Unfamiliar Territory and New Perspectives

Last Friday at LIFT, I had a terrific first meeting with a returning client and was getting ready to meet with my second client. Our new Northwestern volunteers were shadowing meetings at the office in preparation for conducting their own client meetings. I was explaining to my NU volunteer, John, how to look at progress notes from previous meetings to learn what had been accomplished, etc. I then stepped into the waiting room to greet my client and explain to him that John would be shadowing.

Unfortunately, my client wanted to focus on something completely different than the housing issues he had been dealing with for the past several meetings: he had brought in some unfinished credit report materials and told me he wanted me to help him complete the application. I asked him which company he had been dealing with and he couldn’t remember, so I became nervous and started fumbling with papers and frantically Googling credit companies.

While I was doing so, I tried to make conversation. My client was wearing a magenta shirt and complementing necklace (which didn’t faze me; I’ve lived in a big city long enough that I’ve seen a wide variety of everyday outfits), so I complimented him on his ensemble. He thanked for my compliment and proceeded to tell John and I about how he self-identified as a transgender individual; he felt more like a woman than a man and had dressed accordingly his whole life. I was fascinated; I have plenty of friends who are gay but not trans, and I’ve always wanted to learn more about the culture and the whole logistics of it. She* really enjoyed talking about it and our discussion seemed to make up for the fact that I couldn’t figure out the damn credit report.

At the end of our meeting, I apologized and suggested some documentation for next meeting that credit reports usually require. When the client left, I turned to John and said, “Uh…well…that’s not how our meetings usually go.” He laughed and said it was a learning experience, nonetheless. I guess it just proves how much my clients teach me every day; they’re certainly cultural assets to the volunteers, and meetings like this promote and foster tolerance. 

If anyone else would like to know more about transgender people, here is the Wikipedia page for a quick skim. For more detailed explanations, The American Psychological Association has a highly informative page that answers a variety of questions. If you’d like to get involved with the transgender community in the city, there’s the Chicago Gender Society and a large variety of other LGBTQ organizations.

 

*note: I apologize for the discrepancy in pronoun usage; my client preferred to use a female name, but I’m still trying to discern what type of pronoun to use.