When Cory Frederick's mother dressed Cory in a pink, yellow and blue Easter jumper as a kid, she knew that look didn't fit her child's character. Cory looked like a pumpkin and knew it didn't fit, either.
After a 10-year transformation, Cory transitioned from the little girl in the jumper to his current masculine identity.
Cory Frederick, an Ohio University junior geology major, is a transgendered person, one of several on campus that comprise the T in the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender ' LGBT ' community.
Frederick and other members of the LGBT community on campus and their allies will hold an informational program called Trans 101: Understanding the T
as part of Pride Week at 8 tonight in Baker 354.
Identity transitioning is a very thoughtful process, said Mickey Hart, director of the LGBT Center at OU. People take time to figure out and analyze what identity is appropriate for them, he added.
Frederick began his identity search when he first came to OU as a freshman in 1998. He left college after Winter Quarter that year, in March 1999. Then identifying himself as a butch lesbian, he left school to work and save money for surgery to transition from a female to a male.
Frederick lived as a woman until he was about 24. He began taking testosterone in 2004 and later changed his name from Michelle to Cory. During this time, he took business classes on-and-off at Columbus State Community College. He returned to OU as a sophomore in fall 2007 and began his junior year this quarter.
Frederick, who turns 28 on Wednesday, experienced a sense of closure in his gender identity in November by solidifying his transition through breast reduction surgery.
The thing is when you're viewed by other people they make a determination by how you look
Frederick said. Now
there's no question about who I'm appearing to be
which makes it easier to meet new people and apply for a job.
Many students who are trying to decide if transitioning is the right choice for them hope to make that decision before they graduate, said Susan Young, a psychologist at Hudson Health Center. This helps transgendered individuals avoid awkward conversations when applying for a job.
College is an opportune time to really think about who you really are and to get the things in your life in alignment with who you are
Hart said.
Elliot Long began his transition while in Athens. A 2006 OU graduate with a degree in music performance, Long started school at a small Quaker college in Wichita, Kan. Coming out as a queer female during his second week of his freshman year, Long realized the tiny
conservative Christian college was a bad idea and transferred to OU in winter 2003. Long did not announce that he was a transgendered person until several years after he initially came out, he said.
Long was nervous about coming out as a transperson because the music program at OU was small and all his professors and classmates knew him.
It wasn't like I could just reappear as a new person
he said.
Long started going by the name Elliot in the LGBT circles at OU in April 2005 during his junior year. That summer, he started taking hormones, came out to his family as a transgendered individual and changed his name.
Long said it was easy to transition in college, especially because he was far away from his Kansas home. He also joined a transgender support group at Hudson Health Center.
But Long's mother didn't take his announcement of transitioning lightly, and she ended up seeing a counselor in Wichita who works with the transpeople there.
I think she was really worried that I would become a completely different person and she would no longer recognize me after I started transitioning
Long said. After I started taking hormones
then she realized that I was still the same person
