“I am a trans guy and I have been hormonally transitioning for about two years and a month, but I have been out in the community for about three years. In that time, I have had a pretty good coming out process… it has been well received for the most part.”
“I am lucky in that regard, everybody around me has been so supportive and all that stuff. As far as being trans on campus, it used to be very anxiety inducing for me because I had just started transitioning a week or two before I got into college – physically transitioning, that is. I was still presenting female because I had only been on testosterone for a week or two. I experienced going from being very awkward because now, trans people on campus, are allowed now to go to the correct bathroom. It still felt awkward for me at first because I was like, ‘I don’t present male, I don’t look male, I don’t sound male sound so why should I go to the male bathroom?’ So I just refrained from going to the bathroom period – which is a problem a lot of trans people have because they do not want to deal with the bathroom issue. ”
“While the bathroom issue is a very important issue, it’s not our only issue. Among trans women, there are so many sex workers, there’s so many people who are homeless. No one really focuses on that because that’s the negative aspect of being a trans person. No one wants to acknowledge that it’s hard for people and no one wants to acknowledge that there’s more issues than just going to the bathroom. When I came on campus, I was thinking all these thoughts like,
‘I’m gonna get bullied.’
‘I’m gonna get hit in the bathroom.’
I was afraid to go to the bathroom, when that should not have even been a thing.”
“It doesn’t even extend to just the bathroom, it can be walking down the street when I am feeling more feminine, wearing tighter clothes and I present male now – I can be worried someone would bully me for looking quote-on-quote ‘gay.’ At my old school, that is what they used to do. It is an issue in the South, I used to live in Florida and it is a much more culturally diverse area and it’s just ‘Florida man does this – Florida man does that.’ There is a lot of crazy people in Florida so you don’t really bat an eye at many things. Going from that environment to this, I was kinda shocked because of the things my friends went through here.”
“Being in a college setting is so much different than it is in a high school setting. When I first got here I was worried it was going to be like high school. It’s been a much more welcoming environment on campus than what I have experienced. It is not the best and it could be better, but in my opinion it is pretty good.”
