Santa Clara Co. Opens First-of-its-kind Gender Health Center

SAN JOSE, CA -- Nekyua Valotea has found a way to be even more liberated than having a sex change. He has found a second home of sorts with the Santa Clara Valley Medical's new Gender Health Center, the first and only clinic in the South Bay specializing in services for gender-diverse citizens of all ages.

The 24-year-old San Jose resident has looked far and wide at having a respectful doctor's office or medical clinic's visit. Valotea identifies as a "transmasculine" person, which means he's a transgender person who was assigned female at birth but relates more to masculinity than femininity. He changed from a woman a few years ago -- which is about how long it takes for the process to complete.

"I've known this on and off growing up," he told Patch.

But blossoming into adulthood serves to solidify and clarify our roles in society and our inner truth. Valotea exudes self assuredness, even if his experiences with others have called that into question.

One would trust going to the doctor would equate to a clinical, objective experience. But think again. Judgment comes in all forms.

"My strong memory is that when I bring something like (my sexuality/identity) up, the experience I've had is (the medical practitioners) were opinionated and would tell me this is not the way it should be," he said. "But I know who I am."

Nonetheless, Valotea has learned to adapt and remain confident in his own reality of who he should be despite those times when he wants to seek advice in how to approach a health care matter given his unique gender identification.

He's ecstatic the new center opened through the efforts of Santa Clara County, which conducted a survey among 1,100 residents in 2013 to get a grasp of the status of health in the LGBTQ population. The community stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and questioning.

"I feel completely safe here. I hope more people can find the clinic. It's hard to find those connections," he said.

The center is located in downtown San Jose at 777 East Santa Clara St.

Even if there is a similar place where the care sees no gender, it's probably a little far away. There are facilities with programs that are up to par in Fremont, San Francisco, Oakland and Santa Cruz. But if one lives on a fixed income, and transportation is an issue, those cities might as well be halfway around the globe.

"For a lot of people, that's way too far. A lot of people are falling through the cracks," Gender Health Center social worker Aricka Arana said. She is joined on staff by a psychologist, psychiatrist, gynecologist and three primary care doctors.

As one in nine employees, Arana likes her job -- and the rewards of it show in her enthusiasm.

Apparently, word is quickly getting out. The patients seen, with a third forming an ongoing caseload, have numbered more than 80 people. The center had a soft opening in November.

"It's really amazing to see -- especially hearing stories of how they were treated (in the past)," Arana said.

The timing is important to her too, given the current Trump administration's degrading references and omission of basic human rights for this minority population. The most recent example was the call for transgender people to be thrown out of the armed services. U.S. Census Bureau officials also went out of their way recently to omit the question relating to their identity.

"With this administration, there have been many times (it's) limited rights of transgenders. We thought: 'What can we do as a county to counteract this.' At the very least, we should provide safe medical care," she said.

Safe is a word that came up often when referencing the new center.

That's because the statistics and responses that came out of a national study called the "Report of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey" were alarming to anyone concerned about basic humanity for all.

"It's been a work in progress since 2015. We saw we needed to create a separate safe space for the community and wanted an integrated, multi-disciplinarian clinic," said center Director Dr. Jackie Newton, who also works with the area homeless. Her work with the center has spun out of the county's Office of LGBTQ Affairs led by Maribel Martinez.

The leaders have found "ever present trans- and homophobia exists" in the Silicon Valley -- an area deemed more progressive than many sections of the United States.

Respondents in the study of the survey did not appear to hold back in their answers, with many reporting high instances of mistreatment, harassment and violence in every aspect of life. Here are just a few examples:

• Ten percent of those who are openly transgender reported a family member was violent towards them; and 8 percent were kicked out of the house.
• Over half the population of transgenders reported experiencing being verbally harassed; while about a quarter were physically attacked; and 13 percent said they were sexually assaulted.
• Another 17 percent indicated receiving such severe mistreatment, they left school as a result.
• Almost a third of respondents claimed they were fired, denied a promotion or experienced some other form of mistreatment in the workplace due to their gender identity or expression.

The findings also show large economic disparities between transgender people in the survey
and the U.S. population. Twice as many transgender respondents were living in poverty, compared to the U.S. population deemed to be 14 percent.

Even more troubling, when respondents’ experiences are examined by race and ethnicity, a clear and disturbing pattern is revealed. Transgender people of color experience deeper and broader patterns of discrimination than white respondents in contrast to the U.S. population.

Forty-three percent of Latinos declared incomes in which the households live in poverty. For American Indians, that percentage is 41 percent; followed by multiracial families at 40 percent; and the black demographic consisting of 38 percent.

The report spawned from the survey used a sampling of 38,916 responses.

--Image courtesy of Santa Clara Valley Medical Gender Health Center