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Category Archive: News

  1. August 2019: Unmentionables

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    At Mabel Wadsworth Center, our interns are responsible for updating the bulletin board in our waiting room once a month. In case you haven’t had the chance to visit us recently, you can read about this month’s bulletin board topic here. This post is by our 2019 summer intern, Julia Seixas (she/her/hers), who comes to us from College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, ME.

     

    A majority of us grow up in a society where we do not talk about sexuality and reproduction. For many Americans, most of our schooling involved little to no sexual education, leaving us feeling weird and uncomfortable talking about sexual and reproductive health, even though it is a normal and necessary part of our lives. Some of us may have had “the birds and the bees” conversation at a young age, but that was likely far from an inclusive dialogue. Perhaps we learned about sexual health in our schools, yet that did not leave us in a better position in navigating our sexual lives. Many of us get squeamish when we talk about sex and our bodies, so how can we become more comfortable when we are talking about sexuality and reproduction? 

    According to the Guttmacher Institute, only 24 states mandate sex education: 22 of those require both sex and HIV education, and the other two require only sex education. Meanwhile, a mere 13 of those 24 states require the information to be medically accurate, which is an appalling statistic. With an education system that largely does not teach students about a natural part of their lives, it creates a world where it is socially unacceptable to discuss sex and reproduction openly. The lack of openness in talking about sexual health perpetuates a society that is unaware, and therefore uneducated about our bodies and our options. Without proper knowledge about safe sex practices and a general understanding of our bodies can lead to various health risks such as sexually transmitted infections and increased chances of unintended pregnancy. 

    The solution is clear: we need schooling that teaches students to love their bodies and embrace their sexual and reproductive lives. If we learn about our bodies, including about how puberty begins, how contraception and birth control work, pregnancy risk, the dynamics of consent, and about the diversity of human sexuality and gender identity, it sparks a conversation that can prepare us for our sexual and reproductive lives while providing us with the knowledge to be more understanding of others and their experiences. 

    We need to bring human sexuality into the light and create a culture where it is normal to talk about it so we can empower each other by sharing our stories and experiences, letting people know they are not alone. If we are more open to talking about sexuality and reproduction, it helps to build a more welcoming society.

    At Mabel Wadsworth Center, we have a client-centered, feminist approach to healthcare, and believe that everyone deserves to be educated, empowered, and have the right to autonomy over their sexual and reproductive lives. Though the reintroduction of the Mabel’s Voices Project, our goal is to demolish the silence, shame, and stigma that surround sexual and reproductive healthcare, bodily autonomy, and personal identity by building individual and collective power through story sharing.

    On August 9th, Mabel Wadsworth Center will be hosting a Story Slam at West Market Square Artisan Coffeehouse in Bangor. The slam will focus on stories of sexual and reproductive healthcare, and everyone is welcome to share stories that they might not have been able to before. The story slam will be a safe, inclusive, and judgment-free space where all folks are welcome to listen and/or participate. 

    Let’s change the conversation and make it normal to talk about sex and reproduction. We look forward to hearing your stories! 

     

  2. June 2019: Shark Week

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    At Mabel Wadsworth Center, our interns are responsible for updating the bulletin board in our waiting room once a month. In case you haven’t had the chance to visit us recently, you can read about this month’s bulletin board topic here. This post is by our 2019 summer intern, Hannah Piecuch (she/her/hers), who comes to us from Agnes Scott College in Georgia thanks to the Civil Liberty & Public Policy (CLPP) Program’s Reproductive Rights Activist Service Corps (RRASC) Program.

    July may contain the week-long Discovery Channel special program all about sharks, but “shark week” is also what many of us call our periods. It makes sense, since there’s often a bloody mess at the end of the week! However, there’s also a lot of stigma about both sharks and periods that ends up hurting both sea creatures and people who menstruate alike. While we believe that no one deserves shame or overly negative feelings toward their period here at Mabel’s, we also believe that the way everyone feels about their period should be up to them—whether your period makes you feel in sync with your body, makes you feel grossed out, causes feelings of dysphoria, or doesn’t make you feel much of anything, your whole range of feelings and experiences around your period are valid.

    An additional note: notice that in this piece, we’re purposefully not using language that equates having a period with being a woman—this is because many transgender men and non-binary people have periods, but they aren’t women. Additionally, there are tons of women, both trans and cisgender, who don’t have periods, so suggesting that having a period is an essential part of womanhood causes harm because it doesn’t adequately describe everyone’s experiences.

    When you get your period, it’s actually just one part of the hormone cycle that makes it possible for humans reproduce. There are many awesome online resources that explain the menstrual cycle in-depth (and our July bulletin board in our clinic illustrates it as well!), so we won’t spend a lot of time talking about it here. But at its most basic, the ovaries release an egg cell so that it’s available to meet a sperm cell if the person has unprotected penis-in-vagina sex. In the meantime, the uterus grows a lining of blood and other tissue for the purpose of being able to support a pregnancy if the egg cell does meet a sperm cell and implants in the uterus. If a pregnancy does occur, the uterus needs this lining, called the endometrium, to continue nurturing the
    pregnancy, so that’s why pregnant people don’t get periods. But most of the time, no pregnancy occurs, so the uterus no longer needs this lining: it sheds the endometrium, as well as the unfertilized egg cell, in the week-or-so of bleeding that most people know as their period.

    The biology behind having your period might seem kind of complicated, but the culture of shame and stigma around periods in the US is even more confusing. While we intentionally use language that gives voice to the experience of non-binary people and trans men that have periods, we can also acknowledge that American culture writ large still equates women with people who have periods, so misogyny shapes these negative social views of periods (and hurts non-binary and trans people in ways specific to their identities in the process). Periods are often exaggerated as gross, unsanitary, and causing hysterical reactions, but simultaneously, people who have periods are pressured to minimize any period pain and be as secretive as possible about anything related to them.

    These pressures on people who have periods as a whole hurt people on an individual level. For example, when preteens are told that having a period means they can now have children because they’re becoming a woman, it can cause them to feel sexualized or reduced to their reproductive capacity—or if such a preteen is trans or non-binary, feelings around being objectified can compound with pain from being seen as a woman when they’re not one. Or a person who has really painful periods might assume or learn from experience that they won’t believed if they tell their healthcare provider about their pain, so they just suffer through disabling pain without ever getting compassionate help. Cultural norms around periods being gross can contribute to people who menstruate feeling like they have to apologize for their bodies, especially if they’re wanting to be sexual with cis men. It doesn’t help that the same stigma causes cisgender boys and men to know very little about periods and react squeamishly to any discussion of them, both a result and cause of ongoing period shame.

    So what can be to help our culture have a more healthy relationship with periods? Much of feminism and social justice is centered around believing the experience of marginalized people, so listening to and believing people’s feelings around their periods—and creating space where they feel safe sharing them—is a crucial step. Talk about your period with anyone who will listen, especially people who rarely hear about menstruation, and seek to listen to those whose experiences with periods are different from their own. But before that, you can believe your own feelings, too, whether negative or positive, or intense or mild.

    At Mabel Wadsworth Center, our client-centered, feminist approach to healthcare means that believing a patient is the critical first step to providing care. We work to eliminate shame and stigma because we know our clients deserve to have autonomy over the way they feel about their reproductive and sexual lives.

  3. Queer Resistance and Existence: Understanding 50 Years of Pride

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    At Mabel Wadsworth Center, our interns are responsible for updating the bulletin board in our waiting room once a month. In case you haven’t had the chance to visit us recently, you can read about this month’s bulletin board topic here. This post is by our 2019 summer intern, Hannah Piecuch (she/her/hers), who comes to us from Agnes Scott College in Georgia thanks to the Civil Liberty & Public Policy (CLPP) Program’s Reproductive Rights Activist Service Corps (RRASC) Program.

    This year’s June Pride Month marks the 50th year since the Stonewall Riots, the events that launched the modern LGBTQ+ liberation movement and, specifically, the tradition of Pride. In 1969, the most marginalized members of the queer community in Greenwich Village of New York City, including transgender women, people of color, drag queens, and sex workers, many of whom were homeless, frequented places like the Stonewall Inn. Stonewall and similar bars were one of the only places they could connect with other queer community members and simply exist openly as themselves.

    However, police often raided places known to be frequented by queer folks, and when yet another violent raid took place at Stonewall on June 28th, the patrons had had enough. Legend has it that Marsha P. Johnson, a homeless trans woman of color and sex worker, threw a shot glass against a mirror, sparking everyone to riot against the cops. Further demonstrations broke out at neighboring bars, erupting into a wave of anger that would turn into the modern gay liberation movement. Johnson’s close friend and fellow activist, Sylvia Rivera, is said to have exclaimed, “I’m not missing a minute of this — it’s the revolution!” When a year had passed after the Stonewall riots, Pride parades were held in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco to sustain the energy of the protest on its anniversary, and the tradition has continued ever since.

    Although the first American Pride events took place in its biggest cities, the history of Bangor Pride also reveals the radical roots of this celebration. In 1984, Charlie Howard, a young gay man from Portsmouth, NH, was walking along State Street arm-in-arm with Roy Ogden when the two crossed paths with three teenage boys. After harassing Ogden and Howard for daring to be visibly gay in public, the boys threw Howard into the Kenduskeag Stream, and he drowned. The small queer community in Bangor, many of whom were closeted due to the political environment of the time, expressed outrage at his senseless and violent murder. The outpouring of grief and anger following his death spurred Maine’s queer activism; that year marked the founding of the Maine Lesbian/Gay Political Alliance, which is now EqualityMaine. The first Bangor Pride parade took place eight years later in 1992 thanks to the efforts of Jim Martin. Even now, 35 years after Howard’s death and 27 years since the first Bangor Pride, it is evident how, in our community, it is a radical act of resistance to simply declare one’s queerness, and to express pride in that queerness.

    From shutting down the Food and Drug Administration to demand better access to AIDS-fighting drugs, to resisting police violence against trans bodies during the Compton Cafeteria Riots, to mourning those who died from AIDS by making a national memorial quilt in each person’s memory, queer resistance has taken many diverse and poignant forms. Nowadays, Pride is a month-long celebration of queer culture on seven continents—yes, including Antarctica. The transformation of Pride from a riot into a celebration of queer life is not without controversy; although activists do not necessarily want violence at Pride, the events have been criticized in recent years for the overwhelming presence of multinational corporations, lack of intersectionality and inclusivity, and overall dissipation of political energy. It may seem like queer culture is now genuinely supported by corporations because large companies often sponsor Pride festivities today. However, it’s also important to hold these companies accountable, so they’re not, for example, getting all that rainbow advertising during Pride month but then abandoning their LGBT employees’ needs the other 11 months of the year. Additionally, relying on the support of corporations like these can move queer activism more toward the center, leaving more radical queer goals such as holding the criminal justice system accountable or addressing wealth inequality to scrounge for support at the margins.

    As we contemplate how Pride has changed over the past fifty years, there is a wealth of opportunity to remember the LGBT people who have come before us, reflect on mistakes, and look with hope to the future. We can honor and tell the story of queer people who faced violence throughout their lives because of their identities, like Charlie Howard. We can use the history of Pride to remind us that Pride has always been about the most marginalized members of our communities, and to challenge us to always think harder about who is being left out of our spaces.

    In Mabel Wadsworth Center’s work around reproductive and sexual healthcare, Pride reminds us as an organization to center queer and trans folks who are excluded from conversations around contraceptive and abortion access, and ask ourselves what care we can provide to even better serve our queer community. This Pride month, we remember that taking pride in queer existence connects us with the radical visionaries of the past, as well as allows us to envision the hope we have for a beautiful, queer future.

  4. Mental Health Awareness Month

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    At Mabel Wadsworth Center, our interns are responsible for updating the bulletin board in our waiting room once a month. In case you haven’t had the chance to visit us recently, you can read about our bulletin board here.  This post is by our intern, Aiden Ciaffaglione, a student at the University of Maine.

    What is Mental Health Awareness Month?

    Mental Health Awareness Month was created in 1949 by Mental Health America. May was designated MHAM in order to bring light to the mental illness that people in our communities face, while also trying to break the stigma around mental health and it’s treatment.  Your mental health is extremely important not only for your daily performance, but also for your physical health.

    Do you know the Stats around Mental Health?

    • 1 in 5 people will be impacted by mental illness in their lifetime
    • 60 million people in the U.S. alone are living with and reacting to mental illness daily
    • 50% of mental health conditions start at age 14, and 75% by 24
    • 1 in 25 adults in the U.S.—9.8 million experiences a serious mental illness in a given year that substantially interferes with or limits one or more major life activities

    Ways You Can Better Your Mental Health This May & Everyday!

    1. Reduce Your Daily Stress

    Reducing your daily stress will allow your body to work at its fullest potential while avoiding long-term health problems. You can reduce your stress by scheduling breaks away from work to go on walks, spending time with those who make you feel affirmed and loved, getting enough sleep, and scheduling some alone time! The most important part about stress relief is understanding that saying no and taking time away for yourself is not selfish, it’s selfless and important for your physical and mental health.

    2. Take Care of Your Bodies Needs

    If your body cannot function physically, it will not be able to function mentally! It is incredibly important that you not only listen to what your mental health needs, but also the things that your body requires to function at its fullest potential. Some ways to do this include scheduling in your meal and snack times, keeping up with your physical and environmental hygiene, getting enough sleep and taking naps, not drinking a lot of caffeine or eating unhealthy foods, and taking your medications as required.

    3. Reach out to a Mental Health Professional

    Sometimes mental health can become overwhelming and talking it out with friends may not be enough. It is absolutely okay for you to reach out for professional help when you are struggling or just want someone to talk to! Mental Health professionals are great resources for understanding your mental health and reflecting on things you may not have noticed. Whether it be to let out stress, vent, or request a referral for medication, mental health professionals will be a huge help in preserving and improving your mental health. If you are looking for a mental health professional in the Bangor area, the Mabel Wadsworth Center now offers these services to their clients. If you are interested please call the center to book an appointment!

    4. Treat Yourself

    Life can get tough and you may find yourself overwhelmed with work or life in general; so it is incredibly important that you not only take care of your needs, but also treat yourself to a reward every once in a while. This might be you going out to dinner with friends, watching your guilty pleasure movie, or eating chocolate; the important part is that you show yourself some self-love and appreciate the effort you put into your daily schedule. If you don’t treat yourself, then who will!

  5. Transgender Day of Visibility 2019

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    TDOV was created in 2009 by transgender rights activist Rachel Crandall, in response to the lack of transgender focused holidays within the LGBTQ+ community. Prior to the development of TDOV, the only transgender related holiday was the Transgender Day of Remembrance, an annual event held to mourn the transgender lives lost from transphobic hate crimes. Crandall felt that the community needed a pride holiday dedicated to transgender people to celebrate their existence and accomplishments, rather than just mourning the lives that have been lost.

    The annual holiday is held on March 31st, when members of the transgender community are encouraged to wear their pride flags and proudly exist in spaces that usually exclude or erase them. Allies are also encouraged to show their support of the community, in order to develop a larger acceptance of transgender people in our communities.

    TDOV is incredibly important for the transgender community because not only does it allow them to exist as their authentic selves in public spaces, but it allows transgender activists to shine a light on transphobic related discrimination and hate crimes. Some issues that often do not receive public coverage include the impacts of transphobia on mental health, access to education, healthcare, work, and other resources.

    Below are just a few of the statistics focusing on the impacts of an exclusive environment on the transgender community:

    • More than three-quarters (77%) of respondents who were out or perceived as transgender in K–12 had one or more negative experiences, such as being verbally harassed, prohibited from dressing according to their gender identity, or physically or sexually assaulted.
    • Thirty percent (30%) of respondents who had a job in the past year reported being fired, denied a promotion, or experiencing some other form of mistreatment in the workplace related to their gender identity or expression, such as being harassed or attacked.
    • More than three-quarters (77%) of respondents who had a job in the past year took steps to avoid mistreatment in the workplace, such as hiding or delaying their gender transition or quitting their job.
    • Of current service members (military) whose leadership or commanding officers knew or thought they were transgender, nearly one-quarter (23%) said that actions were taken to discharge them.
    • More than two-thirds (71%) of respondents who have attempted suicide have done so more than once in their lifetime, with 46% of those who have attempted suicide reporting three or more attempts.

    Source:  2015 “U.S. Transgender Survey” from The National Center for Transgender Equality

    In order to improve these statistics we must continue to celebrate TDOV, so that the transgender and gender non-conforming members of our community feel include, appreciated, and celebrated in any space. No one should ever feel unwelcome based on their identity.

    Ways that You can be an Ally to the Transgender Community!

    1. Practice, learn, and expose yourself to pronouns!
    2. Educate yourself on different LGBTQ+ identities (gender, sexuality, romantic identities)
    3. Accept that there is no “right” way to transition and avoid “helpful tips” that could progress someone’s transition
    4. Accompany a transgender person to the bathroom if they feel unsafe
    5. Do not assume someone is transgender based on their appearance and be careful disclosing someone’s identity (not everyone is comfortable being publicly out)
    6. Do not panic over misgendering someone – correct your mistake and move on!
    7. Correct other people’s misuse of pronouns in the absence of the transgender person
    8. Do not ask a transgender person about their genitals, surgical status, or sex life. Let them bring it up themselves if they feel comfortable!
    9. Show up to events that support transgender rights
    10. Donate to your local transgender advocacy groups or volunteer

    Upcoming TDOV Events

    MaineTransNet: March 30th, 5:30-7:30, Bangor City Hall

    Happy Transgender Day of Visibility!