This double issue of Connectivity holds
many gems. Besides the very interesting results of a survey we conducted
of mental health needs and issues in our community, highlights include:
- first-person articles and poetry about living with trauma, paranoia,
other people’s “scripts”, autoimmune hypothyroid
disease, bipolar disorder, and issues youth face in accessing
care;
- articles on the mental health needs of female partners, parents
and children of Ts, those with trauma histories, and those who
are going through a gender transition;
- articles on spiritual, body and energy, and self-esteem approaches
to mental health; plus
- what to look for in a therapist, and a review of what one national
mainstream mental health group tells its constituents about “LGBT”
mental health needs.
Our next issue is on the theme of sexuality. Survey responses (see
separate insert) are due April 30, 2003, editorial submissions (see
page 54) are due April 30, 2003.
Much to our chagrin, this, our second edition of Connectivity,
was a year in the making. And yet the topic of this issue –
mental health – has much to do with the publication’s
delay. As the survivors of a suicide (Marcelle Cook-Daniels, 3/1/1960
– 4/21/2000), we have found that the process of grieving and
rebuilding after such a tremendous loss is unpredictable, long,
and tough. More than once we had to use scheduled “work on
Connectivity time” for intensive griefwork when trauma memories
were unexpectedly triggered.
We also had to cope with the suicide of another of our community’s
leaders, Alexander John (Bear) Goodrum (10/3/1960 – 09/28/2002).
This tremendous personal and community loss spurred us to try to
create a national task force to work on suicide prevention in our
community. To our great sadness, however, some community members’
concerns that the call for this task force was issued by two people
who are perceived to be white, when both suicides we named in our
call were by FTMs of color, quickly led us to disband the effort.
As this edition of Connectivity shows, however, we will continue
to work on this topic. We will also explore more about the implications,
pros and cons of “only” space in Volume 8, Issue 2.
Finally, production of this issue was slowed by a now 10-month
old campaign, we believe spearheaded by white supremacists, of hate
crimes and terrorism against our family on the basis of race, gender,
and sexual orientation. At this writing, we are just beginning the
process of coping with a recent, horrible escalation by these terrorists.
Because we are very actively trying to determine the source of and
stop these horrendous crimes, we will not say more at this point.
But clearly, these attacks dramatically show that while trans+/SOFFAs
have “typical” human mental health concerns, we also
sometimes face extraordinary challenges to maintaining our sanity.
We hope you find this edition of Connectivity helpful
on your own path of achieving and maintaining a comfortable level
of mental and emotional well-being.
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| Loree Cook-Daniels |
michael munson |
Connectivity
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