Quote from: aleon515 on April 07, 2014, 12:18:14 PM
I contacted Megan off list, I feel she seems legit. Perhaps the reason she isn't contacting cismen is she isn't really interested in their needs as it sounds like this is a person who is LGBT. Hard to believe but I have met quite a few (though perhaps way way in the minority) of LGB people who really do embrace the T. There are also LGB people who date or have dated or are partners with transguys and feel like family.

BTW, I agree with Nygeel re: laura's. Like the people but I found it pretty annoying to have every single last flippin' post read first and it slows down the traffic a LOT. I think it's better to wait for complaints as 99% of the people here behave themselves most of the time (haha with little quirks here and there).

--Jay

Hi!! I am just now seeing this - Thank you so much everyone for your replies. Just to clarify, I am only a small part of this project - the full group is a team of 4 different students, Kimberlynn and Alix (who are MPH students at the BU School of Public Health) and myself and Ivy, who is a 2nd year medical student with me at the BU medical school. I myself identify as lesbian and cisgender, and other member of our team identify among varying sexuality and gender identities. I believe as a group of queer/genderqueer students we are coming at the survey to fill a gap in the research FAAB/intersex health concerns related to binding, concerning much of the anecdotal evidence from our FAAB binding friends. While I am not sure if there is research on chest binding for MAAB individuals (I believe there is not much either), there is a good bit of research on gynecomastia and much more medical knowledge about this as well. I think with the resources we have it made/makes more sense for us to focus on this particular FAAB/intersex community, especially considering we are actually at close to 1,000 responses! However I also agree with the idea and concept that gender is not a binary, and is a spectrum, so I know we have limitations in anything we do or any categories we try and utilize when making study participant criteria. The scope of our survey feels broad with the diversity of our community, yet at the same time we are "limited" (again funny to use that word, but compared to including MAAB individuals) to one group which I think allows us to have a better focus and do a better job with this project - This way we're able to really focus deeply and comprehensively on this community that is already incredibly large and diverse. I am not sure if this answers your question! I can ask our group too their ideas and opinions on this issue, and respond back with more info. Again these are only my first initial ideas to respond to your question, and the other 3 students might have more articulate ways to respond!

Also hehe I am glad you feel we are legit! I want to stress that if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us! We are trying to be as open and transparent as possible. We are a group of 4 students, and I believe there is so, so much more we DON'T know than what we know! We are hoping to contribute and advocate for the FAAB/intersex binding community as we feel there is a need to fill a critical gap in medical knowledge and research, as well as advocacy. We are 100% open to all suggestions, and we really appreciate your feedback!! Please feel free to contact us via email, bubindingproject@gmail.com, and additionally I can try and check here again as well. I am coming at this from the perspective of an ally to the binding community as a way to self-educate and contribute as an ally, and again anything we can do to make this process more respectful and open to the nuances of facilitating understanding with an incredibly diverse community is so important. We sent our survey to an informal focus group of individuals among the gender spectrum who chest bind, hoping as well that this would add to our survey's respectfulness and to make sure we included the topics these individuals felt were important.

Thank you again for everything, and I look forward to continuing this dialogue!!
-Megan

Thanks for the reply Megan. that does make sense. Good luck with your research!

Great news!! Thank you! =)

Also I checked in with our team and they agreed - citing mainly that because gynecomastia is not an underrepresented topic in the medical literature (it has a lot of info on it) and also because health professionals already know of gynecomastia and ask about it, deal with it "seriously" etc. Whereas with chest binding (it may turn out our survey shows folks who bind don't want their providers to ask about!), but in general we are under the impression from anecdotal evidence that health professionals, in contrast to gynecomastia, don't understand it, don't view it as "valid/serious" or as a valid health topic (when anecdotal evidence strongly suggests it impacts the health of individuals who bind), don't bring it up, and generally is absent from medical literature. We are hoping to at least start a conversation and raise consciousness among health professionals about a topic that impacts a lot of FAAB/intersex folks! We feel it should be taken as "seriously" as everything else that an individual feels is relevant to their health!

I hope this helps!! Again please don't hesitate to email us (fastest response, but I can check here too!) and we are so grateful for your time. This project is only as strong as the responses we get, so it's an entire community-based effort and project.

Thank you again!
-Megan

p.s. I can post final results with the project (I imagine in a few months? Once we get it all written up/data and stats analyzed! but perhaps even sooner! here  on this thread so that folks who accessed it here will know about the results as well! =)

Finished the survey. Very well done. Looking forward to seeing the results.

Yes, I would appreciate you posting a link to the results when they get in.  I won't remember to keep looking at your site, but I will see this thread bumped up to the front page.

Hi there!

Absolutely! We can definitely post a link here to the results, and we will make sure it is in a free and open, accessible format. This is an important part of our worldview on how research and access to information should always be!

Thank you again to everyone who has taken, promoted, and asked questions about our survey thus far. We thank you in advance if you are just now seeing this topic and are able to spend a few minutes filling it out if you have ever bound - your responses are so valuable, and we could not be more grateful to you for your time!!

All the best,
Megan

Hi there!

I just wanted to thank everyone again for their support and time in taking the survey themselves as well as for promoting this! We can't thank you enough for your time!

I wanted to let the community know that we are going to close the survey this upcoming June 1st, in 10 days, and if anyone else would like to take the survey, or knows of communities with whom to share and promote this survey before then, we can't THANK YOU enough! We are so grateful to everyone who has given of their time to help make this possible, and we are hoping to get one last push (and beyond 2,000 respondents! ) with our last week!

Have a great rest of the week everyone, and thank you again for your time!! Please don't hesitate to contact us if you have ANY questions AT ALL! We want to be as transparent and open as possible in this process! We should be posting our first write-up of results by June as well! =)
-Megan
bubindingproject@gmail.com