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 00:01:00there. And then I

definitely 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 00:02:00were instilled in us

that 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 00:03:00was touting was against people that were

gay 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 00:04:00probably through somewhere going to church

and 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 00:05:00that. And I think the first time that I really had gay friends was at Virginia

Tech, 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 00:06:00us. And we were all sort of pouring our hearts

out 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." 00:07:00[laughs] and we were like

"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 00:08:00part 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 00:09:00my hospital as well, because it's so important I think to raise

awareness. 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 00:10:00"There's a transgender patient, give them to Kathy"

[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 00:11:00months, something he cried over he tried to fight, you

know 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 00:12:00called him or her and she said her and then just so rough with

her 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, 00:13:00I was one of the first

responders 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 00:14:00hiring somebody

that 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 00:15:00no, 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 00:16:00so many

things 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 00:17:00onto the rescue squad was a

barrier 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 00:18:00interesting question, but I do not talk to him so no.

[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 00:19:00female in gender and— but I think there is a component like on the

Kinsey 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 00:20:00"Well, you can't know that you feel

that 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 00:21:00getting through medical school for me was a struggle. The studying and

everything 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 00:22:00trouble [laughs] um no I

remember 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 00:23:00any residents or med students that

are 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 00:24:00the LGBT community is so small at Virginia Tech, or it was

2005 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 00:25:00here. And T especially

which 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 00:26:00 almost

relationship 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 00:27:00lesbian couple and I really withdrew from that relationship

from 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 00:28:00 because

I 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 00:29:00spin 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: 00:30:00Have you, besides the issue with the transgender patient have you

noticed 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, 00:31:00fill in something offensive I

could 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: 00:32:00Alright 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? 00:33:00STAATS: Hmm my initial thought which I will still say is it is wonderful. It has

changed 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 00:34:00that identify as many different things and have been in many

different 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 00:35:00become more in light

and 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 00:36:00that that exists even if you don't feel like your benefiting from it,

and 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: 00:37:00[laughs] alright thank you so much!

STAATS: Yeah!