Dr. Jody Herman continues to work at the Williams Institute at UCLA where she is rolling out a new project looking at the needs and barriers to services for trans and nonbinary residents of Los Angeles County. She and her team hope the results will translate into better service delivery by government agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).
Herman, an alum of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (WGSS) Program, is also working with the 2022 US Trans Survey team to analyze data from a national survey she was part of in fall 2022. The project received a tremendous response, and the results will be published next year. They are concerned with the misinformation that continues to circulate publicly about gender-affirming care, and that continues to fuel the anti-trans legislation sweeping across the states.
The Williams Institute hosted its annual conference last April, which focused on how misinformation circulated in research, media, and in the courts. “Personally,” Herman remarked, “I am trying not to be disheartened by how research is being misconstrued or ignored in policy debates. When I am, I’m reminded that a mentor of mine, Jessica Xavier, once told me—we don’t have the luxury of despair. We have to keep doing our work!”
