"I'm the most unremarkable person you're ever going to meet," Rikki Swin insists as she gracefully settles into a chair at her riverfront townhouse.
Nevermind that Swin is the founder of the world's first institute dedicated to trans research and education. Or that the non-profit, 501 ( c ) 3 institute, which bears her name, owns its own downtown office building and is fully funded well into the future. Or that Swin plans to carry out its ambitious mission—to "Stimulate changes in culture to improve trans person understanding and acceptance"—with just three dedicated staff members. Swin insists she's no one special.
But as the Rikki Swin Institute ( RSI ) opens its doors this week, its presence may prove otherwise.
RSI will be open to the public this Thursday, March 22, from 6-9 pm, as participants from the 15th annual International Foundation for Gender Education conference tour the facilities.
The opening has been planned to coincide with the conference, which runs from March 21-25 at the Radisson Hotel, 75 W. Algonquin Road, in Arlington Heights.
About 200 people are expected at the conference, which each year brings together members of the trans community, including everyone from recreational cross-dressers, to people currently transitioning to post-operative transsexuals and their families, said Kristine James, part of the conference's management team.
"The primary purpose of the conference is to offer the opportunity to IFGE members and non-members for socialization and education," James said. "What they may not be able to do in their hometown."
This year's conference, with the help of RSI, is bringing in specialists and surgeons from around the world, including Amsterdam, Thailand, England and France.
Participant Dr. Preecha Tiewtranon of Thailand has reportedly performed more gender correction surgeries than anyone in the world, Swin said.
She said bringing in international specialists allows conference-goers to "globally network" and get new ideas to take back to their own local caregivers.
"We stimulate the local caregiver out of complacency," she said, by discussing the way surgeries, etc., are handled in other countries and cultures.
The ability to globally network was something Swin said she learned during her 30-plus years as a manufacturing entrepreneur. Her firm, which specialized in plastic injection molding, does work for companies and institutions including NASA, the Big Three automakers, General Electric and IBM. Fearing that her status as a trans person would jeopardize her business and its employees, she retired from the company before beginning her transition.
Now she realizes that wasn't necessary. "It wouldn't have made a difference if I'd transitioned on the job," she said, noting the high level of support she's gotten from colleagues and her family.
The ridicule and rejection she expected never materialized, and her own positive experience was part of the genesis for RSI.
Tired of the opinions of trans people formed by images such as the Jerry Springer Show, Swin said the Institute aims to show the mainstream that the trans community has its share of lawyers, pilots, doctors and other professionals.
"When the gay and lesbian movement began, the first people to emerge were the people who had the least to lose," she said. Over time, professional gays and lesbians began to come out and make themselves known.
The same is happening in the trans community, she said.
"I feel that it's time for the non-activists to emerge," she said. "We don't march, we don't picket—we're not activists, we're advocates."
RSI, whose full name is the Rikki Swin Institute: Gender Education, Research, Library and Archives, has four activities as part of its mission statement: library and archives; conference co-sponsorship; digital video education and research.
Swin estimated that the library has the largest collection of gender-specific materials in the world, and it is made up of the collections of organizations and individuals. Materials for the digital video education unit will be produced at RSI's own studio, and will be available to medical professionals and laypeople.
The research component will involve "anecdotal research for enlightenment," Swin said, with a focus on the effects of male and female hormones. Trans people are important research subjects because they voluntarily consume hormones that are the opposite of the ones they were born with, Swin said.
The Institute will be housed on the top floor of the office building at 22 W. Ontario. Both its staff and its facilities will grow as needed, Swin said, and the other floors are currently being leased.
Members of the public are invited to Thursday's opening, and on Sunday an invitation-only press conference will be held with panelists from the conference.
The public is also invited to the IFGE's conference this week.
"There will be plenty of opportunities for networking, meeting new friends and renewing old acquaintances," James said. Activities include a pool party, a fashion show, a trip to the Baton Club, a Saturday night banquet and entertainment.
For more information on the conference, call ( 610 ) 759-1761 or visit www.ifge.org .
