University Clinic Teaches Transgender People How To Speak With Voices To Fit Their Gender Choice

A Utah university clinic is now offering speech classes to help transgender individuals learn how to adopt the voice of the gender they’d like to identify as.

The program is designed to help transgender people feel more comfortable in their assumed gender — and to help others accept their choice. Students from a Rocky Mountain University Speech-Language Pathology program decided to begin the program specifically with the intention of helping transgender people, according to the Daily Herald.

Roughly 15 people were screened for the program and went through therapy in the clinic’s first few months. The program was wildly successful, according to Linda Spencer, director of the school’s Health Profession’s Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology program.

She indicated the new program was so popular that a waitlist developed soon after its launch.

“It is really a win-win situation for our students and for the community,” Spencer said. The clinic offers free services to its clients who otherwise might not be able to afford voice therapy and that some insurance companies don’t cover (RELATED: First US Soldier Gets Sex Reassignment Surgery On Pentagon’s Dime)

The state of California also recently established a second medical training center where doctors who want to learn how to perform sex-reassignment surgery for transgender individuals can go to receive training through a Transgender Surgery and Health Program.