Thursday, October 18, 2012

Halfway through the month

So I have finally gotten my background check! Hooray! This means I can definitely meet up with youth now by myself and make some headway on goals and relationship building :)

I have met four of the teens I will be working with and am excited to meet with them throughout the year and see some progress and changes.

I also found a new word today. I was looking up places to volunteer my time, to combine my passion for service and to get out into the community and found the Gender Identity Center of Colorado. Their mission statement is that they;

"Provide support, outreach, and advocacy for all forms of Gender Identity and Expression
Educate the public regarding Gender Identity and Expression."

Looking through their open volunteer positions I stumbled over the word cisgender. Now, I had never heard of that, so I of course googled it. This is what I found from Basic Rights Oregon;


         "You may have heard the word cisgender before, but you may not know what it means. 

Cisgender is a term used to describe people who, for the most part, identify as the gender they were assigned at birth.  

For example, if a doctor said “it’s a boy!” when you were born, and you identify as a man, then you could be described as cisgender. In other words, ‘cisgender’ is used to describe people who are not transgender.
          So why do we say ‘cisgender’ instead of ‘non-transgender’? Because, referring to cisgender people as ‘non trans’ implies that cisgender people are the default and that being trans is abnormal.  Many people have said ‘transgender people’ and ‘normal people’, but when we say ‘cisgender’ and ‘transgender’ neither is implied as more normal than the other.
        Using the word ‘cisgender’ is also an educational tool.  To simply define people as ‘non-trans’ implies that only transgender people have a gender identity.  But that’s not true.  Like sexual orientation, race, class, and many other identities, all of us have a gender identity. 
        Language is important; it defines human relationships.  That is why it’s important use language of equality and inclusion.  We’ll be covering this and a whole lot more in a trans ally education session at our upcoming trans justice summit"


This totally blew my mind. I loved it! I am a firm believer that no one should feel abnormal, and I never thought of what I would identify as in a gender identity realm. I hope that I can volunteer here as it seems a great support place for everyone, and I feel as though I can learn a lot.



In other news, this week at Independent Living Class, we have been circling the topic of Nutrition. We are focusing on portion control, food as energy, being aware of consumption and our bodies and also healthy foods. We actually introduced some kids to hummus for the first time, and they liked it! :)

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