Transgender Support Groups
TransCend provides support and resources to the Southwest Michigan transgender community, their significant others, family, friends, and allies. TransCend is a program of the Resource Center. TransCend meetings are open to persons age 18 and older (ages 16 and 17 are welcome with parental/guardian permission).
Meeting Times and Location:
- Second Wednesday of each monthat 6:30 p.m. at The Resource Center.
- Fourth Sunday of each month at 4:30 p.m. at The Resource Center.
In keeping with its mission, TransCend will provide:
- Support group meetings
- Informational resources
- Educational resources
TransCend was formed in March 2003 as the Kalamazoo Transgender Peer Support Group and has served more than 300 individuals since its inception. Today TransCend continues to grow and its mission continues to evolve. TransCend holds bi-monthly group meetings facilitated by persons from the transgender community. TransCend meetings are open to persons age 18 and older. (16 and 17 year-olds are welcomed with parental/guardian permission.) Contact the KGLRC for details.
Information About Transgender
What does Transgender mean?
Transgender is an umbrella term used to describe people whose gender identity (sense of themselves as male or female) or gender expression differs from that usually associated with their birth sex. Many transgender people live part-time or full-time as members of the other gender. Broadly speaking, anyone whose identity, appearance, or behavior falls outside of conventional gender norms can be described as transgender. However, not everyone whose appearance or behavior is gender-atypical will identify as a transgender person.
What is the difference between sex and gender?
Sex refers to biological status as male or female. It includes physical attributes such as sex chromosomes, gonads, sex hormones, internal reproductive structures, and external genitalia. Gender is a term that is often used to refer to ways that people act, interact, or feel about themselves, which are associated with boys/men and girls/women. While aspects of biological sex are the same across different cultures, aspects of gender may not be.
What is the relationship between gender identity and sexual orientation?
People generally experience gender identity and sexual orientation as two different things. Sexual orientation refers to one’s sexual attraction to men, women, both, or neither, whereas gender identity refers to one’s sense of oneself as male, female, or transgender. Usually people who are attracted to women prior to transition continue to be attracted to women after transition, and people who are attracted to men prior to transition continue to be attracted to men after transition. That means, for example, that a biologic male who is attracted to females will be attracted to females after transitioning, and she may regard herself as a lesbian.
Transgender Resources Directory
American Psychological Association
750 First Street, NE
Washington DC, 20002
The Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association, Inc.
World Professional Association of Transgender
1300 South Second Street, Suite 180
Minneapolis, MN 55454
Gender Public Advocacy Coalition
1743 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20009
National Center for Transgender Equality
1325 Massachusetts Ave., Suite 700
Washington, DC 20005
Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) Transgender Network (TNET)
1726 M Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Sylvia Rivera Law Project
322 8th Avenue
New York, NY 10001
Transgender Law Center
870 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102