Inclusive Research

Observation: Transgender individuals and communities currently face increasing discrimination and policies that threaten their well-being. 

Need: Civil rights policies and protections; a more educated public; advocacy and allyship.

My Discipline: How can libraries educate the public on what it means to be transgender? How can libraries come together to advocate and show support for transgender individuals and communities?

• Aim to have conversations with members of the LGBTQ community. Start with friends/ family but ask for recommendations of other folks who'd be willing to have some difficult conversations. 
• Ask and Listen: what are the the most pressing concerns facing your community?
• Ask: do you think libraries are a supportive or valuable resource for transgender individuals and communities? 
• Ask: how can cisgender people help? 
• Have additional conversations with cisgender people about what you've learned. Take note of their reactions and input. 
• Visit local libraries and/ or look up programs libraries host that support the LGBTQ and/ or more specifically the transgender community. 

• Identify and reach out to local non-profits and community groups that support the transgender and even the wider LGBTQ community. Go beyond just reviewing websites.
• Actually contact folks in the organization, and ask them about their most pressing needs or issues.
• Ask for recommendations for prominent transgender figures (scholars, writers, researchers, advocates) so I can look for those names throughout my search.
• Attend a local meeting or event - definitely make sure the community knows I am there to learn. (I am not conducting research, just trying to understand the community and people so I can conduct effective, relevant research.)
• Identify research and scholarship from within the library and information science discipline to get a sense for additional programming and its efficacy. Ideally the research will focus on/ include transgender folks, but it may be necessary to include materials that focus on other marginalized groups since the research and/ or findings could transfer or apply to the transgender community as well. 

• Review and compile data and information from all sources. 
• Make a list of the content creators and the publishers or platforms where you found the information
• Do a quick investigation into the background and potential biases of each to better understand the intent as well as the potential harm or benefit to the transgender community. 
• Consider biases all content producers, and fact-check data and statistics to ensure there is no misrepresentation . 

• Extend ideas to generate and record new information. 
• Ask someone from one of my inclusive interactions to review my work. Have I accurately and fairly represented transgender people and some of their needs? Do they have any concerns about how the information could be misinterpreted or used to misrepresent their community? 
• Ask a librarian to review my work and offer input or personal experience about programs or resources I suggest. 
• Ask a cisgender person to review my work, OR have a discussion about it. How do these programs make you feel? Would you support your library if they implemented the resources? 
• Revise as needed

For the Community:

• Request to publish a guest blog for an organization that supports the transgender community. 
• Ask to be a guest on a podcast hosted by a transgender individual/ vlog or guest with a transgender social media influencer to share results. 
• Present at a seminar or workshop affiliated with organizations that support transgender communities, so I can share my findings.
• Produce a physical or downloadable handout 'cheat sheet' that folks could take to their library and request programming. 

For the Advocates and Change Agents:

• Publish results in a scholarly journal to reach the broad library community.
• Consider presenting at an American Library Association conference.
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For the "Powers that Be" 

• Generate handy lesson plans and resource guides, so librarians can easily implement programs, services, and workshops; curate a list of titles by and about transgender people for an easy to put together book display. 
• Proposed laws and policies using my research to support.
• Newspaper and/ or magazine articles revealing statistics and facts about transgender individuals and communities including details on hate crimes against transgender individuals and communities.