Albany

Alternately shunned and harassed, transgender people have waged a long struggle for social acceptance and now health care professionals are trying to take medical and psychological care of transgender patients out of the margins and into the mainstream.

Nearly 200 medical doctors and mental health professionals are expected to attend the inaugural Providers Day on Friday at the Hilton in downtown Albany. It is a new addition to a wide-ranging Empire Conference meant to empower the transgender community that runs through Saturday.

The providers day program, sponsored in part by the University at Albany and Albany Medical College, is meant to augment a lack of training offered in medical schools and clinical training programs. There has been a slow acceptance by the medical establishment of transgender people, who are still considered mentally ill by some traditional practitioners.

"I had to do a lot of self-study, sought help from my colleagues and trained my self because we didn't get any training in transgender medicine in medical school," said Dr. Carolyn Wolf-Gould, a Yale University-trained family practice physician who works at A.O. Fox Hospital in Oneonta. She is co-chair of the daylong event.

"We're very pleased that so many people are enthusiastic about coming and learning about transgender care," said Wolf-Gould. "It's a sign that things are changing for the better for transgender people."

Co-chair Arlene Lev, an Albany therapist who has worked with transgender people and their families for many years, also sees the providers day event as a measure of incremental progress.

"The transgender community, in terms of politics, social acceptance and judgment from the mental health community, is where the gay community was in 1980," said Lev, who teaches in UAlbany's School of Social Welfare and runs the school's Sexuality Orientation & Gender Identity Project. "It's a community that is coming of age in terms of their identity and the ability to be public and out. But in many ways, transgender people still feel unseen and misunderstood."

While positive strides have been made, a portion of the transgender community remains in the shadows, fearful of discrimination and harassment. In New York state, 74 percent of transgender people reported being harassed or mistreated on the job, 37 percent were not hired after an interview and 20 percent lost a job, according to a survey of 531 transgender New Yorkers. In addition, 17 percent were refused medical care due to their gender expression and 36 percent attempted suicide, 22 times higher than the rate for the general population.

There are no solid statistics and definitions differ, but the most recent data from federal surveys estimated there are about 700,000 transgender people in the U.S., less than 1 percent of the adult population. In simplest terms, a transgender person expresses a gender identity different from the person's sex at birth. Of those who identify as transgender, a majority have taken some steps to transition from one gender to another, according to the Williams Institute of the UCLA School of Law.

"I see a lot of people struggling with gender dysphoria who may not feel safe seeking medical care or help from a therapist," said Lev, who has worked with a few hundred transgender people, including a growing number of gender non-conforming children and their parents. "Our goal is to make sure transgender people are going to get good, quality care whenever they decide to seek treatment from a medical doctor or mental health professional."

pgrondahl@timesunion.com • 518-454-5623 • @PaulGrondahl