BUZZ
‘Celebrates intersectional Trans Joy through explorations of health and sexuality’
A “sex and kink-positive” professor at the University of Minnesota Duluth runs the Transgender Health and Intimacy in Community Collaborations (THICC) Lab which purports to “investigate ‘lived Transgender experiences.’”
Nomi Ostrander, a professor of social work who uses “she/they” pronouns and serves as a therapist for “Trans, nonbinary, and queer individuals and their partners,” notes the THICC Lab “celebrates intersectional Trans Joy through explorations of health and sexuality.”
Ostrander told Alpha News the lab gets no funding “from the university or other sources” and “is more of a private research project [whose] focus and efforts flow from my research agenda.” The lab does, however, have “umn.edu” in its domain name.
The professor added “[R]unning the lab isn’t necessarily part of my duties as a professor, but we all have research requirements as part of our work. The lab reflects my research agenda, but I am not paid anything extra to run it.”
The university confirmed the lab “is not a university endeavor” and noted “there are currently no students involved” with it.
Asked by Alpha News the purpose of the lab, Ostrander merely reiterated the first line on the THICC Lab website (see above).
Listed under the lab’s Current Projects and Resources section are “Cis- and Transgender Relationships” (“explores the lived experiences of couples that remain intact after one partner transitions”), “Sexual Debut post-Transition” (“explores experiences around individuals’ sexual debuts since begining their transition”), and “Gender-Affirming Health Care Provider Stress” (“examines gender affirming care providers’ experiences within the context of increasing federal and state bans against transgender communities”).
Ostrander’s Psychology Today profile notes “they” “especially enjoy working with queer, Trans, and gender queer folks, kinksters, consensual non-monogamy couples, weirdos, nerds, and punks” (and “polycules“), and is “passionate about gender, sexual, erotic, and relational diversity.”
According to Google Scholar, the professor’s publications include “Sexual pursuits of pleasure among men and women with spinal cord injuries,” “Gay Bar Culture and Drinking in the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer, Intersex, Asexual and Two-Spirited Community,” and “Inspiration Porn, Reclamation Porn: A View of Crip Masculinity and Micro-celebrity.”
A UMD spokesperson told Alpha News the school “is steadfast in its commitment to academic freedom, which allows faculty to explore all avenues of scholarship, research, and creative expression, and to speak, write, and publish their results.”
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