In honor of Transgender Awareness Month and Trans Education Week, LGBT Center staff members answer questions related to trans identities.
What is Transgender Day of Remembrance?
LS: Transgender Day of Remembrance is an annual observance to honor the memory of lives lost in acts of anti-transgender violence. The day was started after Rita Hester, a transgender woman, was killed in 1998. The founder of the day, Gwendolyn Ann Smith, said, "The Transgender Day of Remembrance seeks to highlight the losses we face due to anti-transgender bigotry and violence. I am no stranger to the need to fight for our rights, and the right to simply exist is first and foremost. With so many seeking to erase transgender people — sometimes in the most brutal ways possible — it is vitally important that those we lose are remembered, and that we continue to fight for justice.”
Ohio University will be observing Transgender Day of Remembrance on Thursday at 8 p.m. at Galbreath Chapel on College Green. All are welcome to attend.
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What does it mean to transition?
SH: Transitioning is the process transgender individuals go through to further affirm their gender identity. It can range from someone coming out to others (or coming out to themselves) as transgender, changing their name, undergoing hormone replacement therapy and completing various gender affirmation surgeries. Some people stop with personal transitions, such as coming out to friends and family members as transgender or changing what type of clothing they wear. There are social transitions, such as changing their legal name or asking to be referred to by a different pronoun. Every transition is unique to that individual person and not everyone wants to, or can, medically transition (take hormones, gender affirmation surgery, etc). That does not make their trans identity less valid than those who can (and want to) medically transition. Transitioning is a personal journey that allows people to feel more comfortable with their gender.
Sam Haug (pronouns: they/them/their) and Lindsay Schneider (pronouns: she/her/hers) are both staff for the LGBT Center at Ohio University. Do you have a question relating to the LGBT community? Email them to lgbt@ohio.edu or oulgbtcenter@gmail.com, tweet @oulgbtcenter with #qaqueer, or post/message to the center’s Facebook page, oulgbtcenter. Individuals who submit questions will appear anonymously in our responses. All questions ARE WELCOME!
