Inside PrideVMC’s Gender Diversity Guide

The PrideVMC’s Gender Diversity Guide (GDG) was published in 2023 as an effort to provide a broad perspective on gender diversity, and to give more context to their Gender Identity Bill of Rights (GIBOR), said Ewan D.S. Wolff, PhD, DVM, DACVIM (SAIM)–small animal internist, Blue Pearl NE Portland, who is not only the PrideVMC industry liaison and co-author of the GIBOR, but the GDG project lead, editor, and contributor. 

“PrideVMC has always strived to provide advocacy for the queer community and allies within veterinary medicine, whether that be through presentations, marches, meetings, statements, or publications. This is another resource that we hope will help,” Wolff said. “There are many references out there to choose from, we hope this will provide some centralized materials. I hope that the GDG can help to promote inclusion and belonging for gender-diverse people in the profession.” 

A charge to readers 

The GDG is designed to help organizations and companies, affinity and industry groups, schools, specialty colleges, and individuals that signed the GIBOR by providing them all with more resources to work with and support gender-diverse people. Additionally, Wolff said, “some organizations wanted more input from the GDG in consideration of providing support for the GIBOR,” and this should deliver that input. 

The main audience for the guide is individuals and organizations that identify as part of the gender-diverse community or are actively working to support gender diversity. However, a charge to readers kicking off the guide provides instruction for potential allies who might find themselves questioning or reducing the concerns in the guide. Specifically, it asks them to take the time to consider why they’re reacting that way and to reflect on their own internal bias—conscious or unconscious. 

“You don’t have to understand other people in order to try to be kind to them,” Wolff says. While being gender-diverse doesn’t hurt anyone, they say, it’s hard for gender-diverse people to even survive when they can’t live as themselves. 

Wolff said that, for those in a privileged position, it may be hard to accept how much harmful carryover there is from the past؅—and how much active harm gender-diverse individuals face today, but they encourage those people to put aside opinions and stereotypes to see people for who they are.  

“Gender-diverse people are people, and there is nothing magical or vastly different about us,” they said. “There are no secrets to be uncovered, no agenda to be revealed. We want to maintain and advance veterinary medicine, go home, go to bed, and wake up and do it again tomorrow. We just want to do it as ourselves and be safe. We also want to be part of the conversation in leadership in the profession. Very few things change without inclusive leadership, and we’ve seen this struggle from time to time in our national discussions about the GIBOR.” 

Aside from signing the GIBOR and utilizing the new GDG to better understand how to support the gender-diverse community, there’s one more thing we can all do, Wolff said: Check in with your gender-diverse colleagues to see how they are and if you can do anything.  

“Your gender diverse colleagues are not OK right now. There is no way to be OK in this current scenario,” they said, adding: “To everyone reading—out or not out—you are valid and loved.” 

Photo credit: © Vladimir Vladimirov   E+ via Getty Images Plus  

Disclaimer: The views expressed, and topics discussed, in any NEWStat column or article are intended to inform, educate, or entertain, and do not represent an official position by the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA) or its Board of Directors.