Outreach At A Local College

Last night I was part of a panel discussion at a local college, the panel was composed of a lesbian, a gay and a trans-person (me). The classed asked the usual questions; will the hormone raise the pitch of my voice, have I had Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS), how did you tell your family and how is you family dealing with your transition, how do I cope with the stress, and etc.

And I think that there is an unwritten rule, that the class has to ask; what bathroom do I use and how did I choose my name? It seems like each and every class that I have done an outreach in has asked me those questions.

At the end of the class we asked how many knew someone who is lesbian or gay and most of the classed raised their hands and when we asked how many knew someone who is trans about five or six students raised their hands. Just five years ago when we asked those questions there would only be one or two students raising their hand because they knew some lesbian or gay and no one would raise their hand when we asked them about if they knew a trans-person. I think, what made it even more remarkable yesterday was that we were at a Catholic college.