Walking and talking about transgender women’s health: HLTH471 University of Maryland Shady Grove

Of course she let me do a learning walking meeting 🙂 .

Yesterday I had the most awesome opportunity to teach one class in HLTH 471 at the University of Maryland School of Public Health, on the University of Maryland Shady Grove campus, with instructor Sabrina Matoff-Stepp, Ph.D (@SabrinaMatoffSt).

She’s teaching about women’s health from a social determinants perspective, as has included a transgender woman persona in a group of types of women for students to learn about.

I thought the discussion was great, I was super impressed with the students’ life experience – I remarked that I have seen much less knowledgeable physician audiences than this. One of the many reasons I love the 21st Century.

Another thing I love is knowing and collaborating with people whose answer to just about anything is “yes.” These are the people, who, when they haven’t done something before, they become curious rather than anxious. That’s Sabrina, from the walk and talk, to a short demonstration of in-class calisthenics that students can do to keep their minds sharp and their bodies tuned to the future. And why shouldn’t they, they (the students and their curiosity-embracing teachers) are the future.

My slides are below, with 1 big, huge, thank you to JaeLee Waldschmidt, who allowed me to use her image on the cover slide. She co-led this year’s Capital TransPride, and she’s also a submarine engineer. This is an example of why diversity (a) allows the human race to survive and (b) supports a world that’s learning to love better.

And one more big thank you to Brynn Tannehill (@BrynnTannehill) who’s story is also embedded within, from the wonderful New York Times Transgender today series. She so authentically relates the importance of achieving life goals, and being who you are, which really stimulated our thinking.

I want to recommend ONE more resource that’s current and super helpful, from the American Academy of Pediatrics: Section on
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Health and Wellness is hosting a series of fantastic webinars on the basics of transgender person care.

Finally, I want to acknowledge that it is somewhat of a conundrum for me that a cisgender man (me) is teaching about transgender women’s health issues. We had a discussion about what being an ally means, and for me that means having a person from the community doing the teaching. I promise I am remedying that at an upcoming CME – more details soon.