TDoE Eryn Lang

By Cesar A Reyes

Please introduce yourself (tell us a little about who you are what you do)?
My name is Eryn Lang, my pronouns are he/him/his and they/them/theirs, and I am the Community Outreach Navigator for the Transgender Health and Wellness Center’s San Diego location. That title is just the fancy way of saying I connect TH&WC with everyday folks, organizations, and businesses here in San Diego county. For the first of the three, it is so individuals can get access to our affirming services and learn about additional local resources available to them. For the other two, I connect with organizations and businesses for potential partnerships for like fundraising, referring clients to one another’s services, putting together events, and other similar activities. 

If you’re unfamiliar with the Transgender Health and Wellness Center, we are an organization that provides a variety of affirming services for transgender people, although cisgender people are always welcomed too. The services include electrolysis and laser hair removal (we work with health insurance to make sure the services are partially or fully covered), letters for affirming surgeries or hormones, free virtual mental health therapy, and much more. 

Please tell us about becoming involved with Transgender Day of Empowerment: 
Through its various locations in San Diego, Palm Springs and Riverside, our organization has led or been involved with trans-focused events. The most prominent of these kinds of events are the Trans Day of Visibility and the Trans Day of Remembrance. As far as I am aware, we never had any kind of involvement here in San Diego before the Trans Day of Empowerment because San Diego is the newest location of TH&WC. As soon as I saw a poster seeking committee members for the Trans Day of Empowerment, I volunteered.

Funnily enough, I nearly missed getting involved because I arrived at the first meeting a bit late since I was helping a client. The doors to the building were locked but I took a chance and knocked, not knowing if anyone would come. By some miracle, Miss Tracie answered the door and let me in! Luckily one of our electrologists, Ariel, was there representing our organization in my absence, but I am one of those folks who likes to be in the room where it happens. So yeah, a bit of a dramatic retelling, but that’s how I personally became involved! 

Please address the importance of empowering our transgender community and for individuals to feel empowered: 
It feels a bit cliche to say “now more than ever we need to do this,” but it is true. While both physical and legislative attacks against transgender people were horrifically bad even under the seemingly-liberal Biden administration (specifically 210 attacks against transgender folks according to an aggregate of data from the Human Rights Campaign), those trends are going to skyrocket due to the current administration’s, not even tacit but fully active, endorsement of discrimination against and erasure of transgender people. 

One of the best ways to stand against these attacks is to remind our community that none of us are going anywhere; we cannot be legislated out of existence no matter how hard people in power may try. Regimes throughout history have attempted to do the same thing to trans people that Trump and his party are trying to do and it has never worked. It is important that our community remembers this. 

Feeling empowered is critical as it ensures people do not fall into despair. Empowering folks gives them the confidence to continue living as their authentic selves, even if the world is against them. It reminds them that even if it feels like the world is against them, there is a community behind them who will always have their back. 

How can folks get involved (talk about your organization and the ways people can support it)?: 
There are two ways folks can support TH&WC. One of the most obvious ways is supporting us financially. Whether that means using our services like hair removal (we work with your insurance to make sure those services are covered), fundraising on our behalf, or mailing us a check – any and all of these help us. Organizations focused on the transgender folks receive a lot less funding when compared to similar organizations focused on the cisgender folks in the queer community, so any kind of financial support is critical to ensuring our organization can continue doing what we do.

The other way folks can help us is by volunteering for our organization. It benefits both the individuals doing the volunteering–sometimes they can add the service to their resumes–and it benefits TH&WC because we get more done. It is a win-win! We have volunteering opportunities in our office as well as out at events in the community. Folks can do one or both. Regardless, they are helping us and we are helping them. 

The WORD is to provide a safe, prosperous, and healthy environment and community for gender diverse folks.