The Rochester Rainbow Coalition hosted a Community Education Presentation, “Understanding SOGIE (Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression),” at the Council on Aging Senior Center on Monday.
To a room packed with attendees, the South Coast LGBTQ+ Network’s executive director Andy Pollock, along with a local pediatrician and a mental health expert, talked through what SOGIE means and how being aware of its specifics can help people see LGBTQ people as individuals rather than a misunderstood group.
They were speaking to a community that had recently posted lawn signs protesting an incident in which a female Rochester Memorial School student’s privacy was allegedly violated when a transgender 9-year-old student opened an unlocked bathroom stall she was using. The incident became the subject of a larger public debate over the district’s bathroom policies for transgender students.
While not the reason for the presentation, the evening provided an opportunity for attendees to learn more about the issue. Pediatrician Dr. Sara Gonzalez explained to the quiet, respectful crowd what type of care a young person receives as he or she decides on their gender identity. Medications such as puberty blockers would be prescribed only after a mental health evaluation, she said. She emphasized that surgery to change gender identity is never done on a minor. At an early age, it is a social transition.
Young people who transition into their preferred gender identity have happier, healthier lives, she said. Such people who are not accepted or are bullied because of gender identity have higher rates of suicide and self-harm and are even more prone to chronic diseases. In conclusion, she urged what she called “compassion over comprehension.”
“You don’t have to understand to help,” she said. “The Haitians have a saying, ‘Everybody is a person.’ It’s so true.”
Mental health expert John Masson explained how slowly gender identity develops in a person from an early age. He concluded that, in the end, what matters is that a young person has supportive parents and family acceptance, or at least one positive, supportive adult to help them maintain a healthy outlook on themselves.
Masson was the first to answer one of the questions submitted in advance by audience members. He said usually at age 9 is when a choice of gender identity will occur. “Or later,” he said.
The last question read that evening asked, “How is it best to address anti-trans bias?” Pollock continued the theme of better understanding of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression by answering that people should attend one of the South Coast LGBTQ+ Network’s “Trans Day for Remembrance” events. The next of these will be November 20 at the Taunton Library. He added, “and get to know your trans neighbor.”
What did Pollock like most about the evening’s presentation?
“The audience was really attentive,” he said. “We presented good information. We wanted to educate the public, make them more aware, give them the opportunity to learn the truth about gender identity.”
By Michael J. DeCicco