[Blog/Commentary] [USA] TransLife Center to open in Chicago

[Stephanie Stevens]

Daily Kos, USA


Sun Jun 24, 2012 at 09:06 AM PDT

TransLife Center to open in Chicago

by rserven <http://www.dailykos.com/user/rserven> for TransAction
<http://www.dailykos.com/blog/TransAction>


Edgewater is a neighborhood near Lake Michigan, just north of the end
of Lake Shore Drive, but south of Evanston.

There is a mansion there which was at one time used as an AIDS
hospice. Stan Sloan says he can hear "the voices of the dead men
whispering in the walls of the old Edgewater mansion."

Once, not so long ago, when the world was so much more afraid of
gays and lesbians, this house was where people with AIDS, shunned by
friends and family, could come to live out their final time.

Sloan has plans to rededicate its use
<http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-06-22/news/ct-met-schmich-0622-20120622_1_transgendered-gay-pride-parade-homeless-shelters>
to serve other "people who are still feared, hated and misunderstood."

The AIDS hospice will be transformed over the next few months into the
TransLife Center, "a full-service home for the transgendered, offering
shelter to nine people at a time, along with medical, housing and job
counseling for many more."

It's an effort to move at least some transpeople off the street.

What our heroes in the '60s and '70s went through is what
transgenders are going through now.

--Stan Sloan

Reverend Sloan runs Chicago House
<http://www.chicagohouse.org/index.html> , an HIV/AIDS organization.
When African-American transwomen began showing up as interns in
Chicago House's Sweet Miss Giving's Bakery
<http://www.sweetmissgivings.com/> , he understood that he had some
learning to do…and undertook that challenge to educate himself.

[Video: <http://youtu.be/PF2U4Qp0cJ0> ABC7Chicago102108.wmv]

A typical cycle: Bullied in high school, transgendered young
people drop out at alarming rates. As dropouts, they can't get jobs.
Unemployed, they turn to prostitution or drugs to make money.
Arrested, they become felons. As felons, they become even less
employable. Rejected by their families, they land on the violent
streets. Unwelcome at many homeless shelters — do they belong with
the men or the women? — they stay on the streets. The suicide rate is
high.

Sloan recognizes that the GLB community has been reluctant to adopt
the transgender cause.

We've been so worried about getting our basic rights that some
people fear that to tie our fates to an increasingly visible
transgender community will hinder our progress.

--Sloan

So some of the usual funders for projects like the TransLife Center
have decided they aren't interested. Reverend Sloan and the Chicago
House will struggle onward.

[Video: <http://youtu.be/Dmb-BKL0Pg0> Passing On The Gift: Chicago House 2011]


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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/06/24/1102741/-TransLife-Center-to-open-in-Chicago