to doing the same to gender-diverse clients. This therapy is dangerous. Suicide rates for people that have experienced this therapy are high. It is important to get the word out to laypeople so that they understand how to best support their loved ones that are struggling with their gender identity.

Here is a great handout from the American Psychological Association with a more comprehensive list of questions

Below is a simple infographic I created about why Gender Exploratory Therapy is bad. Feel free to download the pdf and share yourself.

Want to download the pdf to share? Do so below!

Why Gender Exploratory Therapy is BAD PDF LINK

This is a video I made describing why Gender Exploratory Therapy is Bad.

This is a video I made explaining why the letter to CAMFT was Bad

April 2023

Why you cannot get a therapist that takes your insurance

Cathy Hanville, LCSW2023-04-13T22:03:28+00:00April 13th, 2023|Thoughts From A Psychotherapist|

I often hear potential clients tell me how hard it is to get a therapist that accepts their insurance plan. I get it. I accepted insurance for over 20 years and when I moved to PA I was not allowed to stay on CA insurance plans so I decided I did not want to make the huge effort to get on PA panels. The trade-off was no longer worth it.

I suspect the general public does not understand this concept. Or they blame therapists for being greedy. I mean many of us have price points well above $100 a session and often above $200 in urban areas. They wonder why we need or deserve that much money a session. It is a fair question to some extent. And unfair in others. To become a Master Level therapist (which is the “lowest” level of education needed) you must go to graduate school. Then to get licensed you must do many hours (I had to do 3500) of supervised practice. In places like California, many people do those hours at little to no pay. After graduating with student debt, therapists have to work an additional two years with no real income. Then you have to choose between working for a non-profit, government program, group practice, or going out on your own. Non-profits do not pay well. Most people choose to do private practice. If you do that you are starting your own business with all the financial and emotional commitment that takes. Of course, they do not teach any of those aspects in graduate school. Many therapists are good a providing therapy but not so great at running a business and marketing.
I now spend several hours a week marketing my business through blog posting and social media interactions. When I started my practice in 2001 this was not at all how I expected my time to be spent. If you accept insurance there are additional hours spent on record keeping. If you have your own office you are often your own cleaning person too. I was. Then you need to spend time and money on consultation and additional training. Like the rest of the world the therapy world grows and changes and you need to stay relevant.

The biggest issue right now is it is a very hard job. For some of us, that level of hardship happened after the 2016 election. For others, it happened when COVID changed the world and our practice. Something we had to adapt to immediately. I moved to a telehealth practice over the weekend. That meant figuring out the rules, changing paperwork, and finding a secure platform to work on.
Then week after week I was mired in the same crisis as many of my clients. My capacity to see clients was diminished. I stopped taking new clients in March 2020 and have only taken a very few new clients since then. I do not know a therapist who is not looking at other ways to make money right now. Many of us have moved into consulting work also.

The VC world has also now taken an interest in what they believe is a money maker for them. We have seen platforms like Better Help pop up. Where the goal is not to help people but to instead make money by selling data. (This is not a dig at any therapist working there, like everywhere some are good and some are not). Better Help also encourages therapists to forget about things like you need to be licensed to work in any state their client lives in. Next, there are companies like Alma and Headway who are recruiting therapists to work through them. They get higher reimbursements from insurance companies and pass that money on. So how are they making money? Why can’t insurance companies just pay a living wage directly to therapists without a middle person?
I saw a post today that likened therapists at these companies to early Uber drivers who were promised the sky as far as earnings potential. We all know how well that is going.

For many of us then the choice is to stay out on our own and off of insurance companies that want to pay us nothing and tell us how to do our work.

This is why you cannot find a provider that takes your insurance. The ones who do have most likely been full since 2020. The rest of us have moved on.

Building EMDR Confidence-How To Effectively Use EMDR With Complex Cases

Cathy Hanville, LCSW2023-04-12T19:58:42+00:00April 12th, 2023|emdr, Thoughts From A Psychotherapist|

I am teaching a class Building EMDR Confidence-How To Effectively Use EMDR With Complex Cases. This class will be online on May 20, 2023, from 9-12 PST and 12-3 pm EST. It will be videotaped and available afterward as a distance learning class. This class is to help therapists better serve their clients with complex trauma. We will discuss stabilization techniques, how to know when a client is ready for EMDR, and interventions for when processing gets stuck. I will teach you some practical strategies for integrating parts/ego states work into your EMDR work. The goal is for you to have new tools to bring to the office the following Monday.

Register here.

Here is a brief video of me talking about the class.

This class is for licensed therapists who have completed EMDR Basic Training Levels One and Two and have completed the associated 10 hours. This class is presented by Cathy Hanville, LCSW They/She
EMDRIA Credit Provider #23010
EMRIA Certified Therapist and Approved Consultant

This class is approved for 3 EMDRIA Credits #23010-01
This class complies with EMDRIA Standards for EMDR

This class will be recorded and available to all registrants after the course for 60 days. If you do not attend the full live presentation you will have to complete a post test to obtain EMDRIA credits.

December 2022

Why I Am Not Excited About the Gay Marriage Bill

Cathy Hanville, LCSW2023-04-08T23:41:12+00:00December 13th, 2022|LGBT, Thoughts From A Psychotherapist|

I will admit, I am tired of hearing about how this gay marriage bill is such a great thing. I will start by saying it was a necessary law. Because whenever I have feelings about it I keep getting told it’s something. And indeed, it is something. If Obergefell is overturned this will allow those that are married to have their marriages recognized in whatever state they live. It also means that if they live in one of the 35 states that will likely make gay marriage illegal, they can go to another state to be married and their state will have to honor that marriage. As someone who had one marriage overturned by the courts and a second (same person!) one that stuck us in limbo for years, I get the importance of this protection. After marrying in CA in 2008, the state passed Proposition 8 which made gay marriage illegal in CA. Our marriage was still valid in Ca but not valid federally. It was a tax nightmare. Our tax guy had to do dummy single-person CA tax forms for the feds along with our real married tax forms for CA. It was gross.

That being said the law that passed is a loss of rights for gay couples. It only is necessary if Obergefell is overturned. But it doesn’t give us the same rights as we currently have now. Imagine being told that you could no longer get married in your state. You had to go to another one. Kinda like what is happening to women and abortion right now. It is making LGBT marriages second-class marriages. And as we know there is no separate but equal. As a gay person, I have spent years having rights doled out to me. With the Obergefell case, we were almost there. We had marriage. Still, didn’t (and don’t) have employment, housing, and other protections in many states. My new home state of PA literally just passed some of those rights, it was one of 21 states without it. The LGBTQ+ community never had equal footing but we were getting there. Now it is a step back. So tell me again why I should celebrate?

Any marginalized group will tell you we are constantly told we should be grateful for what we have. We should be happy with the pace of progress. Easy for people whose lives are never affected by these laws to say this. I am personally tired of having to accept crumbs of acceptance and be told tolerance is important. I do not want to be tolerated I want to be left alone to live my life with the same rights as a cisgender straight person. I truly do not think that is too much to ask for.

November 2022

The LGBTQ+ Community Under Attack

Cathy Hanville, LCSW2022-12-15T23:04:33+00:00November 23rd, 2022|Thoughts From A Psychotherapist|

I would have liked to write a post about gratitude for Thanksgiving. Or write one on any other topic other than this one. However, I cannot let the horror of what just happened at Club Q a few days ago.

On the eve of the Transgender Day of Remembrance, another trans person died. Along with other LGBTQ+ people who were just out enjoying a drag show. People went out looking for community and fun and ended up experiencing a tragedy that will forever affect their lives.

It happened for a few reasons. The first reason is the continued hatred and vitriol expressed toward members of the LGBTQ+ community. Mainstream politicians post about how the community grooms children. This serves to associate LGBTQ+ people with pedophilia. There are attacks on clinics and doctors that serve transgender minors to the point that some hospitals are coping with frequent bomb threats. This puts an already marginalized community under fire. The second reason is this country’s obsession with guns. The perpetrator will now be labeled as mentally ill to justify this horror. This will further, marginalize people with mental health diagnoses that already have a tough enough time because now they will be associated with violence. When the reality is most people with mental health issues are not violent. This perpetrator recently had a violent incident in the past that should have meant there was no access to guns. However, where the perpetrator lives these rules are not followed. Because apparently, the rights of a disturbed young white person are more important than the rights of the people that were killed and injured. Nothing to do with the fact that the perpetrator’s grandfather is a MAGA CA Assemblyman, who fortunately just got beaten in his most recent election.

As a therapist, I not only have to hold my own feelings about this incident but I have to hold the feelings of every client I work with who is affected by this. Oftentimes all I can do is sit with them and their pain. Because what else can I do? As a person or a therapist? I can continue to post and rant on this blog but I am uncertain if that helps anyone but me. I can continue to work for candidates for elected offices that prioritize marginalized communities. But it feels hopeless. The attacks on transgender people and the providers that work with them are getting worse. Nothing has changed regarding gun control.

It feels like I am part of a community that many are trying to erase. A close-by school district has now been sued by the ACLU-PA and is now being investigated by the Department of Education for creating and maintaining a hostile environment towards LGBTQ+ students. It started with book banning and now they are trying to erase anything LGBTQ+. No pride flags in the classroom. No discussion of any LGBTQ+ issues. No use of names or pronouns that a student uses if they don’t agree with the name and pronouns that were assigned at birth. It is a recipe for an increase in student suicides. It feels even more confusing because this is what the world was like in the 90s when I came out. You came out to safe friends and safe family and that was it. You weren’t out at your job or anywhere else because it wasn’t safe. Over the years things changed. It got safer in many places. When gay marriage was legalized by SCOTUS it felt much safer for many of us in certain places.

It all changed in 2016. The extreme right began their attacks on transgender people first and worst. Now it has circled back to other people in the community. It feels like they don’t want us to exist. If you are not a member of the LGBTQ+ community, then take a second to just take that in. What it feels like when your government and many people in the country do not want you to exist. They are banning books that talk about you. They are banning teachers from talking about anything related to your life. It feels pretty unsafe and awful. And then imagine you had a trauma history before this and imagine how it might feel then. Then imagine what it feels like with all of this going on and feeling alone or unsupported. Having a family that you are estranged from because they refuse to accept who you are. If you are a person of color you are being battered with racism along with homophobia and/or transphobia. It all can feel hopeless. So you find your community where you feel safe and spend time there. If you live in Colorado that now has been taken also.

All I can do is acknowledge the pain of the community. And share with those not in the community so that they can also support the community. For me, I will try to continue to focus on things I can do, which allows me to avoid getting stuck in a cycle of feeling powerless. We each must navigate this in the ways that work best for us.

I hope that everyone has a safe Thanksgiving or Friendsgiving.

Note:

The perpetrator’s lawyers claim that they are non-binary and as a result I refer to them here as the perpetrator and when I couldn’t avoid using a pronoun I used they/them pronouns. I understand that this could be true or could be a cynical ploy to get out of hate crime charges but I have always honored people’s pronouns and will do so here.

October 2022

Managing the Rage-Be The Person You Want to Be

Cathy Hanville, LCSW2022-12-15T23:06:25+00:00October 27th, 2022|stress management, Thoughts From A Psychotherapist|

Like many of you, I have struggled with rage since 2016. It has gotten worse for me as I watch locally and around the country as laws are being passed to erase LGBTQ+ people. In addition, there are continued injustices against Blacks and other POC. I see the harm happening and I envision the harm to come. Laws that I know will cause people to die. It is hard to respond in anger to people on the internet spewing this mess. A part of me wants to do that and another part says no. The first part says it is a good anger release. The other parts agree that it really doesn’t release anger and it also makes me feel bad about myself. I don’t want to be the type of person I dislike.

As I was writing this I read this article on Scary Mommy. A woman tweeted about how she enjoyed hours of conversation in her garden with her husband in the mornings. The pile-on happened quickly. People took offense to her living her life. She was rich, she was entitled, and she was able-bodied. They were not. Capitalism needs to be overthrown. Why? Why can’t we just be happy (or if you can’t be happy ignore it!) that this lady is appreciating her life and her loved ones? I understand many people are in pain but do they want or need others to be in pain also? Why can’t we just let people be happy? Unless someone is coming for the rights of others I am inclined to let people live their lives without me commenting (well except when they pay me to!).

The response shows that I am not the only one struggling with rage right now. People are so unhappy. We have so much untreated trauma and other mental health issues in our society and no capacity for people to get the healing help they need. When I am in my best place I have compassion for all of this. When I am not then not so much.

How do we cope with this? I think the first step is to acknowledge what is going on in this country (and the world). It is tough right now. Many people had prior traumas and many have had trauma piled on with COVID and all of its consequences. While I think the words self-care have been overused I do believe in each of us listening to ourselves and figuring out what are the things that make our minds and body happy. For me I know that exercise and getting outside are important. Being connected with my people is very important. I work hard to keep up with these things. Of course, it can be a struggle sometimes. Weather, mood, etc can interfere. But I do the best I can. That is all we can do. Our best can be different on different days or even hours. I also think it is important to stay in spaces that are supportive and avoid spaces that are not. That means reducing social media. It is so easy to go down a rabbit hole there. I try to keep a rule of limiting social media and NEVER reading comments, and not commenting if I do read the comments. I don’t always do well with this but I keep trying.

It is also important to acknowledge that there are other feelings underneath the rage. Often there is grief and sadness. Sometimes our angry parts are trying to protect us from that. We need to find and allow space for those feelings to also be felt and acknowledged. Easier said than done. That is the place where having a therapist or a safe friend who can tolerate difficult feelings is essential.

The election is soon. Do what you can to take care of yourselves, your people, and all the feelings.

Leaving the Bay Area Bubble for Pennsylvania

Cathy Hanville, LCSW2022-10-07T19:20:16+00:00October 7th, 2022|LGBT, Thoughts From A Psychotherapist|

I was born and raised in NJ. In the 90’s I moved to San Francisco. In the 90’s it was a very different time for LGBTQ+ people. On the East Coast, you needed to be closeted in most places. The word transgender was never spoken and non-binary was not a word most people identified with. You were closeted and butch or femme. Moving to San Francisco was a move for freedom. Freedom to be who you were without being constantly judged or scared. Not to say there was no discrimination there but there is power and safety in numbers. You were careful but not constantly afraid.

Times changed. We got the right to marriage. We began to acknowledge transgender people and non-binary people and accept them into the community. Not without pain. And wrongs committed. The overall umbrella got larger and as legal rights came more and more people came out. For a quick minute after Federal Marriage Equality, it felt almost safe. At least for white LGBTQ+ people. Then the culture wars increased in force. LGBTQ+ people again became an open target. Books about us were (and are) banned. LGBTQ+ people, especially Trans people, are getting accused of grooming children. Doctors and therapists that help the community are getting death threats.

In the bubble, it still felt safe enough. I always knew the community I lived in would step up to anti-LGBTQ+ bullying.

At the end of 2021, I decided to return to the East Coast. That was a huge transition. One of the factors in thinking about where to land was will the place I land be safe for me? PA is not the Bay Area but would it be accepting of my gender non-conformity and Gay identity?

When I arrived I was pleasantly surprised at how little an issue being Gay was for our neighbors. It was a huge relief. Then this happened.

A local church had some inclusive signs that were torn down. Then they posted a rainbow flag. That was also torn down and feces was put on it. This event was shared in the local Facebook groups. People were upset for sure. The disconnect for me was that although people were upset no one has done anything (the exception being the church which put up a new flag and published the event). It appears that people think their moral outrage will make the neighborhood safer for the LGBTQ+ community. A nearby community had a similar thing happen. Every store owner promptly put out a pride flag in solidarity. That shows that people care. Right now it is always important to send the message that people care.

What frustrates me the most about straight people is that many of them just don’t get it. I have some great friends that do. They make an effort to get it. But most people don’t understand the effects of the constant aggressions that we are coping with. Every day there is a case where an LGBTQ+ book is banned or teachers are told they can’t put up a pride flag or a person is fired for being who they are. Yes in 18 states and 5 territories you can be fired for being gay. The question I want to ask straight people is “Has your marriage ever been legally overturned?” Because mine has. And given current conditions in this country, it could be again. In the Bay Area, it felt like a safe bubble. Here I drive through the county and see signs for Republican candidate for Governor that I believe is truly dangerous. I cannot even imagine what laws he would pass in PA if elected that would harm LGBTQ+ people. It is hard for sure.

For me, the solution is always action-oriented. I volunteer for the local Democratic Committee, I have started escorting at a local Planned Parenthood, and I got a job to help with election preparation by delivering supplies the weekend before the election. I will volunteer outside the polls on election day. I am happy to do my part to fight for the rights of LGBTQ+ people, POC, women’s rights, and overall democracy. It feels good to be in a place where the work I am doing can make a difference. At the same time, it is challenging to be in a place that is so different. With people that seem so well-intentioned but are still oblivious.

I have been writing this post for a week now. I have walked away and returned several times struggling with what was I trying to say. What I want is for people to understand how hard these times are for marginalized people. I want the people that are struggling to know that many of us are struggling and you are not alone. I want others to pay more attention and when things happen in your community to speak up. Don’t wait for someone else to do it for you. I understand feelings of overwhelm or that whatever you do is not enough. And, indeed, what you do is not enough. But what you do along with what I do along with what others are doing matters. It helps people. And change only happens when we are engaged and fighting.

August 2022

EMDR Intensives for the San Francisco Bay Area

Cathy Hanville, LCSW2022-08-29T18:47:01+00:00August 11th, 2022|emdr, Thoughts From A Psychotherapist|

I recently started my EMDR intensive program. EMDR Intensives are great for those stuck on some issue or memory. You can get immediate help without making a long commitment to therapy.

When I started this program I got some immediate feedback about cost and time. As a result, I am going to tweak things a bit to make things more accessible. If you are interested in an EMDR Intensive but something about it does not work for you feel free to email me so we can set up a time to talk about what might work for you.

The only thing I don’t make an exception to is that there must be a 90- minute assessment session and clients must fill out the long assessment packet. I am happy to set up an appointment to review it together. I understand paperwork can be an obstacle. Success from EMDR comes from completing a thorough assessment and a client being well resourced. I use the 90 minutes to do that.

However, I can do a few other things. I can eliminate the follow-up session. I like to do this so that clients can integrate their changes but if you do not want to do this I will not require it.

I am also now offering three-hour sessions and 90-minute sessions. You can do those as you wish. If you want to start with one 90-minute session and then want more EMDR we can add a 90 or even a 3-hour session as you desire. This way you are not making any commitments beyond what you need or desire.

I am now offering an initial package of a 90-minute assessment and a 90-minute EMDR session for $750. For an initial 3-hour session it is $125o which includes the follow-up.

I am offering these Intensives to those in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am a social justice-oriented therapist and value diversity in my client. I specialize in working with those in the LGBTQ+ community but I welcome everyone to my practice. Please shoot me an email so we can set up a time for a free 15-minute consultation so you can see whether EMDR Intensives may work for your goals.

Please check out my video on EMDR Intensives to hear even more about how I work.

July 2022

Making the move to EMDR Intensives

Cathy Hanville, LCSW2022-08-29T12:59:15+00:00July 22nd, 2022|emdr, Thoughts From A Psychotherapist|

It is well-documented right now that there is a mental health crisis and a therapist shortage in the US. Add in the lack of trauma-informed therapists and gender-affirming therapists and it can be impossible for people to get the help they need.

As someone committed to both helping people reduce the effects of trauma on their lives and a therapist committed to providing affirming care to LGBTQA+ I want to help more people. However, as a therapist, I am limited as to how many clients I can effectively work with during a week using the 45-50 minute session model.

As an EMDR Consultant who provides consultation to others providing EMDR, I have heard many recent stories about how longer EMDR sessions have been super effective for clients. Weighing this along with the need for more therapy slots I have decided to transition to an EMDR-intensive model. All new clients will be for EMDR Intensives. This will allow me to see and help more people. It also allows me to work with a client on one specific topic or issue and be laser-focused on it. This model also helps those who cannot commit to the time or expense of ongoing weekly therapy.

I will do the work via Tele-Health which means clients can get help while in the comfort of their own homes. They can have their pets or weighted blanket with them or on them while doing the EMDR. In my work, I will do an extensive assessment. Each client gets a workbook where they can answer questions, fill out some assessments, and begin to formulate their Intensive Goals. I will then do a 90-minute assessment session. This allows us to get the goals and to do some resourcing. Resourcing is establishing a plan if a client becomes overwhelmed during or after processing. Then we jump into 1-3 2.5-hour sessions. We do these within a week or two depending on schedule and client desires. We end with a 45-minute session where we review progress and I can give any referrals needed, set up future treatment goals, or help the client integrate the changes they have made.

Any client can get a free 15-minute consultation to discuss to determine whether or not EMDR Intensives are a good intervention for them. I can do adjunct therapy if you have a therapist already and just want to focus on one stuck point.

Feel free to email me at cathyhanvillelcsw@gmail.com today to set up an appointment for the free consultation.

June 2022

What I Want Non-LGBTQ+ People to Know

Cathy Hanville, LCSW2022-08-29T18:50:20+00:00June 29th, 2022|LGBT, Thoughts From A Psychotherapist|

I am writing this post from my deeply personal place and the opinions expressed here are my own. I speak as a white person with many privileges.

What do I want Non-LGBTQ+ people to know and to do.

Pay Attention to LGBTQ+ issues

You don’t need to know or understand everything. But have a basic understanding of what rights LGBTQ+ people have and which they don’t. Be aware of what rights are being attacked and removed. The Supreme Court has stated (Thomas) that they are going after gay marriage, the privacy of sex, and birth control (Obergfell, Lawrence, and Griswold). You know who has known this for years. LGBTQ+ people. We have been saying it. But many Non-LGBTQ+ people have not been listening. I don’t have the time or the energy to be educating people on this. In my mind, if you cared we would already know what was happening. I have plenty of people in my life that do.

Understand and Validate Our Feelings

My primary current emotion is rage. There can also be depression and sadness and anxiety mixed in. I deserve space for all of that. Let me have my feelings with you listening or validating them. Don’t try and make me feel better. You can’t except by listening. Most Non-LGBTQ+ people don’t know what it is like to have a right given or taken away by the courts (unless you are of color and then you know for sure). I got married in 2004 in San Francisco. It was an amazing experience. Something I never expected in my lifetime. It got overturned by the courts. Not unexpected but still devastating. More devastating was 2008. I got married in the time frame between when CA legalized marriage and Prop 8 overturned it. From 2008 until 2015 when Obergfell was ruled on I was married in CA but not in the eyes of the federal government. Try filing those taxes. It was devastating. For weeks after the election, I looked at everyone I passed on the street and wondered did you vote against my civil rights? At the time, straight people in the Bay Area were shocked it passed. Gay people were not. We know.

Also, I love when I hear my Non-LGBTQ+ friends and family express rage at the attacks. Sometimes it feels like we are all alone in this.

Do Something to Support Us

Give money to causes, challenge transphobia or homophobia when you hear it, put your pronouns everywhere you can, vote like our lives depend on it, post supportive things on social media, tell us you love us and that you have our backs, and mean it. But do something.

Understand Our Trauma and How it Affects Us

Every LGBTQ+ person has trauma from being part of a marginalized community. That is in addition to the normal life traumas they have. I am a white privileged person who lived for many years in the Bay Area. I have faced being called derogatory names, told I was in the wrong bathroom or glared at in the bathroom, had a negative word scratched into my car, had a house where the deed said I was unmarried when I was married, had friends and families not validate my relationship and marriage, had one marriage overturned and one that was in an in-between state for 7 years (married in CA but not federally). This is what I can come up with off the top of my head. Imagine being in an unsafe area of the country or being trans-identified or being Black or of color. It is never-ending. For those of us that are older, we remember having to be in the closet. We were scared of having any job that involved working with children because we could be accused of being abusive. We all have many stories. Those traumatic stories affect how we move through the world. Understand that. Never invalidate us by saying it’s not that bad or things won’t really happen. Because they are happening. As we predicted.

This is a really tough time for LGBTQ+ people. The overturning of Roe is devastating to this country and we also see what is coming next. We are often not okay. We need Non-LGBTQ+ people to step up their game if they haven’t already. We cannot fix this on our own.

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