Sly Sarkisova (he/they) is a Toronto based queer and nonbinary trans activist, writer and

psychotherapist. He is an early trailblazer in nonbinary trans health advocacy, and is currently working

on his PhD. Sly spent his 20s in the early 2000s creating language and legitimacy for nonbinary identification in

Vancouver and Toronto, when no one recognized our identities. In 2009-2013, he wrote over 200 pages on his blog The Space In Between, theorizing and creating space for transmasculine folks to claim butch/female, nonbinary, and trans identities at once to embrace identities which our communities and the medical establishment tried to control and extinguish.

Christian Gilbert is a 40 year old trans man who socially transitioned in the late '90s and medically transitioned in 2007. Post transition, Christian graduated college and entered the healthcare administration workforce where he dedicated his career to serving vulnerable populations by focusing on access to healthcare, quality improvement, business development, and health outcomes. 

Aster is a 43 year old white queer transman. He lives on traditional Clackamas territories, Portland, OR, with his partner and 3 year old kiddo. Aster has been in queer and trans communities since his teens and has always worked toward improving access and visibility for LGBTQ+ and other marginalized people. This has included political direct action, drag, cabaret and spoken word performance, and educating healthcare providers in providing trauma-informed care for trans and gender diverse people. He currently works as a critical care registered nurse at a community hospital where he and his fellow nurses recently organized a union to better advocate for patient safety and healthcare worker protections. 

Thomas is a 61 year old trans man who lives in the Washington DC area with his partner and their two dogs. He began his gender transition in early 2000. While he has held many professional roles, he has been in the healthcare field for the last 15 years and has been an educator and an advocate for the trans and non-binary communities. He, like many previous STP interviewees, is happy to have found this podcast and is grateful for the opportunity to talk to Kai and Jackal about his experience.

Rupert is a Canadian trans man and activist of East Indian and Polish descent. In 1978, Raj started an organization for all gender divergent peoples called The Foundation for the Advancement of Canadian Transsexuals. Fact. Along with its accompanying newsletter, The Gender Review, a factual journal.

His work has been recognized by several awards, as well as his inclusion in the National Portrait Collection of the Archives, Canada's LGBTQ2 plus archives.