Pulse - April 2023 - 14

TOOLS FOR SUCCESS
Courtesy of AAHA
E
arlier this week, PrideVMC
published its Gender Diversity
Guide (GDG) in an effort to
provide a broad perspective on
gender diversity, and to give
more context to their Gender
Identity Bill of Rights (GIBOR),
said Ewan D.S. Wolff, PhD, DVM,
DACVIM (SAIM)-small animal
internist, Blue Pearl NE
Portland, who is not only the
PrideVMC industry liaison and
co-author of the GIBOR, but the
GDG project lead, editor, and
contributor.
" PrideVMC has always strived to provide
advocacy for the queer community and allies
within veterinary medicine, whether that
be through presentations, marches, meetings,
statements, or publications. This is another
resource that we hope will help, " Wolff said.
" There are many references out there to choose
from, we hope this will provide some centralized
materials. I hope that the GDG can help
to promote inclusion and belonging for gender-diverse
people in the profession. "
Now is the time
That need for inclusion is more important now
than ever, they added. " It is, objectively speaking,
a very difficult time for transgender, nonbinary,
and gender nonconforming people to exist
in the United States, " Wolff said. And while
they say the groundswell of support in the veterinary
community has been overwhelming,
it's crucial that this support continues.
" Given that the newest people in our profession
from Gen Z are 20-40% LGBTQ of
which 1 in 4 are nonbinary, it is clear that the
future of veterinary medicine will include a lot
of gender-diverse people. We want to be ready
for this future while supporting the many people-out
and not out-who are already here. "
Although this guide is only now public, the
impetus for it actually came before the GIBOR,
and its creation began several months
14
after the GIBOR was published in 2021, Wolff
said. There are numerous reasons why it's been
such a challenging and time-consuming process:
The pandemic made for slow going, not
everyone who wanted to participate was able to
continue being involved as time went on, and,
as with the GIBOR, they've made it a priority
to bring together gender-diverse voices and
well-established allies to work on the project.
And then, there's the guide itself, which is
full of crucial-and often evolving-information
that simply cannot be rushed.
Changes and challenges
Certain sections (such as the rights section,
which is still under production) have layers
of nuance that continue to change, said Wolff.
Also, they added, " Certain information is very
pertinent to transgender, nonbinary and gender
nonconforming existence but shouldn't be
discussed simply to satisfy curiosity. "
And even for those within this community,
it was sometimes difficult to know what to include
and what to leave out. " We had several
sections that were cut because they distracted
from the streamlined message that we wanted
people to understand, " they said. Beyond that,
PrideVMC is still hoping partnerships will
materialize, and that some of the contributors
who were previously tied-up will become available
to assist with the guide's evolution.
Perhaps the biggest challenge, though, is at
the very heart of this guide: The new and unexpected
challenges gender-diverse individuals
continue to face. " I think we need a section
that addresses how we can help to meet some
of these challenges, " Wolff said. " That ultimately
sounds like something we'll work out
at PrideVMC. "
A charge to readers
The GDG is designed to help organizations and
companies, affinity and industry groups, schools,
specialty colleges, and individuals that signed the
GIBOR by providing them all with more resources
to work with and support gender-diverse
people. Additionally, Wolff said, " some organizations
wanted more input from the GDG in consideration
of providing support for the GIBOR, "
and this should deliver that input.
Although the main audience for the guide
will be individuals and organizations that
identify as part of the gender-diverse community
or are actively working to support gender
diversity, a charge to readers kicking off the
guide provides instruction for potential allies
who might find themselves questioning or reducing
the concerns in the guide, asking them
to take the time to consider why they're reacting
that way and to reflect on their own internal
bias-conscious or unconscious.
" You don't have to understand other people
in order to try to be kind to them, " Wolff says.
While being gender-diverse doesn't hurt anyone,
they say, it's hard for gender-diverse people to
even survive when they can't live as themselves.
Wolff said that, for those in a privileged
position, it may be hard to accept how much
harmful carryover there is from the past-and
how much active harm gender-diverse individuals
face today, but they encourage those
people to put aside opinions and stereotypes
to see people for who they are.
" Gender-diverse people are people, and there
is nothing magical or vastly different about us, "
they said. " There are no secrets to be uncovered,
no agenda to be revealed. We want to maintain
and advance veterinary medicine, go home, go to
bed, and wake up and do it again tomorrow. We
just want to do it as ourselves and be safe. We
also want to be part of the conversation in leadership
in the profession. Very few things change
without inclusive leadership, and we've seen this
struggle from time to time in our national discussions
about the GIBOR. "
Aside from signing the GIBOR and utilizing
the new GDG to better understand how to support
the gender-diverse community, there's one
more thing we can all do, Wolff said: Check in
with your gender-diverse colleagues to see how
they are and if you can do anything. P
APRIL 2023
PULSE
Pulse - April 2023

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