Business Innovators Radio - Dr. Shannon Whittington – Bestselling Author – Mark Stephen Pooler

Episode Date: August 7, 2023

Dr. Shannon WhittingtonNot another boring bio folks. Bottom line, I’m a nurse educator and author who loves helping people. I’m gay so I guess that makes me a gay nurse educator! I recognized a huge knowledge gap within myself and within my profession. Instead of groaning about it, I decided to grow about it. So, I went back to school to get a bunch of extra letters after my name to look smart so people would listen to what I have to say. It seems to be working most times. Here’s the tea: us gay folks are everywhere. My mission is to empower organizations with rainbow inclusion and to transform how healthcare is delivered to the LGBTQ+ community. Because as my Mom says, “when you know better, you do better.” https://instagram.com/shannonwhittingtonconsulting?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/dr-shannon-whittington-bestselling-author-mark-stephen-pooler

Welcome to Business Innovators Radio, featuring industry influencers and trendsetters, sharing proven strategies to help you build a better life right now. Welcome to Brilliant Business TV, conversations with leading experts in business. I am your host, Mark Stephen Pula. We have a wonderful guest on the show today, Dr Shannon Whittington. And we have a really interesting conversation. around LGBTQ. So I'm really looking forward to a conversation with Dr Shannon, who I've knew for a very long time now. So I'm really looking forward to a conversation with her. We are streaming live on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube. We're also on the E360 TV network under fresh takes, going out to Apple TV, Fire TV, Android, Roccoo, and many more. We're also on business innovators radio network. We're also on MSPNewsglobal.com.

And our new hosts where we are also featured is Global USA Radio TV and Television Network. So let's bring in our incredible guest, Dr. Shannon Whittington. Shannon, welcome to Brilliant Business TV after that long mouth for. Thank you for having me. I feel like I'm everywhere when you mentioned all the platforms. So very excited to be here. And Global USA Radio and TV Network have just started hosting us as well. So we have even bigger reach now.

And the E360 TV network also just let me know that my show has one of the highest retention rates on the network. So people watching the show are staying all the way to the end. And I'm getting tens and tens of thousands of views on Apple, Android, Rockoo, etc. All of those devices as well, which is amazing. But anyway, this is not about me. It's about you, Shannon. Now, I want to talk a little bit about your incredible book first to start.

LGBTQ plus ABCs for grownups. Tell me about your book and why you wrote it. Well, it's a short read for people who might be a little bit clueless regarding the LGBTQ plus population. And it's also for people who are a part of the community who often serve as a spokesperson for the community. And maybe they want to share this information in the book with their family members, or colleagues. So it's really a book for everyone, for those who are interested in learning more about us from this community. And it can be read in less than an hour because I know everyone's busy and, you know, people don't have time a lot of times to read like really long books.

So I made it short, simple. It's beautifully illustrated. And I've gotten some really good response from it. So and I don't feel any pressure about the watch time now that you said people are staying on and you're getting all these watch hours. So no pressure at all, Mark. So firstly, the book is available on Amazon so you can get LGBTQ plus ABCs for grown-ups on Amazon. Now, what is really interesting, and we was just talking about it before we come on to the show, why is it important, why are pronouns so important, Shannon? And even myself, I, I had to have this explained to me by Shannon, why she herself uses she and her.

I didn't realize myself. So it is a thing that people are not aware of as well. Yeah, it really depends on, you know, your generation and what you're, you know, exposed to. When I was growing up, there was she or he and that was it. You know, but nowadays that has expanded and people identify beyond the binary of male and female. So putting your pronouns in your signature or wherever you might be on your cards or it just shows cultural humility and it shows that you respect that there are pronouns

beyond the binary of male and female. You know, you may have trans people. You may have non-binary people, non-conforming people. And it just shows cultural humility really and respect. So I think it's important, but I know a lot of people have, you know, challenges with that sometimes about pronouns. And like, what do you mean your pronouns or this or that? Why do I have to say, I can look at you and tell what your pronouns are. But not necessarily. You know, we can't always assume. So it's always good to ask.

And if it's too challenging for you to ask and you're like maybe confused, you're really not sure, you can always just say, hey, how would you like to be addressed? You know, like I have a gender neutral name, Shannon. It can be for male or female. You see what I mean? I like that. That's a very polite way of saying it because it's so easy as well to accidentally say things that people are not being offensive.

Maybe they're just not aware of something. and it's quite easy to upset someone. I've done it myself, as I mentioned to you. So we do have to be careful of these things, don't we, Dr. Shannon? Yeah, we do. And, you know, you're going to goof up. I mean, I work in this industry, and I've goofed up myself. I have misgendered someone before.

And basically what that means is I've called that person the wrong pronoun. Like I should have referred to them as he and I refer to them as she. And the easiest way to recover from that is to simply say, I didn't mean to misgender you. So don't stay stuck on it, right? Don't make it the theme of the conversation. It does normally feel like the theme of the conversation in your head when you have done something like that. It's kind of asking a woman if she's pregnant and she's not. Yeah, yeah, it's one of those things.

So that's the way I find to recover and not have it be like the theme of. I always say don't make it the theme. Don't make it the thing. Because basically if you are apologizing profusely, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't really mean to. You're actually asking that person. Huh? Deeking a big a hole.

Yeah. And you're asking that person to comfort you for your mistake. And further, that's not why you're having a conversation. in the first place. Maybe you just want to order your coffee. Maybe you just want to get your meds at the pharmacy, you know? So if you say, I didn't mean to misgender you, I didn't mean to be disrespectful, it's covered. You keep the conversation going. But just going on and on and on the person, it's exhausting for both. Get the coffee and go. What are your thoughts on all of the anti-LGBQ legislation? Well, it's very saddening to me.

I think that we are under attack in this country. And I personally feel unsafe. You know, I think it's horrible. And, you know, I speak all over the country and I'll have people say, oh, it's not that bad. I mean, I don't care. Let people live and let live. And I'm like, hey, that's great that you feel that way. but it's not aliens writing these laws.

It's people who have a hard time with us. I think 75 have passed. There's over 400 trying to be fast. Like I live in New York City, you know, a very liberal state. But I'm from Tennessee. They're trying to ban drag shows there. I mean, you know, here's a crime example. When I go to speak at a conference, I never post where I am.

until I've gotten on the plane to hit back. Because I don't know who might be coming to the conference and not very happy with my topic, you know, and I feel like I should guard my safety, my physical safety, my psychological safety. And that's just one thing that I do. Like, I don't have a pride flag hanging out on my balcony. I just don't. I don't have it on my car.

Now, I wear it. You can see I'm wearing one, especially when I'm talking and doing interviews, because this shows allyship. But I tend to be careful with that because if all of these laws are on the books trying to get passed, that's telling me a lot of people have problems with my group of folks. I'm a gay, cisgender woman. I've been with my wife for many, many years, and we are married and those kind of things. things, you know. So it's very disturbing, Mark, very, very, very disturbing. That really does make

me annoyed. It's kind of like going back 20 or 30 years to how things used to be. We should be moving forwards, not backwards. I'm so lucky that here in England, it's, I mean, you obviously get people who are not well educated or they don't know better, but it's very, very rare. I mean, England is really, really open. So we are very lucky. And me as a gay man, I remember 20 or 30 years ago, it was probably more like that where you are now going through. It shouldn't be like that, Dr. Shannon, and it's not fair, is it? No, it's not. I mean, if you think about it, we're 20 million strong. Like so, you know, we're everywhere. We're in your backyard.

We're next door to you. We're driving, you know, the Uber, taking you to where you want to go, checking you into hotels. We're in your communities. And it's not like all of a sudden there's all these gay people. Oh, my goodness, where they come from? It's just that there's more language around who we are, how we express ourselves. There's more visibility in the media on Netflix. And, you know, for me, it's time.

It's past time. We just want to be like everybody else, the best expressions of ourselves. We want to have the same opportunities as everyone else. We don't want to be discriminated against because we're gay. You shouldn't even be having to say things like that in this day and age, especially in the USA, you would think it would be, I mean, I know there are a certain states that are really open, Dr. Shannon, but it should be like that everywhere, shouldn't it? Oh, yeah. I mean, I'm like, what happened? Like, we were going so good. Things were going great.

And then it's like in the past year or two, it just went south, you know, and south literally, you know, in a handbasket. So yeah, that's that's very disturbing and it's a constant battle, really, no matter where you live. It's a constant battle. I mean, think about parents of trans kids who are having to leave certain states because affirming care, health care is no longer provided. Imagine that. Imagine having to leave your state because you can't get health care because of who you are. Yeah, pretty sad. It's not nice. And that brings me nicely to my next question. Could you share a little bit on what it is being transgender? Okay. So that's probably the least understood letter of the alphabet or the alphabet mafia is TikTok calls it.

LGBTQIA2SP. It kind of goes on and on. T is for transgender. And these individuals disagree with their signed anatomical sex at birth. So baby pops out. The doctor checks between the hips and says, it's a girl, it's a boy, or it could be intersex. And that person, it doesn't align with how they feel in their heart and spirit. And so some trans people, not all, but some seek to have surgery to have the body part that more aligns with who they feel inside or who they feel like they should have been born, how they should have been born with to begin with. So it's the least understood, the most pathologized, and certainly the most victimized. And despite what some might think and believe, it's not like a psychological illness. It's not

confusion. It's not, you know, like something's wrong with them. It's simply a disagreement. That's it. A disagreement. And some of them choose to have surgery and some of them don't. And that's really all it is. And that's why the pronouns are important because they want to be accepted for who they feel they should have been, how they feel they should have been born. And acknowledging their pronouns shows that you are supportive and you are respective of their pronouns. It's odd enough. I remember when I was coming to terms with my sexuality and you feel like the only person that's going through this,

you feel like you're doing something wrong, you feel ashamed. It's really hard when you're coming to terms with your sexuality. I come out at the age of 15 to my parents. I knew from really, really young, I would say about eight. And it's much, be so much harder for someone that's transgender as well because of how they get victimized. And it's obviously not a decision that they, it's obviously not just a decision. It's who they are because if you could make a decision about that, you would choose just to be how you were born. and it's obviously something deep

than that Dr. Shannon because they have such a hard time and yeah, it's much, and they have a really hard journey as well. So I'm so glad that you are supporting them and really being an advocate for them as well because the more people talk about it

the better it is understood as well. Yeah, you're right. It's very misunderstood. So my goal is, to transform how health care is delivered to trans folks and LGBT in general, but specifically transgender individuals, because we're not taught that in school. I can tell you that right now.

And also how organizations, corporations can embrace individuals from the trans community who may transition on the job. You know, how do you handle that? I really, that's my goal. And that's one of the reasons why I, I wrote the book to really help with that. Because when I first started in this journey seven years ago, I, you know, you don't know what you don't know.

And you don't know it. You know, and I remember getting my master's and spending months at the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery here in New York. And just seeing trans folks come in like every 30 minutes. And I just really started to dig deep into my own knowledge deficits. And I would go back and say, hey, ask my nursing friends. Do you know anything about this? Did you learn anything about that? And they would always say, no, no.

And I was like, okay, we've got a really big knowledge gap here. And I knew that for myself. And so I went back for my doctorate to learn even more. And even though I've finished that, I still feel like I'm always learning, you know, and trying to understand trans people can, because I have trans friends. I talk to trans people every day. I work with trans people. report as early as three years old knowing that they were trans.

You know, they may not have had the language for it. You know, I remember one of my girlfriends who's trans, she said, you know, when I was really little, I was walking by a store with my father. And I said, oh, daddy, I want that doll. And he says, oh, no, baby, those are for girls. And this person was born male. And they said, but I am a girl. you know, that young.

We have, I've heard of born male kids trying to castrate themselves at six years old because that's not supposed to be there, as they say. You know, so I think things we don't understand, we tend to fear. You know, that's what leads to the violence oftentimes and disgust, you know, just because we don't understand. So what are some of the things that people can do to support? the LGBT plus cause, Dr. Shannon? Ah, to be an ally. And we need more allies, don't we?

Well, one thing is to be non-judgmental, you know, because you were talking about how you discovered your sexuality and how hard it was for you. Well, it was very hard for me, too. I grew up in a religious background, down south, Bible Belt, and I really felt like I didn't have anyone to talk to. when I came out really late, like in my 30s, late, like late, late, late. Because I just didn't know, you know, what was going on, really. And loving and supporting us is number one, respecting us.

Number two, if you see something, say something, you know, don't just let it slide. And just being open. And, you know, we kind of have to gauge what we do. tell you, do we come out to you? It's like, it's always like a knee-jerk decision oftentimes. You know, I was at this meeting, um, non-related to work and, uh, the person said, oh, what, what do you do? And I just said workplace inclusion, right? I didn't even put the LGBTQ on there because I just, I didn't know at the time, you know, I couldn't really gauge. And that's something that we struggle with a lot. Do I,

come out to this person, do I come out to this organization? And it's, do it come out to the doctor that I'm, that's my doctor, you know, it's, it's a lot to navigate. So I think just being supportive and showing your support and that you're open to it is one of the best things that, that you can do. I don't even think any of these issues should be an issue in this day and age, especially in America and especially in England as well. But also we have to remember some countries have it a lot worse than us as well, Dr. Shannon as well. I mean, in some countries, it's a death penalty.

Oh, it is. Oh, yes, it is. Brazil. I mean, it's Jamaica. It's scary, you know, very, very scary. I would just like to say to everyone, never. be ashamed of who you are. Seek out a friend,

mentor, someone that you trust, a family member, never ever suffering silence, never suffer alone. And always remember that you are perfect just the way you are. There's nothing wrong with you. Everything is right with you.

And be strong. You have got this. And always be yourself no matter what. Dr. Shannon, I have loved having a conversation with you. I would encourage everyone to go out to Amazon, get LGBTQ plus ABCs for grownups. Also, Dr. Shannon, how can our audience connect with you? Well, my primary platform is LinkedIn. My name is Shannon Whittington, but I'm also on IG and TikTok and the others, but mostly LinkedIn.

I'm on YouTube as well. I've got a good YouTube channel. so where I go into a lot of things that we talked about in more depth. So for more information, you can check me out there. Dr. Shannon, I have thoroughly enjoyed having a conversation with you. Thank you so much for being my guest today. Thank you for having me. I've really enjoyed it.

The pleasure has been all mine. Thank you, everyone for joining us for Brilliant Business Team. Thanks for listening to Business Innovators Radio. Feathing Leading Industry Influencers and Trendsetters, visit us online at businessinnovatorsradio.com today.