News - Local

Wednesday, Jul. 08, 2009

Tranz-Central Coast: Providing support for transgender residents

The local group is creating network of therapists, doctors and experts as well as educating public

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A few years ago, when Atascadero resident Kari Graton searched for health care professionals equipped to deal with her unique situation, she came up short.

“You do a search through the yellow book and the Internet to find somebody who can help you and there’s nobody there,” she said.

Graton, like dozens of others in San Luis Obispo County, is transgender.

Born male, she recently underwent a lengthy process to become fully female — undergoing hormone therapy, body hair removal and surgery, legally changing her name and “coming out” at work and in public.

“You go through a period of ostracism when you go through that transition,” Graton said. Unable to find qualified care on the Central Coast, she turned to professionals as far away as Los Angeles and the Bay Area for help.

Now people like Graton can rely on a revamped local resource: Tranz-Central Coast.

The group highlights its new mission Saturday with “An Afternoon of Awareness,” a free event aimed at promoting public discussion about transgender and transsexual issues. Part of Central Coast Pride, it’s co-sponsored by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance of the Central Coast.

“We’re really trying to reach out to the community and educate the community,” longtime member Doug Heumann said.

For transgender people, making the transition from one sex to the other can be expensive, stressful and emotionally draining. They risk alienating their families and losing their spouses and closest friends. Jobs are also at stake.

“We want to be there to make this process as easy on them as we can,” Graton said. “We want them to know that there are some people out there with compassion in their hearts.”

Created in 1996, Tranz-Central Coast was originally conceived as a peer support group.

“The purpose was to find out that there were people like us,” said Heumann, an Atascadero engineer and attorney who was born female but identifies as male.

Members met monthly to share struggles and triumphs. Still, Heumann said, something was missing.

New mission The group’s steering committee — Graton, Heumann and physician Denise Taylor — vowed to take Tranz-Central Coast to the next level.

Their first goal is establishing a network of local physicians, therapists and other experts experienced with treating transgender patients. As it stands, Heumann said, few local health professionals have the background or training to do so.

“I end up teaching my doctors … how to treat me,” Heumann said.

Taylor, who works at the Family & Industrial Medical Center and the Community Health Center in San Luis Obispo, agreed that there’s a dearth of specialized services locally.

“I’ve heard some horror stories about patients who finally got the courage to talk to a doctor about (being transgendered) and they got shut down,” said Taylor, who worked at the California Men’s Colony for 11 years before entering private practice in January.

Tranz-Central Coast also wants to work with local businesses unsure of how to deal with transgender employees and customers.

When Graton approached her supervisors about her upcoming sex-change operation in August 2007, she recalled, she encountered shock and confusion.

“It was like the ‘cone of silence’ went down and everything got scrambled,” she said, referring to the TV show “Get Smart.” “They didn’t know what to do.”

One official wanted Graton to keep her transgender identity secret until she left work to undergo surgery. Another suggested simply firing people who had a problem with Graton’s transition from male to female.

“I said, ‘Wait, I work with 200 people and I know them quite well,’ ” recalled Graton, an engineering technician for the county Department of Public Works and Transportation. “I don’t want anybody to get fired. I’m not the only one transitioning here.”

That’s why Tranz-Central Coast is developing a PowerPoint presentation to educate employers about transgender issues. They’ll also provide pamphlets and other materials to local restaurateurs and retailers.

Other areas for future outreach include local churches, schools and law firms, Heumann said. He’s worked with the Transgender Law Firm in San Luis Obispo since 2003.

“We just want to make people aware and unafraid,” added Graton, a GALA board member.

Because many keep their trans identities secret, it’s difficult to gauge just how many transgender people live on the Central Coast.

Graton said she knows as many as 40 county residents who are “in transition or have transitioned.”

At CMC, Taylor estimates she took care of about 200 transgender inmates over the course of a decade. She now treats 20 to 25 transgender patients in private practice.

According to Tranz-Central Coast, opening a dialogue about such issues is vital.

“It’s not just a gay thing or a transgender thing,” Taylor said. “It’s a community issue.”