News and Events => People news => Topic started by: Shana A on January 28, 2013, 08:34:06 AM Return to Full Version
Title: Pinellas shelters fine-tune their policies to better serve transgendered people
Post by: Shana A on January 28, 2013, 08:34:06 AM
Post by: Shana A on January 28, 2013, 08:34:06 AM
Pinellas shelters fine-tune their policies to better serve transgendered people
By Keyonna Summers, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Monday, January 28, 2013
http://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas-shelters-fine-tune-their-policies-to-better-serve-transgendered/1272541 (http://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas-shelters-fine-tune-their-policies-to-better-serve-transgendered/1272541)
LARGO — Mingling with other homeless women in the female pod at Pinellas Safe Harbor, Tracy Abel was settling in for the night when trouble began.
It was the 31-year-old's first visit to the shelter, and she was startled when two guards stood over her telling her there had been a mistake.
A check had shown that the petite brunet's Social Security number originally was issued to a man. Questioning by shelter staff revealed that Abel, unable to afford a $19,000 sex-reassignment surgery, still had male genitalia.
That raised a difficult question: In a communal setting, where sleep and shower facilities are shared, where do you house someone who presents as one gender, but has genitalia of the other?
By Keyonna Summers, Times Staff Writer
In Print: Monday, January 28, 2013
http://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas-shelters-fine-tune-their-policies-to-better-serve-transgendered/1272541 (http://www.tampabay.com/news/pinellas-shelters-fine-tune-their-policies-to-better-serve-transgendered/1272541)
LARGO — Mingling with other homeless women in the female pod at Pinellas Safe Harbor, Tracy Abel was settling in for the night when trouble began.
It was the 31-year-old's first visit to the shelter, and she was startled when two guards stood over her telling her there had been a mistake.
A check had shown that the petite brunet's Social Security number originally was issued to a man. Questioning by shelter staff revealed that Abel, unable to afford a $19,000 sex-reassignment surgery, still had male genitalia.
That raised a difficult question: In a communal setting, where sleep and shower facilities are shared, where do you house someone who presents as one gender, but has genitalia of the other?