BY AJ TRAGER
KALAMAZOO – A Western Michigan University Ph.D. student is seeking participants for dissertation research on transgender people's experiences.
Codie Stone, working towards a doctorate in psychology, is conducting research in the different types of discrimination faced by the transgender population of southwest Michigan.
Interested parties will engage in a 90 minute, semi-structured video or audio-recorded interview that will focus on their experiences with discrimination and microaggressions while living in southwest Michigan, ways they have managed the potentially negative effects of such discrimination and their recommendations for local policymakers to make the area a more welcoming and safe place for trans people.
Interviews will be conducted in a safe place of the participant's choosing. Participants must be 18 years or older; have lived in Allegan, Barry, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Kalamazoo, Kent, Ottawa, St. Joseph or Van Buren Counties; be comfortable discussing their gender identity and experiences regarding discrimination in housing, public, professional and private settings and the workplace; and identify as transgender. For the purposes of the study, any individual who identifies as gender-nonconforming, genderqueer, androgynous, gender fluid or otherwise gender-variant are included under the transgender requirements.
