Being transgender in Southwest Florida still has risks

Patricia Borns | The News-Press

Fingers crossed, no one is throwing drinks at Jenna Satterfield anymore or dousing her with gasoline, although a random pedestrian recently called her ‘it.’



Since coming out trans to his family over a year ago, Kasey Fraize had his first comfortable conversation with his dad.

Three years into his transition, Rogan Watral is engaged to be married and doing his best body art ever.

These are the hard-earned milestones of people living as transgender in Southwest Florida. No one knows exactly how many people that is, except that the number is growing.

About 100,000 people in Florida, and 1.4 million nationally identified as transgender in 2016, double from a decade ago, according to a study by the UCLA School of Law.

Satterfield is a 62-year-old transgender woman living in Fort Myers.

Watral is a 32-year old piercer from Naples.

Fraize, 20, is a Florida Gulf Coast University student from New Port Richey majoring in public health.

Together they span the transgender generations from post-millennial to baby boomer, They agreed to share their stories in hopes of spreading awareness and understanding about gender and identity.

More: More than 100 members of Congress call on Jim Mattis to overturn transgender troop ban

A LONG WAY TO GO

“There is a tolerance for the transgender population,” says Satterfield, who came of age in the 1960s but waited 40 years to transition for fear of being beaten or killed.

But around the country, that tolerance varies.

Tuesday's Democratic primary nomination of a transgender woman, Christine Hallquist, for Vermont governor was historic. By comparison, Florida has “ a long, long way to go," Satterfield says.

For millennials and post-millennials, hormone therapies and surgeries make it easier to co-exist with the entrenched assumption that we’re either male or female based on the genitalia we were born with.

Still, they say, it doesn't change the social stigmas and roadblocks to health insurance and jobs that can make being transgender in Southwest Florida hell.

Three years into his transition, Watral passes as someone identified as male at birth, but he still avoids venues where trouble could happen.

“Florida is still a threat,” he says. “You have to make sure that if you notice certain things about a person’s body language, you don’t just ignore them.”

Stigma, real and feared, delayed his transition, as it did that of Fraize, who went through middle and high school in New Port Richey.

“There was no education for men who have sex with men or women who have sex with women or anything in between that,” says Fraize, who figured himself out at 15 but waited until college to make a move.

Signals from teachers and peers told him being openly queer in high school wasn’t an option. Statistics confirm he was right.

More: Being transgender no longer classified as mental illness. Here's why

In a 2016 National Center for Transgender Equality survey, some 80 percent of a sampling of Florida kids in grades K-12 reported being harassed for not conforming with their gender

At a time when they’re trying to figure themselves out, these non-conforming kids struggle painfully.

HAPPINESS IS BEING YOURSELF

“When you’re not visibly one thing or the other, it makes it easier for them to single you out and pick on you,” Watral says.

Fraize found someone else’s transition blog on the Internet that gave a name to what he was feeling.

Watral's ah-ha moment came the first time he dressed in drag.

“Tears started streaming down my face because that was the most comfortable I’d ever been in my skin,” he says. “Ever.”

Job discrimination – a reality that buffeted Satterfield from low-paying jobs to no job and homelessness– still affects over 50 percent of transgender Floridians, the survey shows.

“There are no protections,” Fraize says. “If I’m qualified for a job and they don’t want to hire me because I’m trans, there are plenty of other things they can say.”

More: Hollywood power players vow to step up transgender representation efforts

On top of that, “Southwest Florida has a different socioeconomic layout,” says Dr. Craig Sweet, a Fort Myers endocrinologist who’s been caring for transgender patients since his medical school fellowship 30 years ago.



“It’s not like we’re in New York City where the average income is higher. My transgender patients are often struggling,” Sweet says.

Although the medical options are more flexible than when he started practice, Sweet’s clients must be diagnosed by a therapist before they can access his services.

The diagnosis, gender dysphoria – a conflict with your given gender – is classified as a mental illness by the American Psychiatric Association. (It was declassified by the World Health Organization in June.)

Sweet doesn’t think it is.

"I don’t think it belongs with psychiatric disorders like bipolar and depression," he tells The News-Press. “It’s a joy to take care of so many of these patients because they are so much happier (after they transition)."

Read a full-length interview with the doctor here.

More: “It’s not an illness," Fort Myers doc says of transgender patients

TRANS IS NOT A CHOICE

Fraize didn’t want the stigma of a mental illness diagnosis, so he turned to Planned Parenthood, which offers hormone replacement therapy if you sign a letter of consent.

The hormones place him and others who transition from female to male at risk for uterine cancer. But insurers don’t cover preventive hysterectomies – or routine gynecological services -- for transgender men.

Fraize, who started on testosterone about a year ago, is saving to afford the operation by the time he's 30, the outside limit his doctors consider safe.

“I really think these patients have tremendous difficulties finding good medical care,” says Sweet, who is educating his fellow physicians in how to treat them.

More: 'Supergirl' welcomes transgender superhero played by trans activist Nicole Maines

Beyond the estrogen or testosterone, transgender people struggle with issues of ‘passing’ and with romantic and sexual love.

“You love who you love,” says Watral, who found his soulmate after finding himself.

But in the privacy of a Get Network support circle sponsored by I-BOS Counseling Center in Fort Myers, transgender women shared concerns ranging from makeup to the wounding rejections of lesbian dates who fear and mistrust them because they once identified as men.

"You predisclose, and it goes one way or another," Fraize says: "They’re mortified and want nothing to do with you, or it’s like, 'OK, that’s fine'."

If trans life is so hard, why choose it?

“It’s not a choice. It's who I am," he says. “I can’t think of anyone who wants the social fear and the fear of violence and the high cost of transitioning."

Almost 40 percent of transgender Floridians attempt suicide at some point, the Transgender Equality survey shows, because of the emotional and economic price they pay to be themselves.

Walking while transgender in Southwest Florida: Kasey Fraize Kasey Fraize, 20, is a Florida Gulf Coast University student from New Port Richey majoring in public health.

THROW IN THE TOWEL AND LIVE SOMEWHERE ELSE?

Satterfield is one of them.

“Gender is above the waist,” she says. “It’s who you are in your heart and mind. People mistakenly say we are changing into something. We are becoming who we are.”

Empowered by strides made nationally, a Southwest Florida transgender community of perhaps 100 held its first transgender visibility day last spring to begin a public education process.

More: Most transgender troops to be banned under new Pentagon policy

Declaring her candidacy for state House District 77, the seat held by Republican Rep. Dane Eagle, Alanis Garcia, a software support tech from Cape Coral, described the transgender stereotypes she heard at 13 – the same she hears today at 40.

“Yes, people are talking about it and are more exposed now, but it comes down to the politics and the lack of support socially,” Fraize says.

A public health major, he has his eye on Boston.

“That’s something I’m going to have to decide in two years,” he says. “Do I throw in the towel and go live somewhere where I have a chance at medically transitioning, or do I stay here and fight?”

More: More U.S. teens identify as transgender, survey finds

START A CONVERSATION

Respect begins with listening and conversation. Learning some basic transgender terms makes everyone more comfortable.

Androgynous: Having both male and female characteristics



Binary or gender binary: The classification or sex or gender into two distinct, opposite forms. eg. male and female.

Cis (cis man, cis woman): A non-transgender man or woman; someone who identifies with their given birth gender



Drag: A performance in the guise of the opposite sex for entertainment

DSM or Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: The American Psychiatric Association's guidelines for psychiatric illnesses.

Gender dysphoria: The stress a person experiences when they identify more with the opposite gender than their given one.

HRT or Hormone Replacement Therapy: A regiment of hormone supplements that address a health need or help people transition from one gender to another.

LBGT: Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender. Broadly, anyone outside gender norms.

Out: Living openly as a transgender or LBGT person.

Pan or pansexual: Not limited in sexual choice to any particular biological sex or gender identity.

Pass: To be accepted without question in your chosen gender.

Queer: An overarching term for anyone outside gender norms, including gays, lesbians, bisexuals, as well as trans people.

Transgender or trans: Someone who expresses themselves differently from the traditional gender role they were given at birth.

Transvestite: a passé, uncool word for a cross-dresser.

TRANS RESOURCES

Hormone Replacement Therapy

Craig Sweet, M.D.

12611 World Plaza Lane, Building 53

Fort Myers

239-275-8118

Planned Parenthood locations:

Fort Myers Health Center

8595 College Parkway, Suite 250

Fort Myers

239-481-9999

Naples Center

1425 Creech Road

Naples

239-262-0301

Sarasota Health Center

736 Central Avenue

Sarasota

941-953-4060

Counseling and support

I-BOS Counseling Center

2503 Del Prado Blvd. S.,

Cape Coral



Certified transgender therapists in Lee County

Katherine Lowry 239-443-6385

ibos_lowry@yahoo.com

Get Network Foundation

Free therapist led support groups meet the first Saturday of the month in Fort Myers.

239-324-9785

Southwest Florida Trans Support Group

Free therapist-led support groups meet the first Saturday of the month serving the Sarasota, Tampa, St. Petersburg areas.

941-366-3134

Other

Kasey Fraize shares his transition on Instagram @ksyfrz.

Gender Spectrum: education, training, online community

www.genderspectrum.org/

TransYouth Family Allies: awareness and education; talk forum

www.imatyfa.org/index.html

Gender Diversity: education and training for schools, businesses and healthcare providers

www.genderdiversity.org/

Gender Blender: podcast

https://genderblenderpodcast.tumblr.com/

Follow this reporter on Twitter @PatriciaBorns.