Shaunak Sastry, the Cincinnati Project director and associate professor of communication, has been a big supporter of the assessment, the students say, providing financial and project support. Sastry notes that the assessment emerged from an expressed need in the community. “We hope that the assessment will offer an opportunity to amplify the voices, agendas and issues faced by Cincinnati’s trans community,” he says.  

On paper, Madzia says, Cincinnati has one of the most trans-inclusive set of laws in the country. But, Murawsky notes, legal equality is not lived equality.  

“Geographically, half of the population of the U.S lives within 500 miles of Cincinnati,” Murawsky says. “Cincinnati is actually a health care hub for trans people and trans youth, especially because of the [Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center]. A lot of people think of Ohio as a flyover state, and Cincinnati as a flyover city, but for trans folks in the U.S, it is actually the nearest big city where they’re going to be able to find affirming health care.”  

Cincinnati has four major transgender support organizations: Crossport, Heartland Trans Wellness, Transcendence and Trans Saints, the latter of which primarily deals with trans people of color. Additionally, the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center has a transgender health clinic for patients five to 24 years old.  

Cincinnati was only the second city after Washington D.C. to ban conversion therapy in December 2015, partly catalyzed by the suicide of Leelah Alcorn in 2014. Alcorn, who grew up in Kings Mill, Ohio, was a 17-year-old transgender girl who committed suicide after experiencing a lack of support from her parents for her transition and their decision to send her to conversion therapy.

Alcorn’s death sparked a nationwide conversation about trans rights and conversion therapy. As of 2021, seven cities in Ohio have banned conversion therapy on minors, including Cincinnati, Toledo, Columbus, Dayton, Athens, Lakewood and Kent.  

In Cincinnati, where so many have been advocating for trans and LGBTQIA+ rights, the Trans Needs Assessment may be just what the city needs. Bommaraju says of the assessment: “It’s about data to build power, so that you can actually provide practical support that lets people live life.”

Late last year, the Transgender Advocacy Council held a transgender day of remembrance in downtown’s Washington Park, honoring the more than 40 trans people who have been murdered in the U.S. in the last year, three of whom were murdered in Ohio. “We’re not immune from it here,” Cathy Allison says. “We’re hoping that some day, there won’t be a need for it.”  

Featured image at top: Image of Pride flag. Photo/Sharon McCutcheon for Unsplash.