Equitas Health hosted its annual We Won’t Rest Fest on Friday, bridging themes of creativity and acceptance to Athens.
The festival, which promotes gender identity-affirming services in Athens, offered free haircuts, legal name changes, wardrobe swaps and 26 additional booths from various organizations.
In each booth, attendees could find information on safe sexual health, free shots and testing, clothing, pins, stickers, fidget toys, condoms and food. Organizations from across Ohio including Equitas Health, event organizers, advertised their resources.
Equitas is a community healthcare resource dedicated to providing safe and accessible healthcare to all individuals. The Athens branch, on 8 W Stimson Ave., offers services such as walk-in testing and behavioral health services and connections to other medical units in the area.
Emilee Hemler, Equitas’ prevention health navigator, and her co-worker, Gabriela Grijalva, medical health advocate for Equitas, co-organized the festival. We Won’t Rest Fest was created by an Equitas Health colleague over three years ago.
“This is their brainchild,” Grijalva said of the original creator. “Their vision was to bring gender affirming care resources to the Athens community.”
Destigmatizing sexual safety is Equitas’ first step in bringing crucial resources to Athens, Hemler said.
“I see folks all the time that have so much stigma or shame surrounding sex [and] getting screened,” Hemler said. “(It’s about) normalizing those conversations so we can better address our own preventive needs and to not only respect ourselves but the bodies of others and our partners.”
Equitas Health wasn’t the only organization in attendance. Additional activities included free haircuts and name-changing services, which are crucial for locals who may not have the time, money or access.
AJ Taynor, an attendee and employee of Dirty South Therapeutics in Chillicothe, took advantage of the welcoming environment.
“Getting the haircut helps a lot because it really helps with affirming my gender,” Taynor said, showcasing a clean, fresh look.
Taynor said hairstylists were offering advice, too.
“I love it, especially for the beard because I don’t know jack s--- about keeping a beard,” Taynor said. “As much as I love having one, I’m not trying to have a neck beard, so I’m trying to figure out how to shape it.”
Other services branched outside of gender affirming care and focused on education.
Jane Riley, a representative of Athens Local Outreach to Suicide Survivors and the Athens County Suicide Prevention Coalition, was handing out information and resources.
“Suicide is a word that a lot of people don’t want to say but it is something that is very prevalent in our society,” Riley said.
LOSS primarily assists those who have lost someone close to them to suicide, while the Prevention Coalition focuses on getting individuals with suicidal ideations the assistance they need.
Transgender individuals are at a greater risk of suicide than cisgender individuals, according to the National Library of Medicine. The rates for attempted suicide and suicidal ideation are also higher for transgender individuals, according to separate studies posted in journals by the Guilford Press and Taylor & Francis.
“In our current societal and political climate, a lot of our resources are being pared down,” Riley said. “I wanted to make sure we're still there and that no matter what, we see you. And these are important resources, no matter what other entities are saying.”
Attendees and organizers alike strived for the festival to be a place to foster safety and support.
“Suicide prevention isn't just about helping folks when they get to that point where they're having suicidal ideation or attempting,” Riley said. “It's about all those things before that we can do for folks to build community [and] to reduce isolation.”
For several organizations, the We Won’t Rest Fest is one small step in creating a larger network of support for transgender individuals. Equitas Health plans to host the festival for a fourth year to continue the tradition.
“The impact of a space like this is someone being able to come and have a space for them, but then also realizing that they're not alone,” Grijalva said. “There are so many different people with so many different aspects and intersections of identity.”
