Becoming Visible: Trans Stories

In the premier episode of Becoming Visible: Trans Stories, your hosts Susan and Jack jump right into sharing about themselves, and do a deep-dive into Jack's journey as a transgender man who came out in his 30's with a wife and three kids in the small town of Hartford, South Dakota. Jack began working as the Community Health Worker/Community Outreach Manager for The Transformation Project in 2022 after leaving his career of 12 years at Citibank.
Resources:
www.transformationprojectsd.org
There are so many great resources available if you happen to be struggling with suicidal thoughts. You can head to the Trevor project.org Or you can call and text 988 and you will be connected to trained counselors that will listen understand how your problems are affecting you provide support and connect you to the resources needed if necessary.

Hosts: Jack Fonder & Susan Williams
Producer: Susan Williams
Audio Engineer: Cheese
Graphic Design: Carly Schultz
Music: Niklas Peters
Niklas is a musician, artist, and organizer based in occupied Očhéthi Šakówiŋ land. They are a founding member of the South Dakota Women and Trans Musicians Network. When they are not creating music or art, Niklas can be found hiking or camping, walking their dog, or enjoying a meal with friends. They work as a Campaign Coordinator for Clean, Renewable Energy for the Western Organization of Resource Councils. (Website - Instagram)

In the 2nd episode of Becoming Visible: Trans Stories, Susan and Jack learn all about Grace Hansen, who besides working as a Database Administrator, a gymnastics coach, and is the only remaining founding member of The Rude Band. Grace is a transgender woman who shares her story with us about how she came out at age 53 with a wife and four grown kids in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Stay tuned after the episode to hear one of Grace's faves from the Rude Band!
TW: Suicide
Check out The Rude Band at:
https://rudeband.ws/
Grace's Articles on Medium:

• My Coming Out Letter https://medium.com/empowered-trans-woman/my-coming-out-letter-6c0c0dc8c7c9?sk=2f94d7b7fd7900527386c6ed0613b1f0
• How The Pyramid of Hate Applies to The Transgender Community https://medium.com/empowered-trans-woman/how-the-pyramid-of-hate-applies-to-the-transgender-community-3fd21baa7afa?sk=d82136d29fd52b0cd81811e9e21c0a92
• How I started transitioning before I came out as transgender https://medium.com/empowered-trans-woman/how-i-started-transitioning-before-i-came-out-as-transgender-b05c645c66ce?sk=40b636f9c11a4ad6ab4fc727a192e323

Resources:
https://www.transformationprojectsd.org/
There are so many great resources available if you happen to be struggling with suicidal thoughts. You can head to the Trevor project.org Or you can call and text 988 and you will be connected to trained counselors that will listen understand how your problems are affecting you provide support and connect you to the resources needed if necessary.

Hosts: Jack Fonder & Susan Williams
Producer: Susan Williams
Audio Engineer: Cheese
Graphic Design: Carly Schultz
Music: Niklas Peters
Niklas is a musician, artist, and organizer based in occupied Očhéthi Šakówiŋ land. They are a founding member of the South Dakota Women and Trans Musicians Network. When they are not creating music or art, Niklas can be found hiking or camping, walking their dog, or enjoying a meal with friends. They work as a Campaign Coordinator for Clean, Renewable Energy for the Western Organization of Resource Councils. (Website - Instagram)

In this episode, we speak with Rachel about being nonbinary, they/them pronouns, and how family and friends have reacted to their gender identity. Rachel lives in Sioux Falls, SD, and works full-time as a Communications Coordinator, volunteers her time with Sioux Falls Pride as their Marketing Director, and is in school full-time getting a degree in Coding.
TW: Suicide
Resources:
www.transformationprojectsd.org
There are so many great resources available if you happen to be struggling with suicidal thoughts. You can head to the Trevor project.org Or you can call and text 988 and you will be connected to trained counselors that will listen understand how your problems are affecting you provide support and connect you to the resources needed if necessary.

Hosts: Jack Fonder & Susan Williams
Producer: Susan Williams
Audio Engineer: Cheese
Graphic Design: Carly Schultz
Music: Niklas Peters
Niklas is a musician, artist, and organizer based in occupied Očhéthi Šakówiŋ land. They are a founding member of the South Dakota Women and Trans Musicians Network. When they are not creating music or art, Niklas can be found hiking or camping, walking their dog, or enjoying a meal with friends. They work as a Campaign Coordinator for Clean, Renewable Energy for the Western Organization of Resource Councils. (Website - Instagram)

In our fourth episode, we speak with Jane about being genderqueer and how family, friends and her workplace dealt with her coming out as transgender. Jane lives in Sioux Falls, SD, and works full-time an Engineer and is the parent to two children.
TW: Suicide
Resources:
www.transformationprojectsd.org
https://www.disclosurethemovie.com/about
There are so many great resources available if you happen to be struggling with suicidal thoughts. You can head to the Trevor project.org Or you can call and text 988 and you will be connected to trained counselors that will listen understand how your problems are affecting you provide support and connect you to the resources needed if necessary.

Hosts: Jack Fonder & Susan Williams
Producer: Susan Williams
Audio Engineer: Cheese
Graphic Design: Carly Schultz
Music: Niklas Peters
Niklas is a musician, artist, and organizer based in occupied Očhéthi Šakówiŋ land. They are a founding member of the South Dakota Women and Trans Musicians Network. When they are not creating music or art, Niklas can be found hiking or camping, walking their dog, or enjoying a meal with friends. They work as a Campaign Coordinator for Clean, Renewable Energy for the Western Organization of Resource Councils. (Website - Instagram)

In the 5th episode of Becoming Visible: Trans Stories, Jack takes the opportunity to interview Ayden (she/they), 18 and Elliott (they/them), 17 to talk about Allyship for Pride month!

Resources:
https://www.transformationprojectsd.org/
There are so many great resources available if you happen to be struggling with suicidal thoughts. You can head to the Trevor project.org Or you can call and text 988 and you will be connected to trained counselors that will listen understand how your problems are affecting you provide support and connect you to the resources needed if necessary.

Hosts: Jack Fonder
Producer: Susan Williams
Audio Engineer: Cheese
Graphic Design: Carly Schultz
Music: Niklas Peters
Niklas is a musician, artist, and organizer based in occupied Očhéthi Šakówiŋ land. They are a founding member of the South Dakota Women and Trans Musicians Network. When they are not creating music or art, Niklas can be found hiking or camping, walking their dog, or enjoying a meal with friends. They work as a Campaign Coordinator for Clean, Renewable Energy for the Western Organization of Resource Councils. (Website - Instagram)