Vidari DeGuzman was a New York City teenager searching for acceptance when he first came to the Hetrick-Martin Institute, a service organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender youths.
Now 24 and with reassignment surgery behind him, he is a youth
worker at the institute, located in the East Village.
Making the connection: The Hetrick-Martin Institute really changed my life, honestly. As a youth, I went there when I had nowhere else to go to. It was a place where they accepted me for who I was, and I always thought that if I had a chance to go back and help create a safe space for someone else, I would do so. When I was a youth there, the staff were like our mothers, our fathers. As a staff member now, I find that I take these kids home with me. I look at the young people as the reason I get up every morning.
Giving back: I’m an educational specialist, so I run the youth advisory board, which is the highest-tiered internship that we have. It’s all about, in a sense, creating activists, so essentially youth learn to advocate for themselves and their self-identified communities
How do you self-identify? I am a transmasculine individual. I am a transman. It means that I was born female, but the gender I identify with is male. It took me a couple of years to decide that I wanted to medically transition. So when I was 21, I started taking hormones. And just this past year I had my surgery, my gender reassignment surgery
The reaction at work: When I came back, it was really great. The staff members who knew me before took it all in stride. They never gendered me incorrectly. A lot of the youth are floored by the fact that I’m trans. So that in itself is really good, because I feel like it shows them not to assume anyone’s gender.
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