Feb. 13, 2023, GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – GRCC’s Psychology Department Lecture Series is hosting the discussion, “Toward Trans Allyship: ‘They’ Isn’t Plural and Other Lessons in Gender Diversity,” in wake of the deadliest year ever for transgender and non-binary people.
The event is planned for 1-2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023 in room 168 of the Wisner-Bottrall Applied Technology Center.
There is no charge for the session, and it is open to students and the community. No registration is required.
The session will feature Melissa Selby-Theut, a licensed social worker who is the associate director and director of Prevention and Community Education at Grand Valley State University.
Selby-Theut will explore the fundamental tenets of gender in light of current research and dispel common myths with the goals of increasing understanding and promoting gender justice.
She will share how centuries of misinformation and misunderstanding can impede efforts to support people in these communities and ultimately bring about change. She will discuss how communities and individuals are not only poised for, but called to, action.
The LGBTQ advocacy organization Human Rights Campaign has documented at least 302 violent deaths of transgender and gender-nonconforming people since the group began tracking such fatalities in 2013. That figure includes 32 people in the United States.
According to a PBS Newshour report, the organizations believes the number of fatalities is undercounted because the deaths of trans people often go unreported or the victims are misgendered in news or police reports. The figures do not include those who died by suicide, which has also been documented at significantly higher rates among LGBTQ people than in the general population.
Additional information about the Psychology Lecture Series is available here.