The TransRural Lives Project will host ‘two-spirit’ event, develop material for teachers
The National Endowment for the Humanities granted $247,000 to Central Washington University to “digitally capture” the stories of transgender Americans over the age of 50.
The federal grant will go toward “celebrating the lives of transgender older adults who live in or have strong ties to rural areas and small towns in the Pacific Northwest,” according to the “The TransRural Lives Project” website. The initiative has so far gathered 12 different stories from transgender individuals in rural Washington.
“This digital project seeks to document and make accessible these understudied narratives and the transgender histories they reveal through an interactive website,” the NEH grant program page states.
“TransRural Lives offers analytical examinations of thematics related to transgender older adults and rural living left out of prevailing socio-political discussions,” it states.
The first phase of the project, which focused on Washington state, was partially funded by a grant from a local nonprofit. With additional support from the National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Research Grant, the second phase extends the project to Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia, according to the project’s website.
Asked how CWU ensures that federally-funded projects align with public interests, university spokesperson David Leder told The College Fix the school hasn’t “been informed about any changes to the project’s funding.” He also said the university’s project leads did not wish to comment.
Beginning this year, “the TransRural Lives team will be developing Research Guides to help contextualize this project in relation to rural LGBTQ+ studies, and to help those interested in teaching this material in their classrooms,” the project website states.
Project leaders are also hosting an upcoming “Two-Spirit and Indigenous trans Elders storytelling event” on May 1.
However, a representative with The American Principles Project told The Fix via email that Americans expect their tax dollars to fund projects that strengthen national defense, improve infrastructure, protect natural resources, and more.
Communications Director Cailey Myers said, “in recent years, Democrats have been using public funds to instead push their radical gender agenda here at home and around the world.”
MORE: New U. Kansas ‘Trans Studies Initiative’ advances ‘ideological agenda’
“Hundreds of millions of dollars have been squandered on programs promoting the idea that human biology doesn’t matter,” Myers said.
One story includes a person who goes by the name “Emily Sloan” who shared his story of choosing to identify as a woman at age 62, “when she came across YouTube videos by trans women sharing their stories and something ‘exploded in [her] head,’” according to his page on the TransRural Project’s website.
Similarly, the project interviewed Michele Pinkham, “a 61-year-old who has no preferred pronouns but does identify as a two-spirit…”
“It wasn’t until they moved to Vancouver, after their sons became self-sufficient, that they learned what two-spirit is and a lightbulb clicked in their head- two-spirit spirit summed up a part of their identity they spent a lifetime trying to define,” the website states.
The storytelling effort is bolstered by its partnership with Helen House, an organization dedicated to supporting “queer youth.” Serving individuals aged 13-24, its website states it fosters “self-exploration, self-expression, and self-acceptance” for SOGIE youth, referring to “sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression.”
Leading the initiative is M. Eliatamby-O’Brien, an associate professor in the English Department at CWU where she also directs the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program.
O’Brien’s “research focuses on the experiences of gender, sexual, and racially-minoritized forced migrants through engagement with digital life narratives, digital storytelling, and multimodal rhetorics,” the TransRural Project’s website states.
The Fix reached out to M. Eliatamby-O’Brien for comment, but an automated reply stated she would be on sabbatical for the rest of the academic year.
The TransRural Lives Project, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Helen House did not respond to requests for comment via email about how the funding will be used in the last week.
MORE: UConn invites trans people to train med students in ‘gender-affirming care’
IMAGE: Central Washington University/Youtube
Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter
