Abstract
Speech therapy & gender affirming voice training with individuals in the LGBTQ+ community is a relatively new area of work in the SLP field. Research is weak in the area of information involving individuals who identify as transgender compared to other areas of study in the speech therapy field. In response to this under representation, we worked to obtain more data relevant to individuals in the transgender community seeking gender affirming voice training. This is a comparative study between two groups; transgender population living in California vs. transgender population living in other states. Our intention was to explore the relationship between geographical location and access to services for voice therapy for individuals seeking gender affirmation. We examined elements of awareness and availability of services as well as feelings of safety in accessing and resulting from voice therapy. A Qualtrics survey was distributed nationwide to individuals who identify as transgender. We care about progress for the transgender community & desire for this research project to increase much needed representation of this population via a list of (20) anonymous survey questions on specific variables of reported levels of : 1)knowledge 2) access and 3) safety with transgender individuals in relation to gender affirming voice services within California verses states outside of California. Although we had null responses in our survey due to lack of participants from California, we acknowledge that voice affirming services are much needed in the transgender community. We also acknowledge that as Speech Language Pathologists, it is important to educate and provide more resources for them.