Anchoring Allyship: Working with trans & nonbinary in outdoor recreation

What I learned about guiding trans & nonbinary clients

Back in June, I attended a training workshop titled Anchoring Allyship. The workshop was organized by a local non-profit guide organization called Rise Outside. The training workshop was focused on guiding and working with trans & nonbinary clients in outdoor recreation.

Check Out Rise Outside on Instagram

While the training was organized by Rise Outside, the training itself was offered by a person named Lyndon Cudlitz. Lyndon has over 20 years of experience in social justice facilitation and services for LGBTQ+ individuals, including consulting, education, and training.

Participants of the workshop included climbing guides like myself, as well as other Mohonk Preserve personnel, like climbing rangers and trailhead attendants, and Rise Outside members.

What I Knew Before the Training

I went into the training with an above-average understanding of the subject matter. During undergrad and graduate school, I learned a lot about topics related to sex, gender, sexuality, and gender expression through a sociological lens.

Thanks to my background, I knew some of the basics. For example, gender is a social construct, meaning it’s “made up” by society. It’s largely determined by the individual person and can change based on time, geography, and other factors. And it doesn’t always match with a person’s sex.

In addition, I understood that gender expression does not always correlate with gender. And that a person’s sexuality, or their attraction toward other people, can also fluctuate over time and place.

To sum things up, I sort of knew that LGBTQ+ issues and concepts related to trans & nonbinary people are wildly diverse, nuanced, and fascinating. They’ve never been dualistic or dichotomized, as our culture in the United States has led us to believe. However, despite my background, I still learned a lot from the workshop.

Major Takeaways from the Training

The Language I Use Matters

One of my favorite parts of the training was just listening to Lyndon’s examples of more compassionate and inclusive language while working with trans & nonbinary clients in outdoor recreation.

“…this was created with you in mind…”

There is a difference between simply stating that “all are welcome” and explaining that the experience I am offering is created with trans and non-binary folks in mind.

The former seems almost like an example of toxic positivity. On the other hand, the latter does a much better job of conveying the message that the programming was holistically designed to include trans and non-binary folks as well as cisgender individuals.

“What does that mean to you?”

Opening the line of communication is one of the best ways to begin establishing rapport and trust. By asking an individual, “What does that mean to you,” I can learn from their perspective instead of making assumptions.

“Is there anything that you think I should keep in mind?”

While I sort of knew that LGBTQ+ concepts and issues were incredibly nuanced before the workshop, I understand that I still do not know it all.

Language like this helps me remain humble. While I may think I am practicing good allyship, there may be something I am missing or something else I can learn.

Explicitly Ask For Feedback

An active, open, and optional line of communication is an important component of working with trans and nonbinary clients. Furthermore, communication throughout the experience should be honest, progressive, and inclusive.

After the fact, there must be an opportunity to close the communication loop. Oftentimes, this means giving participants the opportunity to provide you with feedback.

When I guided in Colorado, I used to send out a quick and easy client experience survey. For whatever reason, I’ve stopped doing that. However, after learning about the importance of asking for feedback, I plan to incorporate the survey back into my operations here in the Gunks.

Normalize Declining to Answer Questions

While open and honest communication is good, it should not be mandatory. In fact, it’s important to understand that declining to answer questions is perfectly acceptable.

This is sort of like getting comfortable with answering “I don’t know” when you actually don’t have the correct answer for something. In the case of answering with “I don’t know,” It’s all about being humble. On the other hand, declining to answer a question altogether can help a person maintain a certain level of privacy that makes them feel safe.

If I can model the act of declining to answer questions I don’t deem essential, I set the precedent that declining is okay, especially if it means someone else can feel safer in a certain space or amongst certain types of people.

Learning How to Ask for Someone's Pronouns Appropriately

Regarding pronouns, the main takeaway for me is to model open communication by sharing my pronouns with my participants. However, I must be honest, sometimes I forget. I’ve yet to establish a good habit. If I am being even more vulnerable, even as someone trying to be an ally, sometimes I don’t feel 100% comfortable broaching that topic.

So, when I forget to open the pronoun line of communication or forget what a person said their pronouns were, Lyndon helped us understand an appropriate way to ask.

First, the conversation should be done in relative privacy, not publicly. In opening the conversation, I can say that “I don’t want to make any assumptions.” I can set the expectation that “I ask this of all my participants” to avoid othering. Then, I can ask what “pronouns they prefer” and give examples, like he/her/they, and then model what I mean by sharing my personal pronouns.

My Homework Moving Forward

During the workshop, Lyndon assigned some homework to the cisgender folks in the room. In particular, he wanted the cisgender participants to ask themselves the question:

What are things that are smoother or easier because you are cisgender?

To answer that question, Lyndon wants cisgender people like me to observe their daily lives, behaviors, interactions with other people, thoughts, and emotions more closely.

The goal of the homework is to dive more deeply into my individual role in the overall system. The reason is that in order to practice allyship, I need to actively work toward a better understanding of not only how my sex, gender, sexuality, and gender expression show up in the world but also how it positively and negatively affects my experience.

Wrapping Up

Overall, I felt that the training was nicely organized. (The catered dinner from Ipho was also a really nice touch.) As a facilitator, Lyndon was compassionate, gregarious, and humorous. His expertise on the subject was obvious.

Definitely check out the resources page on his website.

I learned a lot from the training, both in terms of conceptual or theoretical components of LGBTQ+ topics, as well as more practical things I can add directly to my guiding work with trans and non-binary climbers. While I recognize that I’m proud of how far I’ve come in my learning about LGBTQ+ topics and how I practice my allyship, I understand that it’s ongoing and that there are always ways I can improve.

Thanks to Rise Outside and Lyndon Cudlitz for the exceptional training!