Kane Health Dept. hosts free training on affirming LGBTQ+ terms

The Kane County Health Department is hosting a free online training session from 9 to 11 a.m. Friday on “Strategies for Supporting LGBTQ+ Youth and Families in 2025​.”

Carolyn Wahlskog, a licensed clinical social worker and operations and programming director for Youth Outlook, will host the training. Youth Outlook provides support, drop-in centers and professional development for LGBTQ+ youth and their families.

A behavioral health training series, Mind Matters Monthly, is to help participants understand LGBTQ+ youth and adult experiences, to clarify rights, where to access affirming care.

“Why this is important – one reason is it’s Pride Month that we’re celebrating,” Wahlskog said. “We have had such a changing landscape federally for LGBTQ+ people. We wanted to update what the laws still are and what has changed – and what fears youth and families are having.”

In particular, Wahlskog said the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on June 18 in which it determined that a Tennessee law banning certain medical care for transgender minors did not violate the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

Wahlskog said the training will also deal with pronouns for people who are not used to asking what pronouns someone uses.

“Pronouns are part of speech and we want to make sure we respect the people we are talking to and identify them correctly,” Wahlskog said. “The main focus of the training is how to create welcoming spaces.”

For the uninitiated, it could be getting a Christmas card from a friend and then seeing their kid’s name changed, she said.

“‘Is the kid trans? Do I say something or not?’” Wahlskog said. “Or someone introduces their son and you thought they had a daughter. This helps navigate this community.”

Another issue is that not all doctors and therapists have been trained in using the right terminology.

“So LGBTQ+ people are more likely to have negative experiences when they go to the doctor. And so because of that, they have less positive health outcomes,” Wahlskog said.

“By having a training to talk about their specific health needs helps to reduce those negative outcomes,” Wahlskog said. “We worked with the Kane County Health Department before and we work across Illinois to help provide professional development for many different sectors – education, mental health, physical health – so that all different practitioners are supported in this work.”

Register online at https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/2oxxiJiDQJuKUnYKImu9Hw#/registration.

The Kane County Health Department hosts free trainings every month.

Wahlskog is co-coordinator of the Transformative Justice Law Project’s Name Change Mobilization, serving trans people across the state. She also is an adjunct professor at Jane Addams College of Social Work at University of Illinois at Chicago.