A Conversation With Our Founder
written by Avery Friend
Today, MaineTransNet (MTN) has a staff of seven, a robust Steering Committee, five work teams, and a diverse roster of caucuses. With 100+ active volunteers, over two dozen support groups across the state, an active Youth Program, and a fierce advocacy team on the front lines of state legislature, MTN is now the largest transgender-led state organization in the country.
But in 2005, when Alex Roan was hanging meeting fliers around the University of Southern Maine and reading books about grant-writing for beginners, he didn’t know what would be built on the foundation he was laying. As a self-described introvert struggling with isolation, he just wanted to meet other trans people and bring them together.
“The network part was the key,” Alex, the founder of MaineTransNet, says of that time. “That’s what I wanted to create. Ideally, there could be a lot of different people that could bring their own interests and passions, and other people could help and support them.”
MTN’s first official meeting in 2005 attracted about ten people, which soon solidified into a group of regular attendees and monthly support meetings—first in Portland, and then expanding into Bangor. Little by little, the organization grew. “I made a website,” Alex says, huffing out a laugh. “I didn’t know how to make websites, but I got a book called HTML for Dummies and I learned the basics. It was hard, and it took a long time, but it’s not impossible. That’s what MTN has always been. We figure out what needs to happen, and then we do it.”
While the support groups were the crux of the slowly-growing group, opportunities for expansion and building new connections arose. A Yahoo! Group allowed MTN to connect with a larger network in different parts of the state. Alex, who was working at a group home for teenagers that included a transgender resident, provided training for the mental health team; before long, MTN was offering similar programs to other groups and organizations.
“Within the first few years we wanted to have a conference for the community and for mental health providers,” Alex recalls, “so we talked to different organizations about [whether they] could help us make that happen. It seemed like the message was always no, we don’t have the resources to devote to this huge project. And we were just a group of random trans people, we didn’t have any conference experience, but—again, we just did it. We did it twice, actually!” he adds, sounding amused as he refers to the Transforming Health and Wellness Conference that took place in 2010 and 2011.
As MTN continued to expand, Alex completed a Master’s Degree in Counseling and later a Ph.D in Human Services and Counseling Studies. After years of working in residential facilities and day treatment programs, he shifted to a private practice where he focused on working with members of the trans community. Through this time—and to this day—he continued to serve as a facilitator of MTN’s support groups, which he calls the core of MTN.
“I know that as a mental health person I’m probably biased towards support [programming],” he says, “but even with the presence of social media now and the increased access to information and people with similar backgrounds, it’s mind-boggling how many trans people feel isolated and overwhelmed with not knowing what to do. I remember getting like three emails within a month period from this very small town in central Maine—three separate people that said, I’m the only trans person in Smithville. I was like, how big is your town? Three of you emailed within two weeks! But it’s not easy to find those people, and being able to connect with others is so valuable and potentially life-saving.
Alex was delighted when Quinn Gormley became MTN’s first Executive Director in 2017. “I’m so impressed and grateful with the work she’s done to take this chaotic pile of rubble and really start to shape it into a professional organization that now has hired staff,” he says. As MTN began a new chapter with Quinn at the helm, Alex’s own professional life evolved; after several years in private practice and adjunct teaching, he began working within the Saco school system. “Our program is with kids that are at risk of having to leave the district because of their behaviors, so we’re really trying to keep them in school,” he says. He works with Kindergartners through 5th graders, which was a new demographic for him and has provided a steep learning curve. “I’ve learned a lot of new things and have had to try a lot of new approaches, but I love the team I work with. We’re really creative and just trying to find ways to help these kids find different ways to cope with really difficult situations, and I think we’re pretty successful. I really enjoy it.”
Being a father has been an even steeper learning curve. “[My son] was born right at the beginning of Covid,” Alex says, lighting up. “He’s made me have to think about things I thought I’d moved on from. It’s been this really amazing experience of watching him grow and become his own person and defy different stereotypes and assumptions that I didn’t realize I [still] had. So now I have the chance to re-examine those gender stereotypes and just really make sure that I’m helping him learn to be who he is.”
Through it all, he’s continued to engage with MTN as a support group facilitator, currently leading a group in Brunswick. “I’ve gone through points when I’m kind of like, I have all this other stuff in life going on and I don’t know if I can keep doing this,” he admits. “But every time I get to that point I go to a group, and it’s just amazing—to know that no matter what’s going on, this can be a safe space where people are respected and valued and affirmed. I hear people tell their stories and talk about how important having these connections are, and then I leave thinking, like, wow. This is why I do this. I can’t walk away. This is so important.”
After all, that’s why Alex founded MTN to begin with: to build connections and meet the needs of trans people in Maine. “The community decides what we’re looking at and asks, how can we make this happen? And then we just try to do it,” he says. “It doesn’t always come out perfectly, but it’s that network of people.” He smiles, a little wryly. “Trans people are really determined, stubborn people,” he continues, “because we have to be. And when you put us together, and we set our mind to something, there’s no stopping us.”
