Event stirs up gender identity discussion

Gender is not always as clear as male and female.

At Willkie Quad’s “Lost in Transition” program, issues of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression were discussed by students, Barry MaGee, the assistant director for diversity educator for Residential Programs and Services and Rachael Jones, a transwoman who owns Bloomington’s Rachael’s Café.

At the program, participants watched segments of “Transamerica,” a movie about a male-to-female transsexual who takes a roadtrip with her son. After watching the clips they discussed the issues pertinent in the movie. Both Jones and MaGee shared their personal experiences. MaGee talked about being a homosexual male and Jones spoke of being a transgendered woman.

Jones has not gone through hormone therapy and does not consider herself as “passable.” She goes back and forth between Rachael and Eric for the sake of her children.

“I am not as good of an Eric because of Rachael and I am not as good of a Rachael because of Eric,” Jones said.

Jones struggled with her gender since a young age. She was brought up in a religious
Christian background where it was clear that she had to suppress her desires to be female. When she was a little boy, she put on a dress and when she got teased for that it was clear to her that such things were not accepted.

At the program, religion, sexual orientation and gender were addressed. Many people use the Bible as a way of saying being transgendered and being a homosexual is a sin.

Having come from such a religious background, Jones said, “How is it that we pick and choose from the Bible? I don’t think Jesus would diss me for being different.”
Jones has struggled with her identity and accepting the way she was.

“I felt embarrassed dressing the way I dressed,” Jones said. “I know I’m not fooling somebody when I talk in falsetto. ... I wouldn’t choose this.”
Although Jones came from a small town, her parents were accepting and said they had suspected her desire to be female.

“My dad said, ‘Don’t sweat the small stuff. It’s all small stuff,’” Jones said.

MaGee also shared his personal “coming out” story. Although MaGee “came out” at a young age, he suppressed his homosexual identity for awhile and said, “the thought of suicide occurred every moment.” Finally, he told his mother he had to talk to her while they were preparing dinner in the kitchen. Although, his mother accepted it she struggled with it for two months.

MaGee’s “coming out”  experience had positive results.

“Stress was lifted off my shoulders in one day,” MaGee said. “One day made a world
of difference.”

However, MaGee said that “coming out” is not something that is done just one time.

“Coming out” is something that is done every day.

“You choose who you come out to,” MaGee said. “You choose to say if you are gay and if that even matters or not.”

Students such as junior and a Willkie floor president, Corbin Santo, said they learned more about the topics of sexual orientation and gender from this event.

“It gives a lot of perspective as to what I know now and it’s not from a text book,” Santo said. “It takes a certain person to be so open and shows a lot about how much they care about students by giving us this information.”