Oral History with Katherine Staats, July 7, 2015 (Ms2015-007)

TRANSCRIPT: KATHERINE STAATS

Date of Interview: July 7th, 2015 Interviewer: Megan Lee Myklegard Place of Interview: East Riverside, Austin, Texas Length: 38:48 Transcribers: Megan Lee Myklegard

Megan Lee Myklegard: Hello this is Megan Myklegard. It's Tuesday, July 7th, 2015 the place is East Riverside, Austin, Texas. I'm here with Kathy Staats. Can you introduce yourself with your date of birth and place of birth?

Katherine Staats: Yeah I'm Kathy Staats I was born on July 30th, 1986 and I was born in Londstuhl, Germany.

MYKLEGARD: Okay, so to start off can you just tell us a little bit about your family and how you were raised up until you got into college?

STAATS: Yeah, so I was mostly an army brat growing up. I was born on base in Germany and then I lived all up and down the east coast. New York, Florida, Virginia for high school, Kansas, Massachusetts, and probably a few other places I still don't remember. I was the oldest, I had a twin brother and sister that were two and a half years younger than me. When people ask where I'm from I typically say Virginia because I did high school and college there. And then I 1:00definitely say I'm also a Hokie! [laughs] Yeah. And then otherwise in terms of religious background or?

MYKLEGARD: Yeah, sure!

STAATS: Okay, um I guess to me that relates to LGBT issues. My, and then in terms of family structure besides having a brother and sister, my parents were together through third grade and then had a long, messy divorce where I mostly lived with my dad. My brother and sister lived with us and he was a protestant pastor, which was an interesting influential part. And they were both in the military.

MYKLEGARD: What about him being a pastor, what about that was like influential for you?

STAATS: You know, there were very strong moral values that were instilled in us 2:00that were rules. Deontologic versus where, and I can't remember the other word but you know, greatest good for the greatest amount of people. It was not that it was the Deontologic, so these are rules they're set in stone and some ways it was really great cause it gave this nice moral structure that I knew "This was right and this was wrong." And I was very much the stereotypical eldest, doing what I was supposed to, getting good grades, following the rules. But there were aspects to it that really bothered me, and that I've sort of you know as I've defined who I am in my life, separated from cause there were certain things I really didn't like about those rules. And one of them was that I felt the particular brand of religion that he was touting was against people that were 3:00gay or lesbian or who are transgender or otherwise. Another was that certain people get to go to this wonderful place called heaven and other people don't. and then there were a few other things, but those were big ones that I struggled with a lot with regards to that.

MYKLEGARD: What was your first interaction with the LGBT community? Like what's your first experience with it?

STAATS: That, that is throwback man. [laughs] cause I'm trying to think, I don't believe I had any and I may pause for a bit. [laughs]

MYKLEGARD: That's okay!

STAATS: Um, [pauses] I don't believe I had any family members that were out that we knew about. And I think, it was probably through somewhere going to church 4:00and some combination of media as well. I'm sure there was a portrayal of a gay person and then in church we were taught that it was not okay. And I remember having these discussions, and really arguments with my dad everything else made sense to me, don't steal, don't murder, whatever [laughs], but that certain people weren't okay or good people because of who they loved or who they didn't, that really bothered me. And I do remember us arguing about that, at a young age in like elementary school so that's sort of my like earliest type memories about that. And I think the first time that I really had gay friends was at Virginia 5:00Tech, where I feel like a majority of my friends were in the LGBT community.

MYKLEGARD: When you got into Tech how did you find these friends?

STAATS: Um, can we stop the recording for a bit?

MYKLEGARD: Yeah, sure!

STAATS: Yeah so, I'm sorry can you repeat the question?

MYKLEGARD: What was, or how did you meet your LGBT group of friends when you got to Tech?

STAATS: Yeah so, I was part of an honors community, a newer honors community, Hillcrest was the original one Main Campbell began the year that I started. So I was one of the quote-on-quote founding members, and one of my good friends in the community was the first person who came out to me and I believe I was one of the first straight people he had come out to and it was sort of very— so he had just become my good friend through living in this very small community and a few of us were sitting around. It was my roommate and me and him and in a very like dramatic way, which is not very typical of him at all [laughs] we were all sort of telling secrets about our lives either stuff we'd struggled with or seen or bad things that had happened to us. And we were all sort of pouring our hearts 6:00out and then he goes and he grabs this magazine and— it was like a Playboy or something— and he tosses it to the ground in front of my roommate and I, and says "This does nothing for me."

MYKLEGARD: [laughs]

STAATS: And it was so— as I said, he's not a dramatic person, and he did not let sort of indicators of his sexual preference a lot into his like mainstream life at the time. So my friend and I had no idea what was going on we just looked at each other. [laughs] like "What does this mean?" Like we had no idea he was coming out to us or anything like that. So he unfortunately had to spell it out to us after there was like moments of us just like staring at each other staring at him and then he's like "I'm gay." [laughs] and we were like 7:00"Oh, that's what you meant!" Because we had no idea! So that was sort of my introduction into the LGBT community because then I got to meet a lot of his boyfriends and also some of his best friends were even— if they were straight they were also very involved in the LGBT community so it was really, it was really cool because honestly after having those discussions with my dad growing up I not only wanted to like disagree openly with people about that but I wanted to befriend people cause that's a tough world a lot of times for people that are different in any way, quote-on-quote. And yeah I just wanted to support them and especially my friend cause college was the time where he sort of embraced that part of himself and yeah it's tough, it's tough to do that.

MYKLEGARD: Were you involved in the LGBTA at the school?

STAATS: I wasn't, I went to— I wasn't an official member, but things like the what was that shirt? There was a shirt, oh my gosh. They had a few initiatives that I was involved in like I would go to Take Back the Night and there was a T-shirt I forget, but I was involved in handing out t-shirts and making people aware of that. I was also an RA and participated in something called SafeZone which I continued to do at my med school. I was one of a very small number of people who did it at my med school. And then I've actually started the program here at my hospital as well, because it's so important I think to raise 9:00awareness. Not just about gay and lesbians but also transgender I think that's an area that peoples' knowledge or lack of knowledge creates a fear. There's a lot of fear and yeah, just fear and therefore discomfort about. So yeah, I've continued that here and then there was something else I was involved in. Oh and also at Virginia Tech I took a— so I wasn't involved in the LGBTA, but I also did a class that the big focus was reading about transgender issues and so that wasn't like public activity then, but it's helped influence what I do now and at work I'm know as like "There's a transgender patient, give them to Kathy" 10:00[laughs] So um yeah, mhm.

MYKLEGARD: What made you get involved with SafeZone?

STAATS: I just remember how uncomfortable and scared my friend was to come out to me. And I also remember growing up having that conversation with my dad on the stairs and how angry it made me that people, certain people just didn't think it was okay. To me it made— it was so clear that you should be nice to everybody you should love everybody. Why would anyone choose something that's so difficult to live in everyday life? It's so, it wasn't a choice to me it was something that was obvious just like don't lie, don't cheat, don't steal, love everybody. And just that my friend, somebody I love somebody that's going to be at my wedding in a few months, something he cried over he tried to fight, you 11:00know just hearing his story gave me such I don't think I can say empathy but just sympathy for the struggle that some people have to go to coming out. So um yeah, I wanted to help other people. And being in healthcare as well I've seen, the reason I started SafeZone here was I actually saw a transgender patient be treated really terribly. The patient was male to female and first of all my attending physicians were not treating her, weren't calling her her they were calling her him. After I specifically in front of the patient asked what would you prefer to be called him or her and she said her and then just so rough with 12:00her hair, and you know openly speaking poorly about her and it just ugh stabbed the heart so that was another reason why I started it here.

MYKLEGARD: Who were you working with when you were in SafeZone?

STAATS: It was mostly in the RA capacity, and I do not for the life of me remember our trainers [laugh] not at all. So yeah the RA leadership.

MYKLEGARD: Were you involved in any activism that wasn't LGBTA related when you were in college?

STAATS: When I was in college. Um not when I was in college. Since college I've become involved in, I won't call it gun laws but um, I was one of the first 13:00responders at the Virginia Tech shooting and also I lost eight people that day and so I feel pretty strongly that we should be limiting who has access to firearms so that's stuff that I've become involved in since college. But college was mostly about being premed and getting into medical school [laughs]. So not a lot of time unfortunately for other things.

MYKLEGARD: Oh sure. Would you say that your main group of people in college were in the LGBT community?

STAATS: I would say [laughs] I had two main groups of friends and they were my honors community, Main Campbell and then my rescue squad community the ambulance group ya'll have probably seen riding around. And in those two groups of people I was also responsible for the rescue squad, for pretty much us hiring somebody 14:00that was gay that we wouldn't of I don't believe otherwise hired. There's a big stigma in that group and we'd never had an openly out person before and I was on the interview committee and really had to discuss [laughs] fervently with some people to convince them that this person was a good candidate and they became a life member so obviously, they did great. So I was good friends with one person who was out in the rescue squad and they're one of my best friends and they're gonna be an officiate at my wedding. And then in Main Campbell it was that one friend, because my time was mostly limited to those communities, but I did befriend they're boyfriends or girlfriends or whatever so. So I would probably say no, but some of my best friends from college were gay.

MYKLEGARD: Did you ever experience any— besides like working with the ambulance and getting your friend on the team— did you ever experience any conflicts in relation to the LGBT community while you were at college?

STAATS: Mmm, do you mean within the community or like—

MYKLEGARD: I mean within the community, but also outside of the community any sort of hate.

STAATS: Yes, I think really within the rescue squad itself. Anyone that knows me knows my love of Virginia Tech, it goes Virginia Tech and then rescue squad [laughs], um I just cannot be more passionate about something, actually they may be hmph [laughs]

MYKLEGARD: [laughs]

STAATS: It's tough, it's tough to choose number one. But you know like so many 16:00things it's an old boys club and volunteer EMS in Virginia is an old boys club and I think a lot of old boy type ideas straight, protestant men, white were the majority of the members of the Virginia Tech Rescue Squad. Even being a female was a big deal, it was something like of 40 members only six to eight of us at any time would be female. And being a leader in the rescue squad was even more difficult so, that's one thing. I think just realizing that that was a barrier itself not being a straight white male to get onto the rescue squad was a 17:00barrier to overcome. Not openly discussed, I think like most systems it's not needing to be, or it's not openly discussed. So that would be one. Otherwise though in the Main Campbell community our love for our friend and all that he was about and also his best friend was also in our community and she was very pro everything in the LGBT community so, no there was no conflict there. And then I guess I did find that I wasn't talking about it in class or at work, yeah.

MYKLEGARD: So, with your dad do you still struggle with your relationship with him in terms of the LGBT community your feelings on it? Do you still struggle with him about that?

STAATS: That is an interesting question, but I do not talk to him so no. 18:00[laughs] But the, I guess that would be yes. I'm [laughs], but yeah I don't talk to him for several reasons [laughs]. Yeah um, I would say that's a part of the reason yes, but I guess the answer is that I don't talk to him. [laughs]

MYKLEGARD: [laughs] Totally fine. So what do you identify as?

STAATS: That's interesting. [pauses] [laughs] I guess most people would be able to give just like a "This is what I identify as." I'm engaged to a man, I identify as a female in gender and— but I think there is a component like on the 19:00Kinsey scale I would say I think seven is completely straight yeah or seven is completely homosexual.

MYKLEGARD: I'm not familiar with the scale at all [laughs]

STAATS: Oh okay!

MYKLEGARD: [laughs] I never based anything on it, I read about it like once.

STAATS: Okay I think seven is completely homosexual if I'm going by the Easy A movie that I saw yesterday [laughs,] I would say I'm probably closer to the middle. I've never dated women, but it's something I've only become accepting of about myself in the past few years when I've already fallen in love with this man I'm excited to be married to him. Um so yeah I would say I'm somewhere in the middle, but I've never actually played that out, in discussions I've had with my sister and some friends of mine and like "Well, you can't know that you feel 20:00that way unless you've actually done something about it." But that's like saying, I mean that's ridiculous. [laughs] To anyone in the LGBT community, that's ridiculous. Cause that's like saying "How do you know you're gay unless you've done something." And that's silly you know you're attracted to certain people or not certain people. So I would say I'm more in the middle and I would also argue that most people are closer to the middle than they would let, society would have us believe. Yeah.

MYKLEGARD: Was it difficult to stick with SafeZone when you got into the workforce, was that something you were really super passionate about?

STAATS: Um, I think just like work life balance was the difficult part of it. Like just getting through medical school for me was a struggle. The studying and 21:00everything else, so luckily SafeZone was something I found out about at the end of med school and I had more time to commit to it because unfortunately I had to prioritize passing [laughs] over the social things I'm interested in or passionate about.

MYKLEGARD: You mentioned a few different initiatives by the LGBTA when you were there, do you remember any more besides the ones you were involved in?

STAATS: Hmm [laughs] Halloween's not an initiative [laughs] um, I'm probably terrible— I'm a terrible friend I'm gonna get in trouble [laughs] um no I 22:00remember Take Back the Night had special significance because there were people I met in the LGBT community that you know rape is seen as such a heterosexual type issue and they challenged me because I learned that it's not and so that added a new spin for Take Back the Night that I hadn't thought of before. But no, I'm actually, since college I've learned of a lot more issues, but no in college I don't remember different initiatives.

MYKLEGARD: Are you involved with a lot of activism now in terms of the LGBTA community?

STAATS: Um, I'm not um so starting SafeZone and attempting to start SafeZone at my job is pretty difficult and against the grain but it's definitely not my everyday thing. Unfortunately preaching to any residents or med students that 23:00are gonna listen or read this, there's not a lot of time to do other things [laughs] but whenever given the opportunity that somebody else organizes I'm right on it. But besides starting SafeZone, not really.

MYKLEGARD: When you were at Tech, did your friends in the community did they ever mention anything about feeling uncomfortable at the college?

STAATS: Um, I don't know if at the college was the thing I think it was just you know [laughs] Southwest Virginia as the place of discomfort. I know there was difficulty because the LGBT community is so small at Virginia Tech, or it was 24:002005 to 2009, but so that would you know there were no secrets. But I don't think, I don't think the school itself was ever like a repressive type force. I think Virginia Tech would, is pretty open to if somebody points out a problem they respond to it. That's what I remember.

MYKLEGARD: How would you compare, in terms of being comfortable in your sexuality, how would you compare that experience while being at Austin to being at Virginia Tech?

STAATS: Um [pauses] interesting. First of all, Austin is the best place in the world everyone should move here but not really because it's too crowded. [laughs]

MYKLEGARD: [laughs]

STAATS: But Austin has a huge thriving LGBT community here. And T especially 25:00which I don't think Virginia Tech really has a large population or an accepted population, so I think just being in Austin to identify as gay, lesbian, bi is just a lot more easily accepted or you know you're not to bat an eye. And then being in the medical community same thing, we're taught to be non judgmental. So I think it's easier for me to say things like I identify as bi than it was at Virginia Tech. um yeah, so and I don't think I accepted that part of myself in college. I think it was only through a lot of sort of reflection and almost 26:00relationship stuff like that, mhm. So it took some personal growth to get where I am and I don't know if that's necessarily, I don't think that's Virginia Tech versus Austin I think that's just time.

MYKLEGARD: Did you ever start like questioning your sexuality while you were at Tech or was that something that didn't happen until after you graduated?

STAATS: So that, that was the almost relationship. I had a best friend in college and [pauses] I, we were roommates for awhile and then there were rumors that began. I also drove the bus [laughs] there were rumors that began at the BT that we were in a lesbian couple and I really withdrew from that relationship 27:00from that friendship. And I think in hindsight it's because I was afraid that it was pretty much almost that without like sexual contact. And she and I have talked about that since then and um neither of us had been in a lesbian relationship before that. She has since then. And, and I think we both recognize that was me we could've we likely would've started something if I had been open and accepting of it. But I think at that time I wasn't open to the idea that I could be that way, I could love other people that were that way but that wasn't something that I was.

MYKLEGARD: Do, have you since then thought about why you were uncomfortable?

STAATS: Yes, lots of self reflection. I think mostly it's my upbringing because 28:00I do still identify with Christianity and Christ as the way for me. And in the Bible it states very clearly that's not okay, yeah so I think that's the big reason. I don't think our— I think our society nowadays is very open to it. I think my friends are very, very open to it. Yeah but um, it would mostly it was mostly the religious upbringing type thing. Which I think my religion gave me a lot of great things and saved me from feeling hopeless and depressed a lot of times through different points of my life, so I don't want to be knocking religion in this. I just think the people's spin of religion is not the best.

MYKLEGARD: While being in Austin have you found that you have also become familiar with any sort of LGBT community?

STAATS: Only because my friend from college is here. [laughs] But not lets see— oh well I mean Austin is so open to it like literally at least 30 or 40 of my attendings at the hospital identify as gay and are in long term committed relationships. Some of them have adopted children. So in that way yes, but um again my circle of friends is really unfortunately the hospital the people that I— the residents that I work with and none of us have same sex partners and all of us are cis gender identify that way.

MYKLEGARD: Have you, besides the issue with the transgender patient have you 30:00noticed any other issues in relation to LGBT while you've been at the hospital?

STAATS: Um, [pauses] no I think transgender is the big thing. Because all like so many of my attendings are gay, it's not even like it would be completely inappropriate to say something bad. I think you know stereotypes jokes are made, but in the same way like I think it's equally equal opportunity jokes like "Straight guys can't dress," "Gay guys"— you know, fill in something offensive I 31:00could say. [laughs] You know and I think that that happens, but it's like in good fun. I think it's to the point I read an article recently when Caitlyn Jenner came out and it was talking about the progression of transgender in America and talked about how being homosexual— it used to be when jokes were made it was really insulting or terrible or like demeaning and then as homosexuality and acceptance of it evolved they became more like "Oh, we can joke about this now." Like different things women in the workplace or I don't know. And so transgender is taking that same sort of evolution, where now jokes can be made about it and they're not just like mean they're creative and funny and you know. So yeah I feel like that's sort of where it's at at my place of work.

MYKLEGARD: Do you ever go back and visit Tech?

STAATS: [sighs] Um, I've been there once in the past maybe twice in the past four years. I would as much as I can, it's really tough. [laughs] It's tough to get back there.

MYKLEGARD: Do you ever notice any changes when you go in terms of just the vibe of the people who live there now?

STAATS: Besides feeling old [laughs], no I mean for me it's like going home. It's wonderful. Everyone's happy and it's blue and it's great.

MYKLEGARD: Alright I only have like two more questions to ask.

STAATS: Yeah.

MYKLEGARD: Is there anything that you thought I would ask during the interview that I didn't ask?

STAATS: Hmm, um I think you would ask about my own orientation, I thought you would ask about what the vibe was like at Tech, and then I didn't know what to expect beyond that so no. [laughs]

MYKLEGARD: Alright, this question is kind of difficult and broad but take it anyway you want. Is there anything that you would like future historians to know about Tech?

STAATS: Hmm my initial thought which I will still say is it is wonderful. It has 33:00changed my life, I'm so happy I got to go to college there. I will always be a hokie like, probably number one. That's one of my top identifiers [laughs] before female or [laughs] ally or whatever. I think it's a very open place it's this little spot of blue in the sea of red that is southwest Virginia. It's lovely and in getting married soon my friend, my friend that's true, but also my fiancè [laughs] he's Indian and he's bringing a lot of jokes about diversity to our wedding because he has friends of every color and country or whatever. But I would argue, and it's mostly from Tech, that I'm bringing a lot of sexually diverse people that identify as many different things and have been in many 34:00different relationships and Tech allowed that and Tech supported that and Tech is a wonderful place.

MYKLEGARD: Alright, final question. What do you think constitutes an ally and do you yourself regard yourself as an ally?

STAATS: That is a great question and I think that has evolved interestingly as the race relations have evolved in America. Right now, this is July of 2015 and depending on when you're reading this a lot of things have happened in the past year it's become more known, I think it's been going on for awhile but white cops killing black men for sometimes very small things have become more in light 35:00and as I've been really sort of engaged in that discussion, I've been challenged because there's a great book I think everyone should read called "Why Do All the Black Kids Sit Together in the Cafeteria?" And it's the idea that racism and I'll go with hetero-sexism as well or whatever ism you want to substitute in there is not the idea that one group is actively hating another, it's the, it changes the definition. And the definition of racism is that there's a system of privilege in place for people that are not, or people that are white. The privilege is in place for them and everyone else suffers because they don't have that privilege. And I think in order to reverse that that that book talks about and a lot of people are arguing is that you have to actively fight it. You have to accept that that exists even if you don't feel like your benefiting from it, 36:00and you have to actively do things like support affirmative action support hiring people that don't look like you, hiring people with different life experiences. And I think the same is true for LGBT allies that you have to accept that there is privilege for us that generally have, that are straight or have straight relationships that are heterosex and you have to actively do things to oppose that. You have to start SafeZones you have to support legislation because if you're passive about it, nothing's going to change like quote-on-quote LGBT people are the minority based on current statistics and it's difficult for a minority to enact change so you have to help. And you have to actively do it.

MYKLEGARD: Awesome. Well anything else you'd like to add?

STAATS: Go hokies! [laughs]

MYKLEGARD: [laughs] alright thank you so much!

STAATS: Yeah!