Tuesday morning we awoke for my favorite day. We ate breakfast with June, the transgendered coordinator for the church. She allowed us to ask any question we wanted which was brave. We asked about her transition, life before and after the surgery, the surgery itself, how she deals with dating now, and many other questions about how she dealt with the public in general. Humble is not a word to describe June, but absolutely fabulous would be a good one. She told us all about her dating endeavors and honey, they ain’t few and far between. She’s had seven husbands over her lifetime and at 65, she’s not slowing down anytime soon.
We left for the Minnesota Transgendered Health Coaltion. Here we met in the side room of a coffee shop; at this location they offered shots (for hormones), clean needles for drug users, and a variety of other resources. We helped to assemble condom kits first. We had a conveyor type assembly line going – business card – condom – lube – condom- how to use condom paper – jolly rancher – seal! We made thousands of kits. It’s awesome to think how many STI’s and unplanned pregnancies we prevented by doing just a few hours of work.
After this we made it to the harder part of the day – making safe usage kits for heroin and crack abusers. A few members of the group also had a hard time doing this because we felt like we were promoting the usage of drugs. When you really look at what MTHC is trying to do, it makes it a little more okay. They are assembling these kits based on the harm reduction model. The heroin kits included a tourniquet, alcohol swabs, a dish to cook the heroin with and cotton balls that would absorb any impurities from the drug. In the crack kits we included copper wire that would filter impurities of the crack in the pipe and a rubber mouth piece that would prevent burning of the lips which would create open sores that could transmit HIV from users. Also at the clinic users could bring in their used needles and trade them out for clean ones.
Later that evening we went to the Minnesota Aids Project. Here we worked with Pride Alive, a group of gay men who working in the prevention of the transmission of HIV and STI’s. We again assembled condom kits here. But not just a few kits, but THOUSANDS. I cannot put into words how many condom kits we assembled this night with this group of people. It was a full scale operation. They had an entire room, bigger than my bedroom filled with shelves of condoms and lubes. I personally thought it was great. Not to forget we got to wear condom hats. Only a few people could appreciate this I think.
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