Transgender Affirmative Support Team cultivates safe, affirming space for trans students
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In the wake of legislation barring access to transgender-affirming care, the Transgender Affirmative Support Team at Syracuse University’s David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics is expanding its services for trans people.
The team, which operates out of the Couple and Family Therapy Center in the Department of Marriage and Family Therapy, provides specialized gender-affirming care through mental health support and assistance in navigating the process of gender exploration and transition for trans people and their families.
Deborah Coolhart, an associate professor in the department, created the team in 2oo4 after observing the lack of medical professionals who could respond to the demand for trans-affirmative care.
“I recognized that trans youth needed mental health support in order to get the medical treatments they need and so I started specializing in that area and have worked with youth since,” Coolhart said.
TAST consists of Falk College graduate students who undergo additional training to learn how to provide affirmative care to trans people as well as support for their friends and family. When it started, the team had just a handful of students and clients, but has since expanded to over 20 students, with a third of the clinic handling trans-related cases, Coolhart said.
Through training, the team’s graduate students learn about LGBTQ experiences, processes for hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgery as well as how to write letters of support for treatment. Jessica Ryan, a current graduate student on the team, said the team is making sure to stay up to date on anti-trans legislation that creates a threatening environment for trans individuals.
In 2023, lawmakers across 37 U.S. states have introduced at least 142 bills to restrict gender-affirming healthcare for transgender and gender-expansive people, Reuters reported in August. More than 144,000 trans youth have lost or are at risk of losing access to gender-affirming care due to this legislation, according to the Williams Institute.
Although New York state does not currently have any anti-trans laws, Coolhart said trans people are still heavily affected by the rise of anti-trans bills across the country.
“Even if they’re not directly impacted by laws in New York, the fact that this is happening in our country feels very scary and so it’s not uncommon that I sit with a client (who is) crying, saying ‘Why do they hate me for who I am?’” Coolhart said.
Tyler Sliker, the clinic director for the Marriage and Family Therapy Department and a staff advisor for TAST, said anti-trans rhetoric can be harmful to transgender people’s mental health no matter where they live.
“When you are surrounded by the anti-trans rhetoric, it starts to weigh on how you feel about yourself, how you feel about your future, and that’s the stuff that our clients come and talk about, even if they’re fortunate enough to not have their medical care being threatened right now,” Sliker said.
Sliker said the team’s trans-affirmative support care is imperative during the transition process because of the requirement for trans people to receive an assessment from a primary care physician or mental health professional and letter of support to confirm their gender dysmorphia and ability to give informed consent before accessing medical care.
“We fundamentally believe that since trans folk have to have this care, we need mental health providers and marriage and family therapists trained to do that well and to do it sensitively,” Sliker said.
The students on the team are trained based on World Professional Association for Transgender Health standards that guide the care that trans people should receive in both mental health and medical health settings internationally, Sliker said. Following their training, graduate students work one-on-one with clients at the Couple and Family Therapy Center’s free mental health clinic, Coolhart said.
TAST also partners with local organizations like ACR Health, the Volunteer Lawyers Project of CNY and SUNY Upstate Medical University’s Inclusive Health Services.
Karen Fuller, a family peer advocate at ACR Health’s Q Center, said there aren’t enough resources and support for trans and gender-expansive youth across the country or in the local community. The Q Center is another safe space in the Syracuse area for the LGBTQ community that provides affirmative services.
“Often times, we have youth or families reaching out from beyond these counties for support because there is nothing in their area, or what they do have doesn’t have exactly what they are looking for,” Fuller wrote in a statement to The Daily Orange. “Many have to travel an hour or more to get the medical care they need or to find an affirming provider.”
Similar to the Q Center, Coolhart said TAST’s work serves as a key resource for the local trans community, especially as the clinic serves people from across central New York. She also believes the team’s services are important in providing validation for trans people.
“Trans people are widely mistreated and invalidated, which creates minority stress and mental distress,” Coolhart said. “Having affirmative spaces like this is absolutely necessary for them to just be treated fairly as humans.”
Tristan Martin, an assistant teaching professor in the MFT department, said the clinic’s affirmative care is especially important as people from states with anti-trans laws begin to migrate to states like New York for further access to mental health care and medical care options.
Coolhart said it’s important to be vocal about supporting the trans community while anti-trans laws are passed across the country, especially as the future of trans healthcare remains uncertain.
“It’s only gotten bigger in the last few years, so I think people are afraid for their lives,” Coolhart said. “In some cases, I think people feel like they’re completely devalued as human beings, so it’s heartbreaking and scary for people right now.”
The affirmative care and letters of support provided by TAST are also available at the Barnes Center. However, if a student feels uncomfortable going to Barnes, the Couple and Family Therapy Center’s free clinic also provides letters of support, Sliker said.
Beyond the free clinic, the MFT department also holds an annual Trans Support Day for the community with local trans-affirming providers and resources like the Q Center. Martin said more than 240 people attended the last Trans Support Day in April.
Ryan said the MFT department and TAST play an “important and necessary” role in the Syracuse community for trans people to feel accepted and validated as lawmakers across the U.S. exacerbate anti-trans rhetoric.
“Now, more than ever, we need to do everything we can to provide a safe, affirming space for trans people to be themselves and to provide them the support and care that they deserve,” Ryan said.
