A unified effort of two student organizations brought together a transgender panel on Wednesday to give attendees a brief look into the difficulties that transgender people have during their transition.
The panel, which was jointly hosted by MT Lambda Association and MTSU’s Amnesty International, featured five speakers of various stages of transition.
Students were encouraged to ask questions. The discussion lasted two hours and topics ranged from sexuality to gender inequality.
One of the points raised at the panel was the difference between sex and gender.
“The classic definition is that sex is between your legs and gender is between your ears,” said Heather O’Malley, a speaker on the panel.
O’Malley said sometimes when children are born, doctors automatically assign a gender based on their sexual organs. She said not every child believes the sex they were given is the correct one.
“You have to separate the two and a lot of people don’t,” said Jaime Faucette, a member of the panel. “My gender and my sex are two different things; I never thought they were the same.”
Faucette said she had to face certain set backs because she hasn’t fully transitioned. At her job, she is still considered a man.
“At work I have to use the men’s room until I can fully transition,” Faucette said. “When I am out, then I can use the woman’s restroom.”
Tabitha Hawks, a member of the panel, said transitioning had changed her role in society significantly.
“I knew I would be giving up the gift of being socially elite,” Hawks said. “I repair computers for a living, and I walk into places where they say ‘they sent a woman to do a man’s job?’ After the first few months I realized that as a female I’m invisible.”
The other women on the panel agreed. By switching from a man to a woman, they sacrificed some of their power.
“For a white male to go ‘I don’t want to be a man anymore,’ you are loosing a lot of power,” O’Malley said.
The men then described how their social roles have changes.
“For me, I am now the white male who has certain roles to play,” said Aiden Weston, a member of the panel. “When I was growing I wasn’t taught how to interact with a male as a male.”
He went on to describe how that lack of knowledge has affected the way other men perceive him.
To finish the panel, the speakers told the audience about some to the unexpected side effects of the hormones. Most discussed how the thickness of their hair changes and how the hormones effected their emotions.
“As a guy chocolate is okay,” O’Malley said. “I will knife someone for chocolate now.”
Hawks then said she discovered that chocolate can level out the estrogen in a person’s body, which explains why women crave chocolate.
Amnesty MTSU President Kidd Navarro says the event “was a huge success.”
She also said people should attend the lecture by Cat Stevens, a member of the San Francisco LGBT center. The lecture is set for Nov. 18 at 6:00 p.m. in the State Farm Room located in the Business and Aerospace Building.
Panel discusses transgender’s obstacles
Published: Monday, November 16, 2009
Updated: Monday, November 16, 2009 00:11
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