Editor’s note: The asterisk in “trans” alludes to Internet search engines using the asterisk symbol to include all forms of a word for any searched prefix. For example, using the search term “trans” finds results for all words using the “trans” prefix. Trans* includes a wide variety of different identities.
President Barack Obama declared June LGBT Pride Month on Tuesday, recognizing the struggle for equality and the storied history of the LGBT community in the United States. Prior President Obama’s declaration, the United States Congress continued to debate the Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which aimed to end discrimination against gender identity nationwide.
Despite increased awareness and acceptance of the LGBT community, trans* individuals still suffer signifcant harassment, especially in the workplace. The National Center for Transgender Equality in Washington, D.C. released a report in 2009, showing trans* individuals suffer significant harassment compared to cisgender (heterosexual, non-trans) individuals and various minority groups. More than 26 percent of trans* individuals lost a job for gender identity reasons, 97 percent felt harassed at work, and 15 percent earned $10,000 or less per year, compared to only 7 percent of all United States citizens, according to the report. Additionally, due to complications finding and keeping steady work, 19 percent of trans* individuals are homeless.
Athens City Code, however, already includes gender identity in anti-discrimination laws. City Code defines gender identity expression as “having or being perceived as having gender-related identity, expression, appearance, or behavior, whether or not that identity, expression, appearance, or behavior is different from that traditionally associated with the sex assigned to that individual at birth” and forbids discrimination based on gender identity.
Despite not identifying as a woman, soft skin, rosy cheeks and the lack of stubble make Jesper Beckholt’s face appear noticeably female. A tightly cropped buzz cut covered by a black newsboy cap and a set of brown eyes hidden behind a pair of stylish black framed glasses make the features less obvious. Usually wearing a pair of jeans, a tee shirt, maybe a dark sweater depending on the weather, and a permanent smile, nothing immediately sticks out about Beckholt. Sitting quietly at a table in the Front Room Café sketching a picture or writing a piece of poetry, Beckholt looks like a college student. Like a normal college students. Like the other college students sitting at the nearby tables in the coffee shop.
“Trans, I would define as anybody who doesn’t identify with the gender they were assigned at birth, exclusively anyway,” Beckholt said. “For example, I was assigned female at birth, but I don’t identify as a woman.”
Beckholt, a trans student at Ohio University, grew up in a normal home near Columbus. Beckholt identified as queer early in high school and started researching gender issues, sometimes stumbling across new, interesting words like transgender and gender identity, eventually making a life-changing realization.
“Realizing I’m trans* has changed my life a lot, but overall for the better, because now I know this part of me that for a long time I was trying to ignore,” Beckholt said.
Beckholt prefers the terms non-binary or gender queer and the pronouns they, them and their. Despite the emboldened “F” after the “Sex” category on the 21-year-old’s birth certificate and Ohio driver’s license, Beckholt chooses to identify as neither male nor female.
Beckholt’s blog, “Jesper Beckholt; Activist and Stuff” helps define ambiguous terms associated with trans* individuals. Sex refers to the designation of the biological differences between females and males. Usually, but not always, sex and gender match. Gender refers to the characteristics determined by society of a particular sex, typically “feminine” and “masculine.” Gender expectations represent or express gender to others, often through behavior, clothing, hairstyles, activities, voice or mannerisms. Society heavily influences gender expectations. In rare instances, individuals exhibit traits typically associated with the opposite sex or choose to identify with neither gender.
Similar to many trans* individuals, Beckholt personally struggled to accept the new identity.
“I was already queer, I already had mental illnesses – I already had these things that made me different,” Beckholt said. “I was scared to be different in another way and to open up what that might mean for what my life would be like and how it would change my plans.”
For good reason. Beckholt acknowledged the problems faced by trans* individuals in the work place. Professor Patricia Stokes of the OU Women’s and Gender Studies Department said subtle forms of harassment like staring or rude comments quickly lead to extreme, often violent, forms of harassment. Violent acts still occur today. Only two years ago, a trans* woman suffered a savage beating by two female teenagers in a McDonald’s restaurant near Baltimore, Md. after the trans* woman tried to use the women’s restroom and two teenage girls discovered the woman’s gender identity.
Trans* individuals some-times find functioning in everyday life difficult. Bathrooms pose a constant question mark. The gender neutral bathroom issue made national headlines in March when Arizona Sen. John Kavanagh promoted a bill allowing authorities to prosecute a trans* person for using a restroom not matching the sex on his or her identification card.
Ryan Vollbrath, a non-binary OU and the president of the OU Ally Gay-Straight Alliance, offered more insight to the current status of trans* rights.
“‘Can you not imagine being able to express yourself?’ has a different ring to it. It’s something that’s hard for most people who don’t have to think about what it would mean to be trans*, so trying to wrap your mind around that and then empathizing with it is incredibly difficult,” Vollrath said.
Vollrath hopes for a better educated, understanding society in the future. In fact, more education and progress in the past decade indicates a change.
Originally posted in Backdrop Magazine
Jacob Betzner 