Support for LGBTQ+ College Students with Whitney Workman, Manager of the CSUN Pride Center

10/03/23 • 65 min

College students should be able to focus on their education without having to spend time and energy battling for fundamental rights like being addressed by their correct pronouns or having their gender expression acknowledged. This is one of the many reasons that Pride Centers at universities are essential.

In this episode, we were so happy to be joined by Whitney Workman (fae/they), Manager of the California State University, Northridge Pride Center. We talk about faer work with LGBTQ+ students, the holistic view of the Pride Center at CSUN, their thoughts on the best ways of spreading awareness of LGBTQ+ issues on college campuses and more.

A trailblazer in faer teen years, as the second person in their high school to come out, Whitney immediately recognized the needs in the Queer community and hasn't stopped working to improve lives and create safe spaces for students in their early stages of transition or exploring their own sexuality and gender.

Throughout this episode, you'll hear about Whitney's journey from being an organizer at feminist organizations and working with reproductive justice to making it to the CSUN Pride Center. Fae then provides a detailed list of the Center's services, how it supports LGBTQ+ college students, and how to learn about their services and programs. We also discuss the best ways of spreading LGBTQ+ awareness, free speech, hate speech, censorship, and much more.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

A bit about Whitney and their background before becoming the manager of the CSUN Pride Center (2:20)
What kind of support LGBTQ+ students will find at the Pride Center (18:30)
Who should have access to students' legal names (23:30)
Why the CSUN Pride Center is crucial for LGBTQ+ students (33:40)
Whitney shares faer thoughts on the best ways of spreading awareness (42:40)
Safety tips the Pride Center offers to LGBTQ+ students (54:40)
Don't trust the Campus Pride Index, go to a college’s LGBTQ+ Center website to see what they offer (1:02:50)

Connect with CSUN Pride Center:

Website

Connect with Jackie and Bridget:

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

A bit about Whitney and their background before becoming the manager of the CSUN Pride Center (2:20)
What kind of support LGBTQ+ students will find at the Pride Center (18:30)
Who should have access to students' legal names (23:30)
Why the CSUN Pride Center is crucial for LGBTQ+ students (33:40)
Whitney shares faer thoughts on the best ways of spreading awareness (42:40)
Safety tips the Pride Center offers to LGBTQ+ students (54:40)
Don't trust the Campus Pride Index, go to a college’s LGBTQ+ Center website to see what they offer (1:02:50)

Connect with CSUN Pride Center:

Website

Connect with Jackie and Bridget:

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Previous Episode

Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families, A Panel Discussion, Part 2 of 2

"When I told my lesbian love that I was transitioning, she sat with me for four hours, and I said, I don't know what this means for us. Because I didn't know any families who looked like us, any couples who were a trans man with a lesbian. I found out later that there's a lot of us."

In today's episode, you’ll get to hear the second half of our very special conversation with Peggy Gillespie, author of "Authentic Selves," and with Lana, Ted, Joseph, Tamira, and Christian, who shared their stories in Peggy's book.

In this second part of our conversation, you'll learn about Christian, a suburban trans man, who was always told that it’s not okay to be out. He now embraces infinite, unconditional love, which he uses to teach his kids not to be ashamed of who they are or who their family is. You'll also hear about Joseph, a trans man, and his wife Tamira and their experiences parenting a trans kid.

Additionally, we talk about couples that stay together after one of them transitions, Peggy talks about the importance of sharing her book and promoting these discussions, and much more.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

A bit about Christian's background and upbringing story (3:20)
Christian's coming out story (9:20)
The scary trans person the media warned you about (13:40)
About couples that stay together after one of them transitions (18:10)
How is it to be a Queer mom of a trans kid (25:40)
How Peggy's book humanizes trans and nonbinary people (27:20)
A bit about how Peggy's non-profit works (34:00)

Resources:

Book: Peggy Gillespie - Authentic Selves: Celebrating Trans and Nonbinary People and Their Families
Family Diversity Projects: a non-profit organization with award-winning traveling photo-text exhibits, co-founded by Peggy Gillespie and Gigi Kaeser

Connect with Jackie and Bridget:

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Next Episode

Nonbinary Identities, Top Surgery, Coaching, and Joy With Dr. Erin Baker

"Joy is not just an emotion; it's a deep alignment with the self. And those of us who are in the LGBTQ+ community know better than most communities about what it really feels like to wake up with joy at your core because who you are is aligned." - Dr. Erin Baker.

In today's episode, we are joined by the amazing Dr. Erin Baker, Executive Coach, Elite Certified Neurotransformational Coach, Internal Family Systems L2 Practitioner, and Self-Leadership Expert. Erin earned a PhD in Social Psychology and is the Bestselling Author of "Joy-Full AF: The Essential Business Strategy We're Afraid to Put First." They led a UX Research team at Facebook, were part of bringing Facebook Stories to 2 billion people, and were the Director of UX Research and Design at Microsoft Yammer.

Throughout this episode, a true testament to the uniqueness of everyone's gender experience, Erin discusses the process of coming to terms with their nonbinary gender identity throughout adolescence and early adulthood. They also share some of the challenges they faced, especially at the beginning. And we learned a lot thanks to Erin's openness about their top surgery, which led to a greater feeling of alignment with their gender. It was also interesting to hear about Erin’s experiences as a nonbinary person working for tech giants.

Additionally, Erin talks about their book, the multiple benefits of pursuing joy, Self-Leadership Coaching, Internal Family Systems, and much more.

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

About Dr. Erin's coming out story (6:40)

Erin shares a bit about their experience with they/them pronouns and being misgendered (11:00)

The retreat in Mexico that changed everything for Erin (18:10)

Erin shares their thoughts on top surgery (24:00)

What is Self-Leadership? Erin shares their perspectives on it (39:00)

Pursue joy and success will follow (45:50)

Resources Mentioned:

Book: Dr. Erin Baker - Joy-Full AF: The Essential Business Strategy We're Afraid To Put First

Book: Richard Schwartz, Alanis Morissette - No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model

Connect with Dr. Erin: