We (Erin Clingman and Shawna Coleman) are social work interns at Wyoming Equality (an LGBTQ non-profit outreach for the state of Wyoming.) Due to Wyoming being one of the most rural and least populated states in the country, we find it powerful to create a visual representation of the many barriers to transgender healthcare access across the state. These barriers to healthcare include travel distance, lack of medical care options, competent practitioners, and weather. We have found these barriers to be unique to Wyoming, but hope that this research will serve as an example of other rural areas in the nation. Our intent is to show how difficult it is to acquire competent, inclusive, and necessary treatment for Wyoming’s transgender population.
A map of Wyoming will take up a large amount of space on our poster. Here, we will label the towns in which we know Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) is provided. Our poster will clearly show the distances people are forced to drive to obtain HRT. With information provided from the census, Transgender Center for Equality, and the Williams Institute, we hope to present these lack of resources in the most understandable way possible.
We find that our poster will primarily be based within qualitative research in hopes that our presentation will supply a real world relevance to anyone who participates. Surrounding the map, we will provide quotes from transgender individuals in regards to their own obstacles when accessing transgender healthcare around the state.
Furthermore, we realize that we are two cis-gendered women speaking on behalf of of the transgender population. We find it important to have representatives from the population itself present as we discuss the transgender experience. Overall, in our poster we hope to convey cultural competence and grasp the many barriers the transgender population in Wyoming encounters.