Northern Butler County resident fAe gibson has spent a good chunk of his life on a remote, bucolic farm in northern Butler County just outside of Eau Claire.

He and his brother are the eighth generation to grow up on the farm, which is located at one of the highest elevations in Butler County. His family is surrounded by the farm’s goats, guinea fowl, dogs and stray cats.

“My dad is very attached to the farm, but so are my brother and I, you know, growing up there and really being a part of the land,” he said.

gibson, who is transgender, moved back to the farm in 2007 after living for a time in California. He works in his family’s medical practice, and coaches high school track and field.

For gibson and other transgender people in Butler County, finding community and accessing resources in a rural context presents its own challenges.

“Trans visibility in Butler is tricky,” gibson said. “I can’t say that I’m always out and proud and loud. However I do try to be my authentic self as much as possible.”

gibson said he is close with his family, and likes living in proximity to them.

“I have lived all over the place, but I always end up back here,” gibson said. “My family is pretty amazing, and they are very supportive and loving. They’re just great people. I really enjoy spending time with them. I have friends all over the country, which makes it hard, but it makes it easier to travel because living here is more affordable.”

Since the population is further spread out in Butler County, gibson said, it can sometimes be less likely that an average person will have had as many interactions with people in the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community.

“It’s hard to get things galvanized, because it just kind of loses traction, it just kind of fizzles out,” he said.

In terms of resources for trans people in the county, gibson says things can be “sparse.”

“I do think being in a smaller community and being out and being visible makes an impact, so that other people like me are like, ‘oh, maybe I don’t have to be as scared,’” he said. “And it’s been a pleasant surprise, being in this community and being well received. You know, I, thank goodness, haven't had hate spewed toward me, which is remarkable, actually.”

gibson described himself as lucky to have a lot of support, especially when trans people, particularly trans women of color, often face backlash and violence across the country.

“It has been eye opening to me in a good way,” he said. “I have been supported and loved, and I know I’m one of the outliers, because a lot of people experience hate, and all of the stories in media show transgender people having violence towards them.”

While there are fewer LGBT activism and community groups active in Butler County than in other areas, the smaller presence doesn’t mean there are not LGBT people of all sorts in the county, gibson said.

“In rural areas, queer people are a part of the tapestry,” he said. “We’re cousins, aunts, uncles, moms, dads, brothers, sisters — there are members of many peoples families who are in the queer community, it’s just not talked about. It’s not like we aren’t here.”

At the Butler VA Health Care System, LGBTQ+ veteran care coordinator Krystal Anspach has made it her goal to make the VA a welcoming place for veterans who are transgender.

The VA offers mental health services, creative arts therapy, prosthetics, hormone therapy, HIV and sexually transmitted disease testing, and other prevention, screening, wellness and testing services to veterans who need it, according to its website. Other services are also available through the Butler VA’s partnership with the Pittsburgh VA.

“It breaks my heart for the ones who have really struggled, and every one of my veterans just want to be who they are, inside and out,” Anspach said. “It is really my whole role at the VA, especially in Butler, to not only change the culture, but to make sure we have the most welcoming environment, and make sure that our veterans know, of any gender, race, or sexual identity, that we only want the best for you.”

Anspach is also working on putting together a library of resources at the VA office for transgender veterans and their families.

“I want to make sure my veterans are able to live the life they want to live,” she said. “In the future, we hope to have some services for spouses and children of trans veterans. It’s a big change.”

Alongside more formal health care, Anspach and the VA have brought other events to raise awareness and visibility. In June, during the previous years of the coronavirus pandemic, the VA held a virtual Pride celebration with guest speakers.

“Having this virtual program, where every day there was another speaker and another program and more information and more resources and more sharing, the more we do that, the more everything is going to really change culturally towards LGBTQ and transgender care,” Anspach said.

At Slippery Rock University a number of organizations advocate for LGBT-related issues. The Pride Center offers services to LGBT students, and the President’s Commission on Gender Identity & Expression and Sexual Orientation advises the school’s administration on policy that impacts the whole university.

The commission helped set up resources like its Chosen First Name Policy for students and faculty to be able to use their chosen first names in some situations without having legally changed their names.

“When we noticed the damage that not having a chosen name policy was doing, and needing to educate the campus community about how difficult it is to get a legal name change, and that there are places we can use chosen names, that was an example of one initiative (we helped with),” said Emily Keener, an assistant professor at Slippery Rock involved with the commission who studies gender and psychology. “It’s the education and advocacy around those kinds of inclusive and equitable policies.”

Keener also includes language on class syllabi to let students know that they are welcome in class, and encourages colleagues and students to include their pronouns in emails. Keener uses they/them pronouns.

“The syllabus is one way to communicate to students that this space is going to be inclusive of all,” they said.

Acceptance for LGBT students can be a situation where “lives are at stake,” Keener added.

“When people aren’t accepted for who they are and aren’t allowed to live as their authentic self, it’s very damaging. That’s why suicide rates are very high in the trans community,” Keener said. “The cure for that is acceptance and affirmation. Just saying, ‘I’m not going to question your identity, and I’m going to let you live your authentic life.’ When we do that for people, they survive.”

In the midst of an increasing wave of legislation across the country that limits trans people’s ability to participate in sports or access health services, the subject weighs heavily on many members of the LGBT community.

In Pennsylvania, the “Fairness in Women's Sports Act” bill, which would ban transgender women from participating in women’s sports in public schools, passed in the state House of Representatives on April 12, though Gov. Tom Wolf said on Twitter that the bill “won't get past (his) desk.” The bill passed the Pennsylvania Senate Committee at the end of May.

“As a university community, and the community of people who do (diversity, equity, and inclusion) work and social justice work on this campus, we are very aware of the threats on diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Keener said. “We’re paying attention to that as it relates to trans and LGBTQ issues more broadly, and also race issues, and also from an intersectional perspective.”

Keener described an on-campus diversity, equity, and inclusion component that is now included in the Rock Studies general education program at Slippery Rock.

“I think (the diversity, equity and inclusion program) also signals to the LGBTQ community and other marginalized communities that we’re not part of all that rhetoric,” Keener said.