“Allyship is you standing one step behind me, observing what I need, and helping me get to a place of equitable, inclusive, safety – stepping in front of me only if you are using your privilege to shield me” – Kayden Coleman
Kayden Coleman (He/Him/His), is a black transgender man, who, in his words, is a storyteller, educator, keynote speaker, and papa seahorse, dedicated to making the world a safer place. Over the years he has gained a massive following on social media, particularly Instagram and TikTok. With nearly 200,000 followers across his platforms, Coleman is also the creator of #TRANSgenda Time and uses his platform to educate, advocate, and consult. Kayden lives in Houston, Texas, and traveled to Chapel Hill, North Carolina to partner with the JIF Institute and the Maternal Health Learning and Innovation Center to speak in person to UNC Social Work students and nationally via a webinar. Kayden is an incredibly intelligent and charismatic speaker, and gave a presentation titled “Trans Masc: Fertility and Birth/Inclusive Practices”.
Kayden opened his presentation by discussing social transitioning, and medical transitioning. He noted that social transitioning includes, but is not limited to, name changes, pronoun usage, gender expression, using gender-affirming restrooms, and anything that affirms a person’s gender that is not medical. He defined medical transition as gender-affirming hormone therapy, gender-affirming surgery/surgeries, laser hair removal, hair implants, etc, and anything done medically to affirm one’s gender. However, Kayden emphasized that a lack of medical transitioning does not devalue an individual’s identity as transgender, or render them less susceptible to the marginalization that comes with being transgender in the United States. Under this umbrella of medical education, Kayden went on to discuss the hormone testosterone and dispel common myths and biases surrounding its medical side effects. He went on to share his own experiences with testosterone, and how misinformation can be detrimental to the LGBTQIA+ community.
Moving forward, Kayden showed the audience a series of his TikToks – using humorous skits to describe instances of prejudice he has encountered, how they were harmful, and how to combat them with accurate information, and inclusive practices. He discussed his experiences with clinicians, family members, friends, and acquaintances, who put him in uncomfortable and harmful situations (check out Kayden’s Tiktok @kaydenxoffcial for content!). Using clips from his social media, Kayden then led the audience into a discussion about inclusive and equitable care, pausing first to define both inclusivity and equity. Kayden defined inclusivity as including everyone, especially allowing and accommodating people who have historically been marginalized. For individuals and businesses, this can look like inviting LGBTQIA+ individuals into a business/practice, hiring people from the LGBTQIA+ community, taking away exclusive language, or adding inclusive language, to name a few examples.
Though inclusion is critical, it is not enough. Kayden went on to define equity as dealing fairly and equally with anyone and everyone. He noted that equity can look like providing adequate education so that all staff may provide proper care to the community, hiring diverse people from within the community and providing them with healthcare that caters to their needs, and using paperwork that caters to different and intersecting identities. Ultimately, Kayden emphasized that similarly, equity is wonderful, but not without inclusion. Both are better, and both values are what all organizations should strive for – especially in medical settings.
Kayden closed by providing worrying statistics from a 200+ survey of individuals who identify as transgender: 62% have experienced harm or trauma in medical spaces, and 82% avoided medical spaces due to fear of transphobia. These numbers illuminated Kayden’s final message to UNC students, and all those tuning in virtually for his talk: we need to do better. In medical spaces, and outside of them – to make sure everyone feels safe, included, and shielded from oppression, microaggression, and trauma. Thank you, Kayden for sharing your voice, message, and story!
Note: Kayden Coleman’s webinar was not recorded. He is available to speak to other groups – reach out to him via his social media or email sarah_verbiest@med.unc.edu for a connection.
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