The Institute for Transgendered Education (ITEINC) is a non-profit corporation based in Escondido that provides a network for transgender individuals and offers workshops for businesses and organizations to better understand their transgender employees.

Sharon May, president of ITEINC, founded the organization with three others in February of last year to facilitate understanding and acceptance of transgender, transvestite, and transsexual individuals.

“Gina Lance [editor-in-chief of the transgender publication Girl Talk magazine] and I were sitting around, thinking the feedback from Girl Talk magazine was really superlative,” said May. “This is really about what T-girls are living with; the fears they have and the processes that they’re going through and the things that they need. I’d always had a tiny vision inside of me that said the only way to get respect and get [transgender issues] out of the closet is to talk about it in educational forums.”

May has over thirty years of experience as a human resources director, corporate executive and business redesign coordinator. In addition to being the editor-in-chief of Girl Talk, Lance has been involved in spreading transgender awareness for years, conducting public speaking seminars and interviews on television and radio.

ITEINC has two other directors besides May and Lance. Bijoux Deluxe, a performer and beauty editor, is the creative director of Girl Talk magazine, and speaks publicly about transgender education, equality and beauty issues. Alice Novic, PhD, practices psychiatry, has years of experience serving the GLBT community, and is a regular columnist for Girl Talk.

The transgender community faces discrimination from both the straight and the GLBT communities. Stereotypes, prejudices and false assumptions are present everywhere. According to May, transgender individuals have a tough time interacting on business and personal levels because they stand out in a crowd. In a society that still cannot accept homosexuality or bisexuality, transgender status becomes too complex a concept to grasp for many people — even gays, lesbians and bisexuals.

“I thought to myself, education has got to be the answer, because I just have run into so many people that are so full of erroneous misperceptions about transgender, I could write a book about it,” recalled May. “People have all kinds of stereotypes and thoughts. And most of them are not true.”

For example, a transgender individual may or may not identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual or heterosexual. They may crossdress, or they may not, while some people that crossdress do not consider themselves transgender. Just as there are many identities that fall under the GLBT umbrella, there are many different degrees of being transgender.

As a support network designed to help transgender people find a sense of community, ITEINC offers individual and group counseling services. The organization also provides links to beauty resources such as clothes, jewelry, make-up and breast augmentation that cater to the particular details of living fully as a transgender woman. They are getting ready to redo the brochure and website to address female-to-male transgendered issues as well, with links to related services and supplies.

ITEINC also provides educational workshops and seminars that help to enlighten those people whose lives are impacted by transgender people. They arrange panels comprised of prominent transvestites, transgenders, transsexuals and others who understand what it is like to live openly, detailing the reactions they receive from employers, government, schools, family, friends and spouses.

The ITEINC board members have organized seminars at UCSD, USD, SDSU, USC in Los Angeles, and Cal State San Marcos. They are also teaching transgender awareness classes to police cadets at Miramar College, and trying to educate them on the general GLBT issues they will be facing while out on patrol.

“We think we can help people learn at all levels,” said May, “Even if you’re the spouse of somebody who is coming out or you’re a parent, all the way up to doing classes like we’re doing for the police cadets. We can do the whole realm of education, and we want to stay focused with that. We don’t want to be a lobbying institution and we don’t want be a support group holding Saturday night meetings.”

Funding can be tough to come by. ITEINC, a 501(c)3 nonprofit firm, is a tax-exempt organization, and all proceeds and funds received by the directors and trainers go directly to maintenance and operation costs.

“We’re struggling economically right now,” said May. “My guess is that we’re right on the cusp of people wanting us to come in and help.”

ITEINC works on a sliding fee scale to ensure that all people and groups have access to their services. They rely on donations from individuals and corporations, as well as the occasional fundraiser, to deliver their services. A fundraiser is tentatively planned for January 2004. For more information, contact ITEINC at (760) 522-1114 or visitwww.gaylesbiantimes for a link to their web site.