Pride Week Workshop Raises Transgender Awareness

This is the second in a five-part series on this year’s Pride Week at OU.

The workshop was lead by Michelle Pride, a provider of psychological services at the university, and Lindsay Marx-Boylam, Residential Director at Jefferson Hall and an avid supporter of the gender-neutral housing program.

The purpose of this event was to inform students about what it means to be transgendered and the related issues on campus.

The presentation began with Pride asking who is “trans” and what comes to mind when people hear the word.

She defined being transgendered as an “umbrella term,” which encompasses more than just one group of people. She then showed pictures and explained how people who are transgendered are everyday doctors, lawyers, models and athletes.

“This is Trans,” Pride said.

Some of the students said that they came because they were unsure of what it meant to be transgendered. However, graduate student Kris Grey, who also goes as Justin Credible, came to offer his own experience as a transgendered student.

“I wanted to come tonight to see who all was interested as well as to offer myself as a resource,” Grey said.

According to Pride, a transgendered person is someone whose gender identity is different from that which a “doctor said in the delivery room when they were born.”

“You choose [gender],” she said. “People can’t tell you your gender, even though they may try.”

She said that some people realize that they may be transgendered at a young age, but most realizations come during puberty and lead to transitions happening during the college years.

“For a lot of people, coming to college is a fresh start,” Pride said.

This plays a part in the implementation of gender-neutral housing at OU next year in Smith House.

“[Students] need a safe place where they can be themselves – where they can use the bathroom and not have to worry,” she said.

Marx-Boylam then took over the presentation to talk about the new system.  This project was student-driven and student-backed.  She said they are now in the “implementation” phase and are working on placing Resident Advisors (RA) in the dorm.

Smith House is part of a four-dorm complex, so all of the RAs will be trained as if they were living in the gender-neutral dorm.

Sophomore Buxi Iacobone attended the presentation because she hopes to be an RA in one of the dorms next year.

“I am passionate about this subject and would love to be able to help out and be placed in one of the dorms next year,” she said.

Even if they are not living in the gender-neutral dorms, Pride offered tips to the students about how to be more respectful to transgendered students and said this is just the beginning.

Overall, Grey said that he thought the presentation served as a good foundation for students who were not informed on what it means to be transgendered.

He will be sharing his personal story at one of Tuesday’s Pride Week events, the SpeakOUT! Council held in Baker Theater at 7:30 p.m.