Jesse was born and raised - and still lives - in the Virginia hills known as the Appalachians. The when and where of Jesse's trans coming of age story, was not an environment that supported gender fluidity or genderqueerness. Most of the Appalachian people still see things in binaries. Black White. Male Female, or at the very least Butch Femme. Jesse was featured in the YouTube series “Climbing Mountains” by Trans ilient featuring Trans Appalachians' stories. Jesse identifies as male, but also relates to the genderqueer, non binary and feels that maybe if he was born twenty years later his path would have been different, but he is happy with his own path and journey.

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.