Ryan Sallans (born 1979) is an American

LGBT LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, asexual, aromantic, agender, and other individuals. The gro ...

author, speaker, advocate and out

trans man A trans man or transgender man is a man who was assigned female at birth. Trans men have a male gender identity, and many trans men undergo medical and social transition to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identi ...

. Sallans began his transition in 2005. He travels the

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speaking to professionals, college audiences, and youth about gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation along with his story of being

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

and the changing nature of health care. Sallans has been featured in ''Closer Magazine'', the ''

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'', ''The Reader'', ''NewsNetNebraska'', ''Oddee.com'', ''The Advocate'', and many more including The Chicago Bureau,

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, and

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. He shares his story about his struggle with an eating disorder and how he came to terms with his

gender identity Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent and consistent with the in ...

. Sallans was a guest on ''

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'' in 2007 and 2009. He has also appeared on ''

The Ricki Lake Show ''The Ricki Lake Show'' (also known as ''Ricki'' or ''The New Ricki Lake Show'') is an American first-run syndicated talk show hosted by Ricki Lake. The series also marked her return to talk television after leaving the genre in 2004. After sev ...

'' in 2012 and ''

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'' in 2012. In 2013 he was interviewed on the NPR radio show, ''

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'' with Tom Ashbrook and also on ''

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'' with Josh Zepps.

Gender transition

In 2005, Sallans began undergoing a physical and social

gender transition Gender transition is the process of affirming and expressing one's internal sense of gender, rather than the sex assigned to them at birth. It is a recommended course of treatment for individuals experiencing gender dysphoria, providing impro ...

. He had a bilateral

mastectomy Mastectomy is the medical term for the surgical removal of one or both breasts, partially or completely. A mastectomy is usually carried out to treat breast cancer. In some cases, women believed to be at high risk of breast cancer choose to have ...

with nipple grafts performed the beginning of May 2005 before beginning

hormone therapy Hormone therapy or hormonal therapy is the use of hormones in medical treatment. Treatment with hormone antagonists may also be referred to as hormonal therapy or antihormone therapy. The most general classes of hormone therapy are hormonal therap ...

in June. During this time he was featured in the

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documentary, ''Gender Rebel'', which captured him at the beginning of his transition. In July 2005, a Nebraska Court granted his request for a name change and he legally completed his transition in October 2005, when he had his gender officially changed on all of his legal documents including his birth certificate. Ryan also underwent lower surgery in the form of a

hysterectomy Hysterectomy is the surgical removal of the uterus and cervix. Supracervical hysterectomy refers to removal of the uterus while the cervix is spared. These procedures may also involve removal of the ovaries (oophorectomy), fallopian tubes ( salpi ...

in 2006 and a

metoidioplasty Metoidioplasty, metaoidioplasty, or metaidoioplasty (informally called a meto or meta) is a female-to-male gender-affirming surgery. Testosterone replacement therapy gradually enlarges the clitoris to a mean maximum size of (as the clitoris ...

in 2008.

Public speaking

Since 1999, Sallans has worked as a trainer and speaker and now focuses his work on issues surrounding

eating disorders An eating disorder is a mental disorder defined by abnormal eating behaviors that adversely affect a person's health, physical or mental health, mental health. These behaviors may include eating too much food or too little food. Types of eatin ...

body image Body image is a person's thoughts, feelings and perception of the aesthetics or sexual attractiveness of their own body. The concept of body image is used in several disciplines, including neuroscience, psychology, medicine, psychiatry, psycho ...

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...

, and

health care Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement or maintenance of health via the preventive healthcare, prevention, diagnosis, therapy, treatment, wikt:amelioration, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other disability, physic ...

. Ryan is hired by corporations, health care institutions, universities, non-profit organizations and federal agencies to provide keynotes, campus programming, and professional staff development trainings. His work as a speaker is rooted in storytelling and branches out to interlace personal stories with research and data focused on creating inclusive environments for LGBTQ individuals, employees and patients. He is hosted as a keynote speaker across the country for conferences and diversity and inclusion events highlighting finding similarities through our differences.

Author

Sallans has authored two books, the first is ''Second Son: Transitioning Toward My Destiny, Love and Life'' in 2013. His second book, released September 24, 2019 is titled ''Transforming Manhood: A trans man's quest to build bridges and knock down walls''. He's also written or co-authored articles for journal publications including Journal of Ethics in Mental Health and Journal of Ethics.Journal of Ethics
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References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sallans, Ryan 1979 births Living people American LGBTQ rights activists Writers from Omaha, Nebraska LGBTQ people from Nebraska Transgender memoirists Transgender male writers University of Nebraska–Lincoln alumni American male non-fiction writers People from Aurora, Nebraska American transgender men American transgender writers 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American non-fiction writers 21st-century American LGBTQ people