Trans at IC
by Luis Jaime Valderrama
One of the things that attracted me—and many other trans people—to Ithaca College was its reputation as a safe haven for trans students. I have found many factors that make life easier for me as a trans person in comparison to the wilderness of the outside world. The name-change form, for example, allows me to use my chosen name in almost every aspect of campus life, even if I haven’t changed it legally. In contrast, I had to contact each individual teacher at my high school to explain why I wanted them to use a new name. The fairly widespread gender-neutral bathrooms are another good factor, although there could always be more: my main form of exercise is climbing four flights of stairs to reach the gender-neutral bathroom on the top floor of the library.
Still, there are forms of transphobia that all the gender-neutral bathrooms in the world could never remedy. The struggles I face as a trans person on campus don’t have as much to do with institutional policies as with individuals who bring their own prejudices to the table. I think of myself as a pretty openly trans person—I’m involved in a lot of LGBT-related initiatives on campus and I don’t shy away from talking about my gender identity. Still, there are times when I find it difficult to speak up for myself, and small things left unaddressed build up over time. I fear I’ll fit the stereotype of trans people as oversensitive and angry, waiting for others to make a mistake, so we can attack them for daring to misuse our pronouns. The problem isn’t just with those who don’t “believe” in trans people or who are brazenly transphobic; more liberal people can also be challenging to deal with because they see themselves as the ultimate allies, so they can be unwilling to listen when they’re told they’ve made a mistake.
But what has made me feel most at home is the community. I have been lucky enough to make many trans friends, which is undoubtedly the most valuable way that my life as a trans person has improved since arriving here. To think that just a few years ago there wasn’t a single trans person I even knew of, and now I need more than two hands to count all my trans friends. They’ve helped me navigate campus with newfound confidence.