Engaging with an OS Lens to Support Intersectional Allyship with Gender Expansive and Queer Communities (Calls to Action for AOTA 2024 Florida Conference)

by admin | Feb 22, 2022 | Uncategorized

This is probably one of my favorite Engaging Occupational Science podcast discussions to date with Susan Yebra a gender-mindful pelvic floor OT and Andi Brown a community-based OT who has lived experience with gender expansiveness and supports trans and queer youth in the Foster System in New England. Andi is also a writer and occupational science researcher.

In this discussion we reflect on AOTA’s Vision 2025 and the importance of intersectional Allyship in our roles as OTPs especially in the context of social systems and policies that put human rights, lives, and occupational wellbeing at risk. This conversation is particularly timely in relation to AOTA’s plans to host our 2024 conference in Florida where Trans OTPs will not be able to safely toilet and all OTPs that support trans and queer clients/communities/students or curriculum that uphold their human rights are at risk of losing their jobs and ability to practice or even live in peace.

To make AOTA Vision 2025 a reality we need to start exercising our ability to face these systemic barriers to occupational performance, rights, and well-being and have these challenging conversations with humility and mindfulness. I’m a huge believer in the value that engaging with Occupational Science literacy has to help these conversations be meaningful, constructive, inclusive, and practical.

My hope is that this conversation can help you start in your own reflective and community-building practices so we can start realize vision 2025 in all the spaces we practice and build community in.

Please see the links below for supplementary resources for additional learning and context.

Please check out and sign COTAD’s petition in solidarity with our Gender Expansive and Queer

Clients and OTPs that need our support to challenge systems that limit their expression and human rights protections.

Let us know how this discussion impacted you and what you hope to add to this discussion as you engage with your occupational science lens and from learning from the resources on gender literacy linked below!

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did!

Free Occupational Science 101 Guidebook

OS Empowered OT Facebook Group

This episode of the Engaging Occupational Science Podcast explores the AOTA 2025 Vision and the complexities that emerge in attempting to realize this vision in the United States context during a time of escalating national tensions and the spread of trans-exclusionary laws that are seeking to target and oppress members of the gender expansive and queer communities throughout the United States fueling an already heightened and tragic epidemic of violence and self-harm in the gender expansive community. We reflect on our own intersectional identities and positionalities as OTPs seeking to be in accountable allyship with marginalized communities experiencing occupational injustice and exclusion.

We talk actively about AOTA’s current decision to host our national conference in Flordia in 2024, a State whose leadership is aggressively encoding trans and queer exclusion into laws impacting the health, well-being, and development of trans and queer clients and their allies. This decision appears in stark contrast to AOTA’s Vision 2025 stated values and commitments prompting us all to reflect on how our actions are matching our values as we approach 2025 together.

COTAD 2024 AOTA Conference Call to Action Letter: https://d1fdloi71mui9q.cloudfront.net/sKU8zTZ0SeGMlv0B0E3r_Urgent%20Concerns%20and%20Call%20for%20Action%20-%20AOTA%20Inspire%202024%20Conference.pdf

Please sign COTAD’s 2024 AOTA Conference petition here:

https://www.change.org/p/urgent-concerns-and-call-for-action-aota-inspire-2024-conference?recruiter=1309629281&recruited_by_id=777815f0-0272-11ee-bfd4-bdda0c0943a5&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_for_starters_page&utm_medium=copylink

COTAD LinkTree

Panel Guests:

Andi Brown, MS-OTR/L and Writer

Andi Brown is a trans writer, artist, and occupational therapist. He is passionate about disability rights and the transformative power of story. He is a writer and intersectional OT researcher who conducted autoethnographic research on identity disruption and occupational identity disruption following traumatic brain injury. He is a fantastic example of an OTP who engages with and helps develop our knowledge of occupational science through practice and lived experience expertise. Andi currently works in Boston with LGBT+ youth in the foster care system. Previously, he completed a fellowship at CSU working with college students with mental health challenges, founded a pain management clinic in Oregon State Hospital, and coordinated OT services in an acute psychiatric unit in Oklahoma.

Susan L. Yebra, OTD, OTR/L, CLT

Susan L. Yebra a pelvic floor occupational therapist who is focused on improving the inclusion of gender in occupation, specifically gender-affirming surgical techniques + impact on function, to include context, sequencing, and roles associated with gender affirmation. She is a current member of the AOTA and Holistic Occupational Therapy association. She has presented at numerous state and national conferences, has been featured on podcasts is currently working on her first submission to the open journal of occupational therapy.

She received her post-professional OTD from the University of Saint Augustine for Health Sciences in 2022 and plans to begin a PhD program in 2024.

She obtained her master’s degree from the University of Texas El Paso where she lived and worked on the US/Mexico border in a diverse landscape, building professional relationships with an interdisciplinary team and completing my levels I and II fieldwork rotations.

Her bachelor of arts degree in Sociology from Eastern Connecticut State University. Her ability to be an empathetic and holistic occupational therapist is largely due in part to her education + internship experiences at ECSU.

She is a reiki master and enjoys studying spiritual anatomy in her spare time. She is an avid reader of all things pro-mental health, self-help, self-care, and spirituality. As an introvert at heart, and usually, you can find her cuddled up with my kids or baking some paleo treats.

Website: https://susanyebraotd.wixsite.com/susan-yebra

Gender Literacy Course for OTPs: Gender Diversity in OT: Exploring the Role of the OTP

Capstone Course for OTPs: Lower-Body Gender-Affirming Surgery:

The Occupational Therapy Roadmap

Knowledge Dissemination and Collaboration Facebook Group:

S3xuality & Gender Capstones & Dissemination for the OTP/OTs

https://www.facebook.com/groups/198386916377180

Free Educational Resources for Gender Expansive and Queer Allyship for OTPs:

Dylan Mulvaney

https://www.tiktok.com/@dylanmulvaney?lang=en

The Trans Handy Mam’

https://mercurystardust.com/