Meet Tristan

by Abbey McNeely

Meet Tristan. He’s a 21 year old guy, a Mass Comms major, a member of the Sherlock Holmes society, and a hopeful future writer. He’s a perfectly normal guy- except he wasn’t raised that way.

Tristan is trans*gender. He was born with a female body, and realized later in life that how he felt on the inside didn’t match his outer body. 

Tristan, a junior at UM

Tristan, as well as other students at Montevallo and across the country, faces several difficulties with living on a two-gendered campus. Difficulties with “passing”- or getting others to believe you are the sex you want to be on the outside- as well as housing issues are prevalent. UM’s Spectrum Education Chair, Frank Curtis, explained a little more of this situation.

Frank Curtis, Spectrum's Education Chair

“Young people that are trans*gender in college have to face the problem of housing because they’re usually going to be put in dorms based on their birth certificate or driver’s license. They have the problem of getting all their official documentation changed, and you usually have to go through a long process of seeing a psychiatrist and an endocrinologist for hormones, and the process of transition is usually prohibitorially expensive.”

Tristan explained his experience when he realized he was trans*gender. “It was really uncomfortable- nothing felt right. I didn’t like the way I looked, and I felt really self conscious about pictures-or looking at myself in the mirror even- because I didn’t look the way I wanted to and it hurt."

Transgender individuals experience a phenomenon called “dysphoria”. Basically, that means that their inside doesn’t match their outside. In order to combat feelings of anxiety as a result of dysphoria, many trans* people use clothing items such as binders and pads in order to make their physical bodies feel more comfortable. 

Many of these problems that transgender individuals face can be combatted with awareness and support by their peers. To make others more comfortable, always try to be considerate and ask what pronouns they prefer. 

For more information on trans*gender youth and other LGBT issues, contact the Spectrum UM Chapter.