I have begun collection of data for my dissertation. Anyone who identifies as transgender and is at least 18 years old is eligible to participate. Here is the information:

Please click the link shown below to participate in my dissertation research project.

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s/124285/sknovI am a doctoral student at the University of North Dakota. I am collecting data on an important mental health topic. I appreciate your taking time to complete this online study. It should take from 20 to 40 minutes to complete. As a means of saying thank you for the time you put into this study, I am offering twenty $100 cash prizes in a raffle that will be conducted after the study closes (Fall 2009).

This study has been approved by the University of North Dakota Institutional Review Board. Further information about that approval can be found at the study web site.

If you need further information please contact me at (701) 885-1125 or by email at: lmdickey.research@gmail.com.

Please feel free to forward this message to others who may qualify for participation.

- lore m. dickey

Here is a listing of the upcoming presentation I will be doing:

May '09, Phoenix, AZ. AASECT Conference. Gender Identity Disorder: What is in the Diagnosis

June '09, Philadelphia, PA. Philly Trans Health Conference. GID & the DSM: Academics to Advocacy. With Dan Walinksy, Michele Angello, and Kate Richmond

June '09, Oslo, Norway. World Professional Assn. for Transgender Health. Sexual Identity Development in Female-to-Male Transsexuals. With Anneliese Singh & Theo Burnes

August '09, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.American Psychological Assn. The Intersections of Transgender and Racial Identities. With Shana Hamilton, Anneliese Singh, Barry Chung, Vic Munoz, and Seth Pardo

Another GLSEN Day of Silence has come and gone. I went to work on Friday morning at the University Counseling Center. I had warned my supervisor that I was not going to talk that day. Fortunately, I wasn't seeing clients!

I was especially moved to participate this year following Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover's suicide. You can read more about his tragic death on the Advocate web site - there is an interview with his mother. Carl would have turned 12 on Friday, April 17! But, he had been subjected to ridicule and harassment from fellow students at his middle school since the beginning of the year. School administrators turned a deaf ear - and chose not to intervene on Carl's behalf.

I am angry! While I believe in self-determinism, and the right to commit suicide, Carl's death was preventable. No one should be tormented in the ways that Carl was - to the point where he turned the hatred on himself and took his own life.

Please stand up for those who are silenced. We supposdely live in a free country - but it hardly seems free when people are allowed to harass others. This must stop!