Pronouns are more important than you might think. She, he, it, you, they, ze, zir, hir. Such tiny words, but they encompass such large concepts as gender and identity.
“One of the biggest things with respecting people in all spaces… is pronoun preference,” Junior Aiden Bettine said. That might seem odd to those of us who have never had to question our own daily use of he or she, but for someone who doesn’t quite conform to that binary, it can mean the difference between affirmation and ostracization.
That was one of the first points made by members of Trans*(formation), DePaul’s resident transgender student group, at last Tuesday’s “Trans* in the Classroom” Workshop at the Lincoln Park student center. And it was hardly the only thing you would take away from the workshop.
The event saw a handful of professors and students receive a crash-course in transgender culture, with a focus on the trans collegiate experience.
Attendees discussed topics like the separation of sexuality from gender identity, the diversity of identities implied by the use of “transgender” as a term and techniques for respecting that diversity in a classroom setting.
Founded in spring of 2012, Trans*(formation) has been organizing events and functions like this one for the better part of the past two years. It is one of several organizations associated with DePaul’s LGBTQA (Lesbian, Gay, Transgender, Queer, Questioning and Ally) Student Services office and caters specifically to the transgendered and gender-variant student community. According to its official information page, it “aims to raise awareness of gender variance outside the standard male/female binary while actively engaging with other organizations and the university to promote conversation and understanding of alternative gender identities.”
To that end it also maintains an official Facebook page, Transformation DePaul, in addition to sponsoring movie nights, guest speakers and other social events for DePaul’s transgender population.
Though an organization explicitly dedicated to the promotion of transgender issues and identity might seem out of place at a Catholic university, numerous sources claimed that many in DePaul’s administration have been nothing but supportive. Indeed, according to organization staff, the Dean of Students Office sponsored and promoted this latest workshop.
“DePaul is usually very responsive, usually very respectful of individual identity in the classroom,” professor and attendee Kristin Jacobson said. “I really don’t have any criticisms of the DePaul community at this time.”
Still, others see the organization as inherently DePaulian, with no disconnect between DePaul’s Catholic status and its support for the transgender community.
“Vincentian means outreach,” said student Alyssa Mandula. “It means being inclusive and trying to reach out to groups that are usually marginalized.”
Bettine hopes that more individuals in the DePaul community will step forward to join and support that voice.
“DePaul’s an urban, diverse school. We want to celebrate that. We want to build alliances with the community around us,” said Bettine.