Ithaca College LGBT Center Director Wins Book Award

By Willa Hahn, September 27, 2016

LGBT Center Director Wins Book Award

Luca Maurer, program director of the Ithaca College Center for LGBT Education, Outreach and Services, has been honored with the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists’ (AASECT) 2016 Book Award for his book, “The Teaching Transgender Toolkit: A Facilitator’s Guide to Increasing Knowledge, Decreasing Prejudice & Building Skills.”

The award is given each year to the authors of a book that “makes a significant contribution to AASECT’s vision of sexual health and to the clinical and educational standards of the field.”

“The Teaching Transgender Toolkit,” which Maurer wrote with William Patterson University Assistant Professor Eli R. Green, provides resources and best practices to those wishing to facilitate trainings about transgender people, identities and experiences.  

Maurer and Green accepted their award at the 2016 Annual AASECT Conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where they also gave a presentation on “Educators as Transgender Allies.”

 “I'm honored to have our work recognized with this prestigious award, and equally honored to be doing this important work,” said Maurer. “As someone that's been in the field for quite some time, I've watched not just society at large, but some of my friends and colleagues, too, struggle to understand and embrace the diversity of gender identities and expressions that are part of the human experience. I look forward to continuing to work to create a world in which everyone is safe, respected and affirmed.”

Two print runs of “The Teaching Transgender Toolkit” have sold out, and it is about to enter a third.

A portion of the book’s proceeds is being donated to support organizations that provide services to and advocate for the most marginalized members of transgender communities.