Professionals in head and neck surgery at a public university in Boulder, Colorado, are organizing a voice-training event for transgender-identifying people to align their voices with their respective “gender identity.”
The University of Colorado Boulder’s Department of Otolaryngology has scheduled a “Gender Voice and Communication Training Workshop” on Jan. 25-26.
Participants in the workshop will “[c]ritically examine and refine their voice specialized skills and cultural responsiveness for the provision of gender affirming voice services” and “[p]articipate in exercises pertaining to varied gender affirming voice goals and general vocal habilitation needs,” according to the university website.
Instructors will also discuss reasons to explore “gender affirming voice surgery.” Other objectives include learning how “prevention and treatment of voice disorders impacts gender affirming voice training,” and how to “[i]dentify pros and cons of telehealth model specific to gender affirming voice training.”
In September 2022, the university organized a “Gender Voice Training,” which was led by “gender-diverse speech-language pathologists” from the Trans Voice Initiative.
The organization describes itself as “a volunteer organization of transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming speech-language pathologists who want to create a safe space for TGNC speech-language pathologists to grow their skills and knowledge in gender-affirmative voice and communication.”
Other colleges and universities have also recently offered “gender-affirming” voice therapy.
In June 2024, Russell Sage College in Albany, New York announced that it would be providing a program for students to train their voices to align with their “gender identities.”
“The Gender-Affirming Voice Program at Russell Sage is for gender-diverse individuals who seek to modify their voices to match their identities,” the program description says.
The program is not only limited to speaking, but also “coughing, sneezing, and throat-clearing,” since “these often affect listener perception of gender.”
Similarly, Marquette University offered students “Gender Affirming Voice Therapy” in 2023. Administrators intended the program for “adolescents and adults having a goal of addressing perceived feminine/masculine and gender non-conforming voices.”
Campus Reform contacted the University of Colorado Boulder and workshop organizers for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
This article was originally published at campusreform.org
