On April 13, 2023, the Missouri attorney general issued an emergency order effectively barring access to gender-affirming care for transgender individuals in our state. This stunning and profoundly concerning decision undermines the well-being of a vulnerable population and sets a dangerous precedent in allowing the state to intervene in personal medical decisions. Gender-affirming care is…
Planned Parenthood and the Metro Trans Umbrella Group Provide Gender-Expansive Care
A collaboration between Planned Parenthood and Metro Trans Umbrella Group has helped almost 700 gender-expansive folks in the region access gender-affirming hormone therapy in the past year and a half. The program, funded by a four-year grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health, is called TRANSforming Community, TRANSforming Care, or TC2. TC2 prioritizes access for…
Christa Cunningham: Removing Barriers
From starting a real estate company in New Jersey, to coming out as transgender to her ex-partner of fourteen years, to signing away her business to start a new life in St. Louis, Christa Cunningham’s only constant has been change. After rebooting her life in 2006, Cunningham, now 49, enrolled at Southern Illinois University- Edwardsville…
Sayer Johnson: Building Power
Sayer Johnson is a busy dude, to put it mildly. The executive director and co-founder of the Metro Trans Umbrella Group, or MTUG, always has another project in the works to serve his community — to make life easier, safer or better for his trans siblings. MTUG, founded in 2013, offers meet-ups, trainings and panels…
True Tales of Transgender Aging
Too often, the narrative on transgender people is simplistic: it either focuses on the very real tragedies of bigotry and hate-based violence, or it is entirely youth-focused. But there’s a whole cohort of trans people who are facing another obstacle, one that comes for everyone eventually: age. Photographer Jess T. Dugan and her partner, professor…
Pride and Zero Prejudice
“What’s unique about The College School is that we are a private, independent school for everyone,” says Vincent Flewellen, the school’s director of equity and inclusion. We’re seated in an open area that I happen to know was once used as a library. It’s next to the principal’s office and directly across the hall from…
Spark Something Great Over Dinner Saturday Night
Eat, vote, and change our world on Saturday by funding someone’s great idea. Each month, FoodSpark St. Louis hosts potluck style dinner parties that serve as micro-incubators, with informal but focused conversations on art, politics, identity and more. For the past four months, events have been centered on the LGBT community, in partnership with QTPOC:…