What Therapists Need to Know to Support the Trans Community: An interview with Artie Hartsell
Curt and Katie chat with Artie Hartsell from ACLU North Carolina about how current anti-trans policies are impacting the trans community. We explore the historical erasure of trans identities, the rise of anti-trans legislation, and the real-world impact on housing, medical care, and documentation. Artie also shares resources for legal aid, community support, and how therapists can show up for their trans clients.
Click here to scroll to the podcast transcript.Transcript
(Show notes provided in collaboration with Otter.ai and ChatGPT.)
An Interview with Artie Hartsell, ACLU North Carolina
Artie Hartsell (they/he) received undergraduate and graduate degrees in social work, focusing on LGBTQ+ families, health disparities, community interventions, and policy. Artie had field placements in foster care and in psychiatric hospital care. They have worked at an LGBTQ+ youth center, as a medical case manager with adults living with HIV, and in policy and organizing at Democracy North Carolina, Equality North Carolina, and is now the Director of Organizing at the ACLU of North Carolina. He is on the boards of Invisible Histories, which is a community archive of LGBTQ+ people in the South, and Rainbow Collective for Change, which builds affirming spaces for LGBTQ+ children and families. Artie founded Pride Education Services to help connect professionals to the most current information in providing LGBTQ+ inclusive services.
In this podcast episode, we explore the real-life consequences of anti-trans policies
Curt and Katie sit down with Artie Hartsell, MSW, an advocate and organizer with the ACLU of North Carolina, to discuss how recent political changes are affecting the trans community.
How are trans rights being threatened today?
“We’re being put in the front and center for [political] purpose to be used… to find a scapegoat in order to rile up a base and to use fear about something that people don’t really understand to galvanize them.” – Artie Hartsell, ACLU North Carolina
- Over 1,000 anti-trans bills and executive orders have been introduced in the U.S.
- Passport and documentation delays create barriers for trans individuals.
- Housing discrimination and increased risks for unhoused trans individuals.
- Medical care restrictions limit access to gender-affirming treatment.
- A rise in state and local laws emboldening discrimination against trans people.
What can therapists do to support trans clients?
- Make their practice as welcoming as possible by being transparent about their knowledge and limitations.
- Partner with local LGBTQ organizations to stay informed and provide accurate resources.
- Be mindful of documentation practices to protect trans clients from potential harm.
- Encourage trans clients to build strong communities and mutual aid networks.
“The number one protective thing that I can tell anyone is to have a community …We need each other, community, mutual aid.” – Artie Hartsell, ACLU North Carolina
Resources for Trans Individuals and Allies Mentioned in This Episode:
- Legal Aid and Advocacy: ACLU, Lambda Legal, National Center for Lesbian Rights
- Medical Resources: Campaign for Southern Equality, Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA)
- Community Support: PFLAG, local LGBTQ centers
How can allies and therapists take action to support the trans community?
- Educate yourself on trans rights and the implications of recent laws.
- Provide direct support by connecting trans clients to legal and medical resources.
- Engage in advocacy through organizations like the ACLU and local LGBTQ groups.
- Encourage trans individuals to document and preserve their community’s history.
Resources for Modern Therapists mentioned in this Podcast Episode:
We’ve pulled together resources mentioned in this episode and put together some handy-dandy links. Please note that some of the links below may be affiliate links, so if you purchase after clicking below, we may get a little bit of cash in our pockets. We thank you in advance!
Artie’s website: artiehartsell.com
Artie’s Instagram: @artiegallery, @artiehartsell
ACLU National: aclu.org, Instagram @aclu_nationwide
ACLU North Carolina: website, Instagram, Bluesky
GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ Equality
PFLAG: Creating a caring, just, and affirming world for LGBTQ+ people and those who love them
Relevant Episodes of MTSG Podcast:
Working with Trans Clients: Trans Resilience and Gender Euphoria
Vulnerability, The News, and You: An Interview with Dr. Abigail Weissman
Reacting to Regime Change: How Therapists Can Advocate for our Clients and Communities
Who we are:
Curt Widhalm, LMFT
Curt Widhalm is in private practice in the Los Angeles area. He is the cofounder of the Therapy Reimagined conference, an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University and CSUN, a former Subject Matter Expert for the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, former CFO of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, and a loving husband and father. He is 1/2 great person, 1/2 provocateur, and 1/2 geek, in that order. He dabbles in the dark art of making “dad jokes” and usually has a half-empty cup of coffee somewhere nearby. Learn more at: http://www.curtwidhalm.com
Katie Vernoy, LMFT
Katie Vernoy is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, coach, and consultant supporting leaders, visionaries, executives, and helping professionals to create sustainable careers. Katie, with Curt, has developed workshops and a conference, Therapy Reimagined, to support therapists navigating through the modern challenges of this profession. Katie is also a former President of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. In her spare time, Katie is secretly siphoning off Curt’s youthful energy, so that she can take over the world. Learn more at: http://www.katievernoy.com
A Quick Note:
Our opinions are our own. We are only speaking for ourselves – except when we speak for each other, or over each other. We’re working on it.
Our guests are also only speaking for themselves and have their own opinions. We aren’t trying to take their voice, and no one speaks for us either. Mostly because they don’t want to, but hey.
Stay in Touch with Curt, Katie, and the whole Therapy Reimagined #TherapyMovement:
Consultation services with Curt Widhalm or Katie Vernoy:
Connect with the Modern Therapist Community:
Our Facebook Group – The Modern Therapists Group
Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide Creative Credits:
Voice Over by DW McCann https://www.facebook.com/McCannDW/
Music by Crystal Grooms Mangano https://groomsymusic.com/
Transcript for this episode of the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide podcast (Autogenerated):
Transcripts do not include advertisements just a reference to the advertising break (as such timing does not account for advertisements).
… 0:00
(Opening Advertisement)
Announcer 0:00
You’re listening to the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide, where therapists live, breathe and practice as human beings. To support you as a whole person and a therapist, here are your hosts, Curt Widhalm and Katie Vernoy.
Curt Widhalm 0:12
Welcome back, modern therapists. This is Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide. I’m Curt Widhalm with Katie Vernoy, and this is the podcast for therapists about the things that go on in our world as therapists, the things that go on with our clients. And Katie and I have made a promise that we are going to try to be more resourceful this year in being able to talk about the ongoing, changing world around us and being resources for clients. And so we’ve been dropping some extra episodes as far as some of the specific populations that might be facing a little bit more of I don’t know, the political ramifications of the world and the ways that they show up in the world, their identities end up feeling impacted in some certain ways. And we are so thankful to be joined today by Artie Hartsell MSW, who works with ACLU around some of the discussion facing some of the trans folks that are in our world, and the ways that some of the Trump administration’s policies and executive orders seem to be impacting those clients who are coming from that part of the world and even the people who aren’t showing up in our offices. And we are so thankful for having you here today to help us understand what is going on, what resources people can end up utilizing, where, where things are, where, where we fear things are, because, as we’ve pointed out in some of these episodes before, from the time that we record to the time that we actually get these published, even if it’s a week or a couple of weeks, sometimes information changes. So, Artie, thank you so much for spending some time with us today.
Artie Hartsell 0:23
Thank you for having me.
Katie Vernoy 1:39
We’re really glad to have you here. And Artie, I know that we’ve been going a little bit back and forth trying to get to a date, and this is really, really helpful that you’re taking time with us. Before we get started, I want to ask you the question that we ask all of our guests, which is, who are you and what are you putting out into the world?
Artie Hartsell 2:17
I love this question. I’m Artie Hartsell. I use they/he pronouns. I’m from North Carolina. I’ve lived in North Carolina my whole life. Eighth generation. I received undergrad and graduate degrees in social work here in the state, focusing primarily on the LGBTQ community and health disparities. I am currently the director of organizing at the ACLU of North Carolina, and I also consult on LGBTQ inclusion, especially for churches.
Curt Widhalm 2:47
With your background social work and the experience that you have because you’ve been doing this kind of work for quite a while, how does that guide your work? How do you fit that into this kind of advocacy that you end up doing, and what have you seen as a result of these efforts?
Artie Hartsell 3:06
Thank you for the question. I think a lot of times when people think about social workers, they think about their therapist who’s a clinical social worker or a child protective service worker. And we are that, but we’re a lot more so social workers work on the micro or direct level, the community level and the systemic level, we have a code of ethics that guides our work that’s very close to my own personal values, and we really as a whole profession, look at the person inside of the larger social environment. When I was in social work school, I was trained in clinical therapy, but my heart is in systemic change. And while I’ve done some direct practice work in the LGBTQ community, with youth or with adults with HIV or in the foster care system, I really want to apply my knowledge from the social work, from my social work background, to making change on the larger scale level. And honestly, that’s where I get the most energy, too.
Katie Vernoy 4:03
It seems like you’re in the right place at the ACLU to do some of those things. And it feels like, especially with the trans community, there’s a big uphill battle. And so can you give us a brief history of trans people rights, the trans movement, that kind of stuff. Because I think I read, I read a meme or something where it says, if our rights can be taken away by executive order, there really weren’t equal rights there. And so it just, it feels like this is a very painful, very challenging fight that you’re fighting. And so I’d love to give some knowledge to some of our listeners that maybe don’t have the the information and the necessary history to understand and put the current moment in the context.
Artie Hartsell 4:47
Yes, that’s, um, that’s a really good question. And I think for a lot of folks, it’s hard to see outside of this current moment. Another thing that I saw about the executive orders is that if gender were so defined that they wouldn’t need to make laws to defend those definitions. I think that’s really strong as well, because people who’ve gone outside of gender expectations have been around since people have existed, colonialism, other factors have erased those experiences. They weren’t called trans people, but people who have lived outside of the expectations for their gender assigned at birth is that history is endless. One of the people that I often bring up in my trainings is a trans woman named Lucy Hicks Anderson. She was born in Kentucky in 1886 and she’s a black trans woman, and her doctors in Kentucky in the early 1900s late 1800s told her parents to let her live as a girl. So our history has been around. It’s just been hidden and taken away from us. Even our people don’t necessarily know our history, which is part of the reason that I work very closely with an archive on Southern LGBTQ history, because again, I mean, we saw this in World War Two, our histories of marginalized communities are erased, and we have to continually fight to bring it back to the forefront.
Curt Widhalm 6:09
Some of the historical stuff, and it seems like a lot of the early 2000s did see a lot of progress for trans folks and some of the rights and privileges that seems like a better place in society for many, not saying that it was a perfect place by anything at all. But could you catch us up what seems to be happening in 2025 in the current atmosphere that does really seem to be challenging, some of the seeming progress that has been made over the last couple of decades,
Artie Hartsell 6:41
Absolutely yes. In a lot of states across the country, there was significant progress for trans people at the legal level, abilities to change your documentations with fewer hurdles, more guidance in how people received informed based medical care. I live in North Carolina, so in 2016 North Carolina passed the first like big anti LGBTQ, anti trans bill. It was called HB2. Some people refer to it as the bathroom bill, but it was very damaging for our state, and it was a response to a local ordinance that we had worked on in Charlotte that would have provided non discrimination protections to all LGBTQ people in public accommodations and in other aspects of life. This fight has been going on for a long time, but yes, in this current federal administration, we’re seeing a heightened look at trans people, bringing trans people to the center of a conversation that we never wanted to be part of, really to find a scapegoat in order to rile up a base and to use fear about something that people don’t really understand to galvanize them. We saw that in the election. Last election, over $240 million were spent on advertising just about trans people, just stoking that fear about trans people. In 2022 that number was about $40 million, and it was targeted towards black and Spanish speaking voters. We expect that to continue to rise in future elections, so we know that we’re being put in the front and center for that purpose to be used, but also the real impacts of the legislation, of those executive orders are harmful to our community.
Katie Vernoy 8:25
I’m trying to decide which way to go, because I want to make sure that we understand what we need to understand, but I also think that some folks may not be following all of the damaging legislation and executive orders. So let’s, let’s start with it, with the legislation and executive orders. As much as you can in the current moment, what are trans folks facing? What are the implications of what’s happening with this targeting of trans folks at the federal level and honestly, at the state level, for many states as well?
Artie Hartsell 8:58
Yeah, that’s a great question. So over the last few years, we’ve seen over 1000 anti trans bills filed in legislatures across the country. The vast majority of those did not become law. The current administration has used that energy to author executive orders defining sex based on how a person was assigned at birth, which complicates a lot of things, but the biggest complication we’re seeing right now is actually passports, like renewing passports, getting those passports back. Another thing that people are facing is being housed in, especially trans women, being housed in men’s prisons, which is incredibly dangerous, and we have seen an attack on DEI, or really any inclusive curriculum that goes into any kind of LGBTQ even mentioned. So and all of that is being hyper localized, so the administration can have a large concept of trans people don’t exist. We’re going to write you out of society. But what happens is, even if they can’t pass something at the federal level, because an executive order is not necessarily law, it inspires local governments to pass extreme limitations on trans people’s rights.
Curt Widhalm 10:15
I’m glad that you’re bringing up the the executive orders doesn’t necessarily translate into law, but as you’re pointing out, the enforcement of this by many people ends up seeming to make it feel like it’s the lie and like this is the rule of the land. Can you speak at all to how is this impacting the day to day lives of trans folks?
Artie Hartsell 10:40
That’s a great question. One thing is that there was an executive order that said that no one 19 or younger, or under 19, would get medical care, gender affirming medical care, and several hospitals stopped providing that care immediately, despite the fact that that was going to go through several lawsuits and is currently enjoined. Those kinds of early adherence to what people believe the Trump administration will do for fear of federal funding. And a lot of times we’ve seen those rolled back with court orders. We’re also seeing localized attacks on documentation. People, there are people who haven’t gotten their passports back in a long time because any if you’re renewing it or changing your gender marker, they’ve been held on to. So there’s a lawsuit about that as well. The real impact day to day has been the just constant stream of abuse from people who are now emboldened to say and do all kinds of things against trans people in other marginalized communities. One of the biggest things that has been a pattern for the last several years, and I think connects back to the history question, is that we are new, or that we haven’t always existed, or that we’re throwing it in people’s faces, and it’s like, no, we’ve been here just living our lives. Y’all decided to take us and make us the face of everything to scapegoat. And I think that’s an one of the reasons it’s so important to know our history and to know that we’ve always been here. This isn’t new. I’ve I’ve used they/them pronouns since 2010 so that’s not a new thing. But yes, the the emboldening the local legislation, North Carolina in the last couple days, filed two very extreme anti trans bills, and we’re just seeing new and more creative ways to attack and limit LGBTQ people and trans people specifically. And in the process, target people who are just gender non conforming. One state just filed a bill about like haircuts that are gender affirming, and it doesn’t make sense. Arkansas. The more that people legislate what gender is supposed to be to attack trans people, the more that attacks everybody. Because none of us, cis gender or transgender, fit any kind of like we, none of us are 100% like we’re no there’s no A plus gender congruency here.
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Katie Vernoy 13:14
What are your thoughts on why trans folks are be being targeted as the scary other?
Artie Hartsell 13:22
That’s a really good question. I think we’re such a small percentage of the population, and I think a lot of it is because we are relatively unknown. I think trans people, for a long time, lived very secretly, like not out of shame, but out of fear. We have portions of our community, especially our elders, who lived what we call stealth, so they would transition and never mentioned to anyone that they like, what they were previously like, what their previous lives look like. We had people who would present one way at work and one way in every other part of their lives, and so there’s been a lot of fear of visibility in our community, I think also, again, just the small percentage that we are, it’s really easy to make a caricature of a trans person. We saw, I kind of liken it to the reconstruction racist propaganda. If you don’t really interact with a black man, you may be able to relate to a political cartoon that presents a black man in a dangerous way, and that’s because we find something that’s really intensely unknown and something that we can fear and build it into something that it just totally isn’t. We also see people like you know, if one trans person behaves badly, that becomes the entire trans community, when that doesn’t happen for you know, people who are in normative or non marginalized communities. So that gives that bias some extra credence. I think there’s, I think there’s several things that attacking trans people is about. I also think it’s about, I, like maintaining the idea of what the white American family looks like, or what a white American person looks like, and and fitting a specific standard. And we don’t do that. We kind of break that norm. And and people are afraid and clinging desperately to ideals that weren’t ever really true, were not ever really happening for the, for the majority of like, like, we grew up thinking about our white picket fence and our perfectly manicured lawn and and now, like, I probably will never be able to buy a house as a millennial. But not only that, I don’t want a white picket fence. I don’t want a perfectly manicured lawn. I want wildflowers that have pollinators. I want to grow vegetables. So they see us inching and inching further away from that post World War Two American ideal that that has been so entrenched as the goal that is the American dream. And if we, if, if people, can divert from that, what have they not diverted from? What could they have done differently? What? What else could change from what they expect? And we really want what we expect to be true.
Katie Vernoy 16:12
Well, there’s a homogeneity of that, where we all must want the same things, because then it, then it’s the truly most valuable thing. I think that’s really interesting.
Artie Hartsell 16:22
Just sense of competition as well, right? If you don’t want the same thing as me, then how do we compete? How do I come, how do I win in this capitalist system?
Katie Vernoy 16:32
Oh, yeah.
Artie Hartsell 16:33
I’m not, even if I’m choosing not to participate, then what is, what is everyone else’s goal? And doing it the best.
Curt Widhalm 16:42
Taking this from the macro level down more to the direct care level here, how can therapists support folks in the trans community right now?
Artie Hartsell 16:52
There are so many ways, I think, you know, one is being just as bold and welcoming as possible in your materials, and being just open. If you’re not super familiar with the community, get more familiar, but also be honest with your client. We, you know we always hear that clients talk about having to teach their therapist, so we don’t want that, but like, being just very open with where you are and that you’re here to listen and be a support, but you’re not going to, like, get your education from them. I think paying attention to what’s happening in the government and what you can do to respond, partnering with local LGBTQ organizations is another one, being careful about how you document things right. And you don’t like there, I am not the person to give advice, but there are ways to document that gets gets the point across to whoever you need to get the point across to, and doesn’t make someone a risk or a target.
Curt Widhalm 17:51
I’m glad that you’re bringing that up, because some of the questions that I’m getting my background is at least in California, being one of the law and ethics people that therapists run for questions. And around this question, especially some of the directions from executive orders around federal funding for clinics that have traditionally provided gender affirming services is how to document this, and some of my recommendations on this has been, everybody just gets genderless notes. That this is one of the ways to be able to comply with some of the directives during questionable time, while not necessarily putting some of the trans folks at further risk by being able to be identified about their documentation, outing them.
Artie Hartsell 18:38
That’s great. Yeah, definitely. I think there, there are lots of ways to do, to not comply too early, or to do what some of us call malicious compliance, or
Curt Widhalm 18:50
I’m a big fan of that malicious compliance, hey, go, go…
Artie Hartsell 18:53
You make it very difficult for them to get what they want through, like these regulations. Like you want this? Okay, we’ll give it to you, but…
Katie Vernoy 19:04
Yeah.
Artie Hartsell 19:05
Enjoy it.
Katie Vernoy 19:06
We have a couple of episodes on clinical issues for trans folks and trans youth that we’ll link to in the show notes over at mtsgpodcast.com, if you’re wanting to get some more clinical information. And Curt, I really think we have to do a documentation episode.
Curt Widhalm 19:21
Absolutely. Yes.
Katie Vernoy 19:24
I’m thinking about with with the trans clients that we see, or for our audience members who are trans, I think it’s going to be harder and harder, potentially, to find resources as things are erased, as things are demolished, websites taken down, all of those things. And so I want to make sure that we’re providing resources as well that are not, potentially not going to be as impacted by government funding or government regulation, that people can continue to go to. And so let’s start with one that’s right up your alley, which is rights protections. Obviously, ACLU, that’s a good place to go. But can you talk through what resources we can share with our clients if they have questions about how to manage and try to protect their rights, or learn what their rights are, where they are?
Artie Hartsell 20:17
Absolutely, I think there. I mean, there are several. The ACLU is a great resource. We’re gonna stay around despite calls for defunding, because we do not receive federal funding. We did so the ACLU has lots of rights for LGBTQ people. Your state affiliate of the ACLU has that as well as national and we all have intake forms if your rights have been violated. We’re ready to sue everybody. I think we’ve already filed 20 something lawsuits against this administration, just from the National ACLU, our state affiliate, the North Carolina ACLU, we have a couple of lawsuits going as well around LGBTQ protections in schools, protester protections, a couple of other things. Lambda Legal is another really great resource. The National I think it’s a National Center for Lesbian Rights, but I feel like I’m calling it the wrong thing. It’s and CLR is the abbreviation, is another great one. And all of these organizations work really closely together on in the courts and litigation. Some social organizations that I also recommend are PFLAG. It used to stands for Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, but now it’s just PFLAG, and it’s for LGBTQ people and allies to get information. They’re also often plaintiffs in our lawsuits. They provide a lot of like social support as well as LGBT centers in your local area often have lots of resources as well.
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Curt Widhalm 21:48
With all of the lawsuits going on right now and some of the early actions by the Federal Administration, are there concerns that even if you win the lawsuits, the enforcement of them is just going to still be up to the administration following whatever it is that they want to do and continuing to just do things through social pressure.
Artie Hartsell 22:11
That is a really good question. This is something that is being investigated now around immigration and the administration’s potential violation of court orders. If we confirm that court orders have been violated. I mean, we would be in a, we would be in the constitutional crisis stage, and I think that there would be other other things happening as well. So there is concern, you know, I think a lot of people have that concern. I don’t think that’s unknown or secret, that there are concerns that this administration has or will defy court orders, but we would definitely be in a different place, and I do think there are organizations that are ready to act once that is confirmed.
Katie Vernoy 22:53
How can trans folks protect themselves in these uncertain times with what’s happening theoretically, through legal channels in this potential constitutional crisis?
Artie Hartsell 23:03
That is a really good question. I think the number one protective thing that I can tell anyone is to have a community. It’s really easy to naturally, because we are trained to be very individual, like individual people, and not lean into community. But we have to work against those, especially in crisis, like we want to isolate, we want to be with our ourselves or our one or two other people, but we need each other, community, mutual aid. Those things are critical to communities, especially communities in crisis. We saw this in COVID at the at the start of COVID, where we weren’t getting a lot of resources to communities, but within days of everything shutting down, people who don’t know what what mutual aid is, right, they’ve never heard the term mutual aid, they were doing it right. They were like, these people need these resources. Let’s go. Building those communities, finding spaces where you know that people have each other’s best interests in mind. That can be a faith community. It could be maybe you go to, I have a there’s a game store near my house that does like game nights, where they play like Magic the Gathering and things that like those kinds of communities are where you’re gonna find your people. And then I think knowing your rights, being clear with your medical and mental health providers about what your goals are and what trying to find out from them if they have any nerve like nervous issues or limitations around any of that. Yeah, I think knowing your rights and having a community are the biggest things that you can do right now.
Curt Widhalm 24:37
I want to go back to something that you mentioned at the top of the episode around passports, and I know many people in their day to day lives who don’t have their passports, who don’t think about leaving the country in and of themselves. Can you speak more to why this is such a big issue?
Artie Hartsell 24:57
Yes. Well, first of all. Having a passport is something that if you meet the criteria you are you have the right to have the right to travel and to be mobile and be around the world, is something that you know people get to experience, and because you’re part of a marginalized community that shouldn’t be limited. We do know that people are trying to find safer places in the world. I don’t necessarily think that that’s always going to be the answer. I think, you know, we’re seeing anti trans rhetoric have an uptick everywhere in the South. We’ve always kind of had this flight out of the south of LGBTQ people into places that seem more welcoming or affirming, and I understand it for safety, so I support anyone in what they want to do, but really it’s about your right to have that passport and to have your movement controlled is really scary, and having your movement controlled because you don’t fit what the government thinks you should fit is very dystopian. So, you know, having, I’m really proud of all of the people who are participating in this lawsuit, but they’re also very scared. They’re, you know, going in front of the courts who, the government already has their passports and all of their like, I know people whose marriage license are being held and all of their documentation for their passport is being held by the government and they aren’t getting them back. It’s a level of scrutiny that is very uncomfortable, whether it’s a passport or any other kind of documentation that the government is doing. It’s a extreme overreach into a personal matter. Also, I don’t I’m just gonna be really honest, I don’t understand why we have gender markers on any documentation, because I don’t think they tell you anything about, like, how a person looks or anything. So, because a lot of times, I mean, I meet people and I don’t necessarily know their gender, not because, oh, don’t assume a gender, but more they like I’m just surprised sometimes. So I don’t necessarily this is people who aren’t trans, so I don’t know that gender even tells us anything as much as like, eye color and height, but that’s just a personal opinion.
Katie Vernoy 27:12
Shifting into some more resources for trans folks. How can we provide support when folks are looking for medical resources? Because I know, as you mentioned, if federal funding is threatened to be cut or those types of things, it can be pretty challenging to get needed medical care for gender affirming care. And so what are the current safe or vetted resources for medical support, if you know those, and also, how can someone vet those resources going forward as I’m assuming that these things are going to continue to change as the government continues to attack the trans community.
Artie Hartsell 27:50
That’s a really good question. The most accurate answer is that all of this is super local. So it’s really local resources that people are using. In the South, we’re lucky to have an organization called campaign for southern equality. They have a fund an emergency like trans care fund. They also do a lot of work with schools and other programs are based out of North Carolina and then cover the South. Other states have funding. Some states are providing funding for, or cities are talking about providing funding for people who need medical care and can’t, like can’t receive it. There are organizations like GLMA, which is G-L-M-A. I think it says for the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association, but it’s for the LGBTQ community that covers a lot about policy, and probably has more information about accessing medical care as well. I think the only thing that I would add is that it’s super important to hold on to your history to like, even if you think you’re just one person, like whatever you have that’s LGBTQ related about your life, keep it. When you are doing your bequeath or whatever for your end of life. Have your things archived if you live in the south, invisible histories will archive anything LGBTQ they’re going around and saving, closing DEI offices and LGBT centers at universities and archives that are state funded, because we have to be able to say that we have been here, that we were here, that we are here, so that this doesn’t keep happening. Because I’m really tired of people saying that we’re brand new. Because we are not.
Katie Vernoy 29:36
Yeah, a lot of our therapists are also activists, social justice warriors, those types of things. So if our listeners want to get involved in action or learn more about how to better serve their clients, what are some resources that they can dig into and and how can they get involved?
Artie Hartsell 29:54
That’s a great question. I love that. I think that you see all you is a great place to start. Your state affiliate, whether you’re in the ACLU of Oklahoma, the ACLU of Northern California, the ACLU of Southern California, the ACLU of wherever, wherever you are Puerto Rico, there are ACLU affiliates everywhere. We’re all connected to each other and to the national affiliate. There are, again, like state and like local organizations. I think the LGBT centers are wonderful places to start being and start building community. There are organizations like campaign for southern equality and equality organizations in almost every state, like Equality,Virginia, Equality Texas, and those are all great places to plug in.
Curt Widhalm 30:40
Where can people find out more about the work that you’re doing and support ACLU?
Artie Hartsell 30:47
Yeah, the ACLU of North Carolina can be found on Instagram at ACLU underscore NC, or at on Blue Sky. I can’t remember exactly our website account. We also have ACLU nationwide as an Instagram account for the entire ACLU, where you can find out all the things we’re doing about the current administration. We have our website, which is acluofnorthcarolina.org, because ACLU NC is ACLU of Northern California.
Katie Vernoy 31:20
We stole it.
Artie Hartsell 31:23
And we and you can find me at artiehartsell.com artiehartsell on Instagram. I have a personal Instagram, Artie gallery. Just follow me. I vet like I look at people to make sure they’re real, but and I do my consulting through prideeducationservices.com
Curt Widhalm 31:41
And we will include links to everything that Artie is talking about here, and we’ll do a little bit of background work to make sure that we post all of the accurate links in the show notes. So we’re not going to make Artie be absolutely accurate here in what they’re saying. So we’ll put those in our show notes over@mtsgpodcast.com and follow us on our social media. Join our Facebook group, the Modern Therapist Group, to continue on with these conversations, and until next time I’m Curt Widhalm with Katie Vernoy and Artie Hartsell.
… 32:12
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