It's terrible what I'm going through right now, I haven't been able to eat for days, this is terrifying, no one wants to help me get a safe home, I feel like my life is worthless😭😭
Could someone please help me get a safe home and some food? please I beg you💔🙏🏻
a) It's timely and vaguely related to the Iowa transgender material,
b) It's about a psychology professor,
c) It mentions Univ. of Florida turning over to the state government the mental health records of transgender students (!!)
See below.
Thank you Dr. Pope.
--- Forwarded Message ---
Subject: Psychology Prof Brought Millions to FL State U, Now Warns of Unsafe "Hostile Environment" for Black & LGBTQ Students, Faculty, & Staff
Date: Fri, 08 Dec 2023 07:01:51 -0800
From: [email protected]
The Tallahassee Democrat includes an article: “This professor brought millions to Florida State. Now he's leaving a 'hostile’ environment” by Walter R. Boot, Ph.D.
Here’s the author note:
Walter R. Boot, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology at Florida State University and has been a member of the FSU faculty since 2008.
Here are some excerpts:
In early 2022, “Don’t Say Gay'' became law based on the premise that the mere mention of LGBTQ people is dangerous. The run-up and aftermath of its passage involved hostile rhetoric painting queer and trans individuals as pedophiles and groomers, rhetoric that came not just from citizens but from state officials.
As it became increasingly clear that LGBTQ students, faculty, and staff at Florida State University had targets on their backs, I explained my concerns in an April 2022 email and made a simple request of FSU President Richard McCullough: give us a reason to stay.
<snip>
His response was something along the lines of, “If I say or do anything, I will be fired, and my replacement will be worse.” His office tells me that he disputes this account.
Later, I was told his refusal to express support was because “the University’s 501(c)(3) status limits the University’s participation in political advocacy.” My concerns were dismissed as mere politics. Since then, matters have only gotten worse.
In December 2022, the FBI alerted FSU to a threat of mass violence against gay people on campus. FSU has yet to acknowledge this threat publicly. We learned about it only through a newspaper article the next month after an arrest had been made.
Alarmed by this incident and concerned for campus safety, I again pressed President McCullough’s office to express support for queer and trans community members publicly. They did not.
Gov. DeSantis then demanded that universities turn over information about transgender students. Information requested included intimate information about treatments, surgeries, mental health diagnoses, and facilities that transgender students were referred to for care. FSU complied with this request, shifting its response from silence to active harm.
<snip>
Equality Florida and the Human Rights Campaign have issued travel advisories citing the very real perils of traveling to or living in Florida while queer or trans. At FSU, these perils are exacerbated by uncaring leadership.
I will be leaving FSU at the end of this year. The purpose of my message is not to change the mind of members of the administration. Any additional efforts seem futile. It is to foreshadow the experience of anyone considering FSU as their home, particularly individuals who are Black, trans, gay or lesbian, queer, or who belong to any other group currently under siege by the state of Florida.
I brought millions of dollars of funding to FSU, volunteered for service roles demanding significant commitments, and stepped up to teach classes no one else could or would. I went above and beyond what is required again and again.
Yet, President McCullough remains unwilling to even offer a few words of public support for queer and trans members of the FSU community.
If you are considering FSU as your home, do not expect them to make any effort to support or protect you in an increasingly hostile and dangerous environment for people like us. Consider your options carefully. You deserve better than what FSU has to offer.
Ken Pope
Ken Pope, Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, Hector Y. Adames, Janet L. Sonne, and Beverly A. Greene
Speaking the Unspoken: Breaking the Silence, Myths, and Taboos That Hurt Therapists and Patients (APA, 2023)
Hector Y. Adames, Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, Melba J.T. Vasquez, & Ken Pope:
Succeeding as a Therapist: How to Create a Thriving Practice in a Changing World (APA, 2022)
Ken Pope, Melba J.T. Vasquez, Nayeli Y. Chavez-Dueñas, & Hector Y. Adames:
Ethics in Psychotherapy & Counseling: A Practical Guide, 6th Edition (Wiley, 2021)
“When people show you who they are, believe them the first time.”
—Maya Angelou
"I'm a GAMP, and it's not a writer's cramp that makes me wanna be amp about it—I'm a straight champ who don't need a Virgin Mary bigot or a lick-spigot vamp to question my mastodon feed, or my literary, noumenon handstamp."—Max R. J. Ovbi
Self-promo: Listen to me chat with Leigh Pfeffer on History is Gay about trans history, language change, and the role of technology in all of this: https://link.chtbl.com/LbK00do5
Iowa Senate File 538- gender transition procedures related to minors strips providers of Medicaid funding from Sept 18 forward and doesn't allow Medicaid to be used by clients for gender affirming treatment. If a counselor has a transgender client, and has used the gender dysphoria code and many others (7 pages of ICD codes) then they will be retroactively stripped of funding. I am so angry for clients and for providers. As a clinician, I feel so mad that states are telling transgender youth in lower SES that they can't be who they truly are, and now they can't even talk to a counselor. I just can't. @socialwork@Email2TootBot#SocialWork#psych#psychology#iowa#lgbtqia#transgender#transgenderrights#counseling#counselor#therapist#therapy
I still can't find a home, I have had to spend a little of the money raised since I have had to eat, please help me get the remaining funds so I can finally have a safe home, there is only $180 left to be able to cover the rent and be safe💔
A few of my followers have been following along with my cardiac diagnostic process, particularly with the skin irritation from the monitor I'm wearing.
For you who have, an update. I have a diagnosis, thanks to the monitor.
It's particularly relevant to the #transgender women on feminizing HRT, as we've all been told that estrogen increases our stroke risk.
Transdermal estrogen apparently eliminates that issue, but I had to educate my cardiologist about that fact.
The current thinking seems to be that the cardiac risks of estrogen are a result of it being metabolized in the liver. The transdermal patches eliminate that metabolism. Reference 2021:
I am so sad because I have not been able to get the funds to be able to buy my medicines and be able to eat, it has been a very hard few days because without my medicines for depression I am very bad. Please if you see this help a Transgender girl who is trying to get out of a difficult situation🏳️⚧️💞
Difference:175$ #TransCrowdfund#MutualAid#MutualAidRequest#Transgender@mutualaid
Friends please I need your help, I have been fighting for months to be able to get a new home and move out of this terrible city since the only thing I have received is mistreatment and beatings I need you to help me get out of here I am in great danger of being attacked again I only have funds left to be able to spend the night safely, please try to help my life is in danger this is urgent🏳️⚧️🤞🏼 #MutualAid#trans@mutualaid
For reasons, my legal name is not the same as my real name. During that customer service call, I was repeatedly misgendered by the representative. Even after correcting her twice, she still did a third time.
I got quite insistent that time, and told her that if it happened again, I would be talking to her supervisor. Now, I am really not a confrontational person, at all.
Avoiding confrontation is a trait common among autistic people. But at this point I was getting really annoyed. She could obviously tell, and stopped with the "sir" this and "sir" that for the rest of the call.
As you will see from the blog post, I am overall disappointed by the outcome, but willing to admit that part was not her fault.
We're sure you're aware of the human rights crisis impacting LGBTQ+ people in Uganda. Devin is raising the funds to open two safe houses for trans people in Uganda. Donate if you can, share if you can't: https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-2-black-trans-shelters-in-uganda