When Girls Graduate as Guys

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
When Girls Graduate as Guys
47
Thu, 05-24-2007 - 1:46pm

What else can you do while gulping down 2 bottles of 4 fl oz of cough & cold medicine from Friday to Tuesday’s night? Who catches a cold in May? What else can I do since I’m sick of sleeping? I caught up on reading newspapers I’ve been neglecting. The Boston Globe magazine has a title “When Girls graduate as Guys” caught my attention.
Written by Adrian Brune, oh, this is from 4.8.2007 edition.

The article covers a dilemma women’s colleges are facing. The debate?

-Is it still a women’s college when some students who were females as freshmen are males by graduation day?
-If transmen are graduating from women’s colleges, is it fair/right/legal to forbid males born from attending women’s colleges?
-If women’s colleges are there to encourage/provide knowledge and skills on empowerment/to be the best you can be as a woman and some of their students don’t want to be women, does that defeats the purpose of being at a women’s college?

Comments by some of the transgenders are interesting too. I understand transgenders are people who feel they are not born with a body they feel uncomfortable with (to put it mildly). They were biological women but they wanted more to be men. One of the transmen said “I cried the day after I woke up and found my breasts gone.”…”with each stage, I feel like I’ve been losing my lesbian identity and that’s hard to give up.” What he said got me wondering. If transgenders have been struggling to realize their desires to be men, do they really have a lesbian identity? Is the lesbian identity automatically granted just because they were born as female, like their applications to women’s colleges goes through the pipelines because they’re of the female sex? Will we ship a toaster without questions when a transgender who was biological male complete the sex change and attracted to women? (wouldn’t offering a new car instead of a toaster be a better recruiting kit?)

FYI: Transgender can legally change the sex on their license in Massachusetts.

Unfortunately, no website was provided in the article so I can’t link it with my post for anyone interested in reading the article. The author is a freelance writer for The Hartford Courant and addy is magazine@globe.com if you want to request a copy.

One more question, since I am asking do you view me as having transphobia? The debate is on some of the schools websites and the article quoted a reply to a question "let the transphobia debate begin again." That reply got me wondering if I will be view that way too. *smile*

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-01-2003
Fri, 05-25-2007 - 11:23am

I don't think asking questions or opinions makes you transphobic. You haven't actually said what you think.


I can't begin to answer all those questions Eastie. I simply want to respect the person in whatever gender they feel they are. Somehow I doubt there'll be many occasions where the womens college thing comes into question, so it might be a storm in a teacup. But I think those students

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-15-2004
Fri, 05-25-2007 - 11:47am

Hi eastie, and thank you for this very provocative topic. Sometimes your honesty in wanting to know the truth (or is it just plain curiosity?)is refreshing and a bit intrusive, but I don't take offense, at least you are willing to ask. And for that, I appriciate you.

Onward...

For the on and off times that you do post and you do seem to want to know me, I don't think you are transphobic. You don't seem to have a fear of transgender people, especially of me.

Do transmen really have a lesbian identity? I can only speak for me, yes, I am still a lesbian. I am just moving on in my sexual orientation continuum, as being the gender I feel I was intended to be. My identity does not restrict me to specific symbols or a specific criteria or box, if you will, of being what and who I am. A man.

I don't know if you have a television station that allows you to get a "Gay channel" but I know that in DE, we have Logo. It features all of the "Gay news, shows, etc" They had a documentary on it. The documentary was called TransGeneration. It featured college students that were going through their transitions as male to females and females to males. If you can get to Amazon.com, you can order the dvd through them to answer some of those questions, that you posed about transmen graduating from a woman's college.

At present, I'm in college, Delaware Technical and Community College, I know that there are other transgenders there, but none so obvious. I'm obvious because of the chemical change that I'm going through, meaning with the injections of testosterone. When I updated some mailing information with the registrar, I informed her of the eventual legal change of name that will take place, when I'm financially able. She asked me what my male name is and I told her, she asked me why don't I keep my feminine name.

With a smile, I told her, "Because I want my name to be in agreement with my outward appearance." She asked me what my name is and I told her.

I'm not only going through a chemical change, I'm going through a holistic change.

I would really prefer a pick-up truck, if you don't mind. ROFLOL!

Thanks and keep asking!

Hugs,

Sebastian.

 


Hugs,


Sebastian


 


http://www.facebook.com/sebastianbruce

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 05-25-2007 - 1:17pm

I wish the author had included a website to the article so it could be read by all interested parties. I’m not totally sure but I think my questions are giving off a different viewpoint than what the author wrote by the questions and replies I’m getting back. I think the article has to do with women’s colleges and what’s going on within the institution. I did get the impression the author is questioning if the transgen issue is one of many issues that is chipping away at women’s colleges.

I’m not sure what you’re saying with this “Somehow I doubt there'll be many occasions where the womens college thing comes into question, so it might be a storm in a teacup.” Will you elaborate? I want to add a reply, it’s just at a tip of my back brain…slowing running to the front but I need to know a little more of what you meant. :-) The article didn’t mention anyone being kicked out because they are transgen. It did mentioned resources and counseling the schools provide to the transgen community within the school, it singled out the Smith College especially. The transgen that participated in the article weren’t complaining of mistreatment by the school. They still voiced feeling alienated but it seems like this alienation they feel have to do with the whole society in general.

I see what you saying on the identity question.
Funny, maybe I was a little sad on what he said about losing lesbian identity and maybe that sadness didn’t let me see it his way. Can you imagine, being said for a total stranger’s comment and it was just one comment attributed to him. *smile*

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-25-2003
Fri, 05-25-2007 - 1:19pm

Hey, Seb. *L & Smile*

I’m sorry my questions are intrusive. Just tell me to shut up next time! ;-) Thank you for not taking offense to my questions and being tactless at times. Simply put, I’m curious because I’m interested in human beings and human nature.

"Do transmen really have a lesbian identity? I can only speak for me, yes, I am still a lesbian. I am just moving on in my sexual orientation continuum, as being the gender I feel I was intended to be. My identity does not restrict me to specific symbols or a specific criteria or box, if you will, of being what and who I am. A man."

See, what you said is contradictory to me. When someone say lesbian, I think of a woman not a man. Are you thinking of the word lesbian just as a label than if you feels you are a man and a lesbian. I know this sound confusing, I have to read it second time around too. *l* I’m kind of confuse by what you said so I’m asking in a confusing way. ;-)

Seb, I’m in the city. Of course cable is available. I just don’t have one at home. *grin* I do have my reasons for not buying cable but that’s another topic for another time. *l* I do get dvd so I have to remember the title of the show for the future.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-03-2007
Fri, 05-25-2007 - 2:46pm
nm


Edited 5/29/2007 6:47 pm ET by digtheblues
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-15-2004
Fri, 05-25-2007 - 3:54pm

Hey eastie, I wouldn't tell you to shut up, you have some valid questions, that I don't mind answering. Whether they were "aimed" at me, or not, isn't important. I can't speak for the entire transexual community.

As I've said, I'm going through a holistic change and the change isn't an overnight one. I think like a man and etc. Labels are confusing. I try to minimize the confusion by keeping my mouth shut and let people draw their own conclusions about me.

Even thought I know that wikipediea is sometimes unreliable, look up transexuals and it will give some of the information that you are looking for.

Explaining to you how I think of myself would take all day, I don't have the time to, I do have to study. Sometimes there are people called purists. They don't go beyond what a label means. Some lesbian purists don't think that a lesbian can't evolve from being a lesbian, if she does, then she's "throwing away" her identity. With me, that's not the case. I am who I am. A man.

I have some questions for you, how do you throw away your identity? How do you throw away what you really are? How do you know inside that you are a woman? How do you know that you, yourself, aren't a man, also? Let me add on to your confusion, lol! Let's say I'm out somewhere and another transman identifies himself to me and we fall in love, what does that make me then? A gay man. But I prefer a genetic woman (meaning a woman that is biologically female and doesn't care about what I have between my legs. But cares about what's in my heart, mind and about my honesty).

Some, if most, of those questions that I just posed to you aren't the easiest to answer, now are they? Outside appearances are confusing upon sight, unless you know for sure what the person is, or that you ask.

I identify as a man, because at age 5, I knew there was something completely different about me and not that I was a lesbian. At that point, I still couldn't put my finger on an exact answer. Now that I'm a adult, and that the issue of my "identity" has come to light, then I accept myself as myself, a man.

Keep asking and keep being interested in human beings.

Hugs,

Sebastian

 


Hugs,


Sebastian


 


http://www.facebook.com/sebastianbruce

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-15-2004
Fri, 05-25-2007 - 4:11pm

Hi Leaf, it's nice to "meet" you too.

The questions or thoughts that you have are honest ones. There have been stories about women that have hormonal imbalances, and they have facial hair. Does the fact that they have facial hair and have more hair on their bodies make them male?

I can't answer that question. The changes that my body has gone through, pre-testosterone injection, could be caused my cystis on my ovaries, blah, blah, blah.

Just because you like doing "man's work" and not "woman's work" make you any less of a woman. In my opinion, your "propesity" to be with women is because you love women, you want to have a relationship with women, you want to have sex with a woman, I would guess that that qualifies you in being a lesbian.

There's nothing scientific about my "situation" I'm simply putting a male hormone in my body to bring my transition to full circle. Emotions are hard to describe. But please, if you have more questions, please feel free to email me through my profile.

Thanks and I do hope to "chat" with you again, soon.

Sebastian

 


Hugs,


Sebastian


 


http://www.facebook.com/sebastianbruce

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-23-2006
Fri, 05-25-2007 - 9:19pm

Sebastian my friend,


Thank you for tackling this subject with such honesty and aplomb.

 PPCLSIG.jpg picture by CalyD44

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-21-2007
Sun, 05-27-2007 - 12:40am

Speaking of representations of trans in the media..... I wanted to throw in a documentary we watched in my human sexuality course: Southern Comfort. I found it to be thoughful, tasteful and sensative. The reactions and discussions with my classmates were most reveling. I love school!

Just my two cents, Celia

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-15-2004
Sun, 05-27-2007 - 12:57am

You're welcome, Caly. I'm always open for open dialouge about this topic because there are a lot of questions that people have about this gender that has always been with us, just like homosexuality.

We know of another transexual, who bravely spoke up about her transition process, I still have a lot of admiration for her, for doing so. She gave me the courage to look inside of myself and acknowledge the man that is there, and has accepted me for being me.

Everyone is who they are and that's a good thing, not everyone has the need to move on that continuum, and many are content as they are and where they are.

As usual, I'm always open for questions about my transition for those that are interested. But, if you wish to remain anonymous, please send me an email, through my profile and we can discuss it privately.

Thanks,

Sebastian

 


Hugs,


Sebastian


 


http://www.facebook.com/sebastianbruce

Pages