Today we served at Glide for a second time.  Instead of working with actual clients we worked in the prep kitchen which was similar to the service we did at Project Open Hand.  While we were only there for two hours, the experience was vastly different.  We had no contact with people experiencing homelessness which was interesting because the majority of our group really liked that aspect the first time we served.
The thing that struck me the most about our service this morning was that an employee chastised a person for being in the male bathroom.  This person could identify as male, but the employee gave no room for flexibility.  This caused me to think a lot about the system that has been built around gender and how it is not equal for people that have a gender identity other than male or female.  This is a poignant example of why we are learning about the intersection of homelessness and the LGBT community on this trip.

Holt Hafer