trans | Entries tagged with school

jovial-julia.livejournal.com

I was wondering if I could get the input of some of the people here. I recently applied to some graduate programs and the schools told me my information is very similar to a previous applicant from when I applied as an undergrad, pre-transition, 7 years ago (I never attended the schools though). I am not sure if I should tell them it is my old information (outing me to schools admission dept.), or if I should lie and tell them I have a twin brother. If I tell the truth it opens me up to discrimination but if I lie it could really hurt me if I get caught, although I am not sure if there is a huge chance of that.

Just wondering if anyone could share their opinions or experiences.

skittlewolf.livejournal.com

1) I am looking into getting health insurance and starting T since I recently moved to Mass. I was looking into Ferry since she is only an hour away. The is an issue though, she doesn't take MassHealth but she does take BMC. Problem is...I don't think I can get BMC where I live (01247). I see a person tomorrow to help me get all started so they will probably be able to help more but anything you guys can add before then would be extremely helpful. I don't want to have to drive 3 hours to Fenway since it seems they are not only a lot FARTHER but a lot more complicated to go through. I am an hour or so away from Northampton so anyone in that area would be perfectly acceptable. I don't want to wait a long time either...

2) Disclosing for jobs. Obviously, I'm not on T, pre-name change, etc. I am currently looking for jobs but, do you suggest disclosing AFTER you are employed or before?

3) Online schools. I'm looking into starting classes online however because I have no legal name change, all my classes will have my legal name for discussion boards and all. That means, even if I ask people to call me Lucian, 99% of the time they will still use my birth name. It's creating a lot of fear and dysphoria for me. Any suggestions?

x-posted to ftm

Current Mood: anxious

skysurfer13.livejournal.com

Hey all!

My name is Charlie F, and I'm a college student studying film at Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. You might've seen me around this comm (I tend to poke my nose in, though I'm not a spectacularly active member), or a few others.

Anyway, this semester, I'm taking a Documentary Production class as a required part of my major. Our final assignment is to create a 10-15 minute documentary on a person or a group of people who are either doing something interesting or going through some kind of transition.

Oh hey. Sound familiar?

Dingdingding! You guessed it! I'm doing a documentary on the Transgender community, and I need your help (if you'd be ever so kind as to give it to me).

If you live in the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-New York area, would you be willing to come meet me and give an on-camera interview as a part of the project? [I can repay you at least in part for travel expenses and I'll buy you lunch or something!]

This is something that's really important to me, both as a transgender person and as a film student, and you can't imagine how much your help would mean to me. Feel free to either comment on this or drop me a message if you'd like/be willing to work on this or have any questions!

Thank you!

Current Location: United States, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia

bbjkrss.livejournal.com

Ok, this is kind of a multi-layered entry, 'cause I've been keeping all my anxieties real quiet lately.

I'm starting to go really frustrated about all this. I want to present as male at school, and I've been trying- I've gotten the teachers and a lot of kids that know me to call me Ritchie, but almost no one calls me "he," and even the ones that do are pretty irregular about it. That's the more important part to me, and I get frustrated.

(But at the same time with naming issues- I don't know if I chose the right name.. I like it when my friends call me it, and when a certain person used the name it made me happiest I've ever felt, but then when my dad/stepmom use it... it FRUSTRATES me beyond belief and I really just wish they'd go back to calling me Sarah again. I have no idea why this is, and it scares me, because does it mean anything? Is it just because I was used to my other name for 16 years? I don't know and it's driving me crazy.)

I need to figure out a way to pass better (I did it so well over the summer, why is it going so poorly now?). My voice sucks, and I can't really change that (though it's not particularly high, it gets that way when I'm excited, and I'd really prefer not to speak in a monotone...), but clothing's a huge issue. I really want to buy guy clothes for the winter (like, stylish ones. I think I'm kind of turning into a mildly stereotypical gay guy..) but even smalls are big on me.. but then when I buy "guyish" women's clothes, they show off the female body and I hate it. I don't want to wear baggy clothes, I want to look nice, but I have no safe way of binding right now (can't buy a binder and multiple bras don't always work).

So, yeah. Just really frustrated about everything. And then.. the worst thing of all... the fear that I'm still gonna hate myself even when things start to change. I *want* to love myself, but... I just can't see myself ever being the way I truly want to be.. and that scares me, I guess. Anyone have any advice... for any of these things I just totally ranted about? >.<

Current Mood: frustrated

jovial-julia.livejournal.com

I am just looking to see some other views on my schools trans awareness week. I was told by a friend that the LGBT organization on campus is starting the week. I was worried but hopeful because the organization does not have a good history with trans issues. So I went to find out more about what they were planning and offer to help out. Then I found out the entire thing is being planned and organized by cis people who have no contact with anyone in the trans community, they actually didn't know what the term cis meant. And the only issue they are focusing on is how few gender neutral bathrooms there are on the campus as well as wanting to spray paint a trans symbol on the sidewalk. The bathrooms are an issue but personally I would rather have them work on the teachers who regularly make transphobic jokes, the fact that it requires full SRS to get them to stop sending you letters addressed as Mr. or Miss. (it is actually easier to change my drivers license). I would even rather they realize how it is to be trans when they say things like "for the drag day we will hold it in the office and you can change there, that way you don't have to have everyone around campus see you crossdressed." I would rather they add us to their monthly poster campaign where they place fliers around campus about respect for LGB people. I know they are making an effort but am I still out of line for thinking it offensive that a bunch of cis people appointed themselves to talk about being trans without them consulting with anyone trans?

Current Mood: annoyed

tygersharkluvr.livejournal.com

I really hope I get the cut right I'm still really new to this and the only Internet I have now is my phone just getting this posted twice counting here between and during errands has taken all day. I have a meeting discussing the possibility of acomidations tomorrow, Monday 9th, that I can tell they don't want to give me. I need to get them to understand why these things are reasonable and even necessary. If anyone could offer ANY help I would REALLY appreciate it! I realize there is a lot of stuff and don't expect anyone to answer a large majority of it but any input would help!( Read more... )

ragetti-wench.livejournal.com

Despite the fact that I'll more or less be closeting myself again for the next two years of college (because there's really no point in my professors knowing until I start hormones), I've got my first appointment with the school's therapist this coming Tuesday. She's technically a "personal counselor", so I'm a little anxious that she might not even be qualified to later refer me for hormones, but hopefully it'll be a step in the right direction. Is there anything I should be aware of or anything that I should ask her? I don't simply want to be tactless and ask, "So what are you're qualifications?" simply because I doubt the credibility of anyone located in my city.

Current Mood: anxious

halfbloodme.livejournal.com

I work as a teaching assistant at a primary school and today was our last day before the holidays. When out on the extra long playtime after assembly, one of the kids in year 3 came up to me and gave me a hug, nothing unusual there until said kid and their sister who is in year 5 started having a conversation.

Sister: I like that Miss Emery is a girl, she's very huggy.
Me in thought: I'm not a girl but we won't go into that now.
Kid: Why do you say Miss Emery is a girl. She could be a boy like me.
Me in thought: Not a boy either but thank you.
Sister: You're a GIRL. Your name is Caitlin*.
Kid: No I'm a boy.
Sister: Mum says you're a girl, you have the same bits I do, you're a girl. Yeah you're a tomboy, but you're a girl.
Kid: Dad calls me Charlie and I like Charlie better. I'm NOT a girl.
Sister: Mum says Dad is an idiot for agreeing to call you Charlie*.
Kid: When I turn 11 I'm moving in with Dad.
Me: Come on now kids, lets try and enjoy the last day of the school year and not argue.
Sister: Miss, will you tell Caitlin she's a girl?
Me (whilst trying to remain neutral and not cause a full scale riot when the kids are picked up and their mother finds out I'm not going to force their child to conform to a gender or sex): It's not up to me. Caitlin or Charlie, whichever you prefer is what I'll call you.
Kid: Yay thank you Miss.
Sister: I think adults are weird.

(*names changed to protect identities in line with the data protection act)

Working in school (whilst my ideal job), is very cisexual and cisgender biased, I've yet to find a gender neutral title that the kids can use and that won't out me to parents and cause a riot, although I'm working on it. I've so far learned how to deal with questions of boyfriends (I am attracted to women), how to deal with questions on why I won't wear dresses and got my hair cut short and why I don't dress like a girl or like a boy but a mixture. Now it's a case of learning how to deal with situations like the above and stay neutral whilst carefully avoiding fitting into the hetronormative and the sexual and gender normative positions most of our parents and the other staff take. This year has been a real learning curve.

alinonymous.livejournal.com

hey,
I'm Ali; i'm an eighteen year old preeverything mtf computer science/computer engineering student at university.
while I do have issues with the residence hall that cause me to think that i won't transition socially until i no longer live in it, this post isn't about that. I have a contact in the admissions department (she used to be residence hall director) that would help me with issues pertaining to that.

what this post about is the internet filtering at my uni. residence hall net is reasonably unfettered (as it should be) whereas wireless in the academic buildings is rather filtered. it seems like the filter is doing dumb keyword filtering on "transgender" and "transsexual" which filters many actual support / lgbt community sites while letting some bad ones through.

anyway I could email uni IT about it but I dont want to possibly out myself by emailing from my uni email and I don't know if helpdesk@$UNI honors requests from non-uni accounts which is how I would avoid associating my trans identity with my identity as a student.

What should i do?

ali

ETA: It would be trivial enough for me to bypass the filtering - I just VPN out of uni network - but I am opposed to censorware blocking the free exchange of information and i realise not everyone at uni is as technically proficient as I am. When they research transgender topics then the sites are blocked is not a good thing.

thequeerbitch.livejournal.com

I'm not sure I've posted in this comm before (though I lurk regularly) so just an introduction. Nate, ftm, 19, pre-everything.

I started tafe today, which I've been really excited about, because I missed school a lot. I'm studying to be a youth worker. I've been totally on the fence since I enrolled about disclosing my trans status to the school, teachers, and fellow students. My sister enrolled me under my birth name, so at the moment no one knows. I was still on the fence even during my first class today, and I was really nervous. I ended up introducing myself to one or two people with my female name simply because I was still nervous about the whole thing.

The problem is, I don't really feel comfortable not being Nate in a school setting (as I was very much out while in college). Is it too late to explain to my teacher and fellow students that I was feeling nervous, that I am trans and would prefer to be called Nate and referred to with masculine pronouns?

EDIT: Thanks everyone so much for your advice. I'll do my best in getting over the nervousness so that I can feel comfortable as myself during my studies.

Current Mood: confused

elizabeth1010.livejournal.com

My school is changing housing (the place I'm in is in foreclosure, awesome). I new place is shared bedroom. They also use two other apartments for student living, which are separated by gender. I called today to see what concessions they made for trans students and got a big fat, "Well, I don't know, let me get back to you." I get a phone call a few minutes later and I'm now have a meeting setup with the director of housing tomorrow morning to "see what my needs are" and stuff.

Umm, anyone got any advice? I don't know what to say other than I refuse to live in a male-only dorm, am not anywhere near passable enough to stay in a woman's dorm, and absolutely refuse to share a bedroom and bathroom with a stranger. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

cykotyks.livejournal.com

Okay, so, here's the basics: my boyfriend and I are both FtM, but we're pre-everything. I've been able to discuss things with a counselor, but neither she nor I had the resources to get me started on HRT or anything. My boy hasn't been able to really discuss this with anybody aside from me, and he's not big on disclosing to therapists/counselors for personal reasons.

Anyway, we're preparing to go off to college next semester, and we just found out today that we both got accepted into UNH Durham. On my application, I was very open about my trans status - I explained my position and situation in my essay, and I used my male name as my preferred name. I'm a little scared going into it this way, but the acceptance of my application has given me some confidence.

However, at the time of filling out the applications, Boyfriend was still a little unsure of himself and didn't really know what to say or how to go about disclosing his status, so he didn't. But now that he's certain in what he wants to do, he's committed to moving forward with this.

So, we have two inquiries:

1) Boyfriend wants to disclose his status and go by his male name in classes, but he needs certain things to be kept in his female name - basically, anything that his family will see. He does not want to come out to them for various reasons. I'm sure there's a way to do this, but we're wondering when he should disclose this information (ASAP? Upon enrollment?) and who we should be getting in contact with to get his preferred name on the books.

2) We're hoping to use the college's resources to get our transitions started - our main concern is getting started on testosterone. Does anybody have experience with UNH Durham's GLBT community? How accepting is the environment, from both staff and students? Will we be able to speak with a knowledgeable counselor that can get us on the right track? Are there any counselors we should request or avoid? Anything else we should know?

Thank you all so much for any information you might be able to provide! ♥

peaceofpie.livejournal.com

A while back, there was a post where someone explained why trans people get angry when people want to study us for research projects. I'm trying to find that post to show to a well-intentioned ally who is thinking of doing another one of those trans-themed research projects, but I can't remember who wrote it or how long ago it was posted, and even though I know I posted it in my own LJ, I suck at accurately tagging my posts and so now I can't find it.

Does someone else remember this who might be able to help me find the post I'm thinking of? I don't think it was posted in its entirety in this community, but it may have been linked here and I know others from here were involved in the discussion that arose from that post.

Thanks!

scissorplay.livejournal.com

Hey all, I'm Neil, male identified (ftm), 15 and pre-everything. I've yet to come out to my parents about any of this--the questioning, the experimenting, the self-discovery--so far I've gone through this process on my own, keeping them happily oblivious. Through an article I wrote in the school newspaper on LGBTs and a visit to the school counselor on an unrelated issue, I've suddenly found myself surrounded by people standing by me as support and accepting me for who I am. The closest person to me, a teacher, and I were talking just this evening after school and she said some things that were worrying and alarming.

( Well, just suck it up. )

espreite.livejournal.com

I'm currently a junior in high school and beginning the process of preparing for college, and I'm also just starting the process of socially transitioning to another name. I recently signed up for the SAT and ACT tests, and found on the ACT registration website that when asked for a name, it stated that I should type the name I want my scores to be sent to colleges under.

This raised the broader question of what exactly I should do about my name with regards to college. I'm really clueless about the whole college prep thing anyway, so any advice would be great. Can I have my scores sent to colleges with a non-legal name, or even just an initial? I'm really hoping to be able to change my name legally before I go to college, but in the meantime I'm trying to keep the amount of stuff with my legal name to a minimum by signing with just my first initial when possible.

Any general advice or experience about college applications, the SAT/ACT, and other college-y name-related stuff would be really helpful! :)

actoholic.livejournal.com

So I moved in. There is so much I want to say about this place but my brain has it all scattered and jumbled so I'm just gonna get out what I can manage to right now.

Everybody's room is required to have nametags on the door for the people living in the room, at all times. This scared me. Also, I live on a coed floor. Turns out that became I live with a couple rooms of girls and the entire guys LAX team. That scared me even more.

On the more positive side, my floor has semi-private bathrooms, meaning they are all individual, lockable, and gender neutral. This is a huge plus. Also, the floor being coed means that I won't look out of place wandering around here at all hours.

On my second day I had a heart to heart with my roommate, which in retrospect I really should have done before asking her to be my roommate at all. Anyway, after much hesitating and rambling and stuttering, I came out to her. I explained pretty much what was up with my life, and SHE WAS TOTALLY COOL WITH IT. We changed my nametag on the door, and she went with me to tell the RA that was what I would be going by and to please leave it up there. My roommate is essentially the nicest person ever. She's open minded as hell and curious and sweet. Example A, yesterday she declared herself my SOFFA,and wrote on our white board "(insert her name here) is a couch," the little darling. She's been diligent about my name and pronouns and seems to be getting comfortable with that really fast.

More awesome stuff about school and other trans-y things, but that will come later. I need a nap SO BAD before my next class.

Peace y'all.

Current Mood: excited

poto-heart.livejournal.com

Hey guys and gals. Just as a quick refresher (I did introduce myself on this comm, but it was awhile back), I am an 18 year old FtM living in the suburbs near Boston. I'm starting college this fall, living on-campus, and the college I chose seems to be very accepting and accommodating for transfolk. So far they know me as female and I have been placed in an all-girls dorm with two roommates. This doesn't bother me; according to their site I could talk to a counselor to get a single room and/or a room in a co-ed building, but I don't really think this is necessary right now. I don't have a problem rooming with girls. However, as we will be living together for a year and I certainly don't intend to pretend to be a girl for a year, I figured I should try to get advice from some of the older, more experienced folk here.

So basically, I'm looking for advice from anybody who's been in a similar situation. Should I come out to them? I would really like to, mostly because I would feel extremely bad about being a guy in what should be an all-girl's space without the girls' knowledge. On top of this, if they find out from someone else (I intend to be out and active in the school's LGBT club so this is highly possible) I don't want it to evolve into a situation where one or both of my roommates is uncomfortable in her own dorm room. So, I guess my question is, should I try to get a new rooming situation (for the sake of my roommates, not myself), or could it work out if I were to make them aware of the situation? Any and all advice is welcome.

Sorry if I'm less than coherent at times, I'm fairly tired right now. If there's anything I said that you can't understand, just ask for clarification and I'll try my best =)

Edit: Since a lot of people are asking - I'm going to Bridgewater State College (in Bridgewater, MA). Thanks so much for all the great input, guys =)

elegancewaves.livejournal.com

I made my fist appointment with my Psychologist! It'll be May 8th, but I'm a little nervous about cost as I am 21 years old working in retail lol. Its $130 per 50 minute session. I thought the Alberta government covered it but apparently its just for psychiatrists, and there aren't any working in the Calgary area with experience in GID. But I figure the cost is worth it. I'm finally taking the first step in working towards being who I need to be. I was going to go to school this year, but I think I'm actually going to postpone it a year. I want to be able to focus on my schooling, so I want to be well in to my hormones before I start. I want to be a young woman attending college, not a young man attending college lol. I don't want the distraction of adjusting to new hormones in my body or whether or not I'm passing 100% and still try and be a competitive student.

How many other people chose to put off their education/career until they began their physical transition? I'm not too worried about having done so, because the course is only a two year course (travel and tourism at SAIT here in Calgary) and I'll still graduate from it and establish my career at 24. I also figure that if I'm well in to my transition by the time I graduate the course, I might have better luck getting jobs seeing as I usually have difficulty getting hired in my present state.

sebastian-bound.livejournal.com

Does anyone know of any stories of a transwoman attending an undergraduate all womens college?

or have a story of a transwoman being denied acceptance to an all womens college because of their genderstatus?

I'm not doing a story, but I attend a women's college, and I'm curious.

legendline.livejournal.com

Hey folks,
I have a presentation to give next week for an upper-division women's studies class. Six of us are facilitating an article, which talks about specific cases of trans* people who have married and then seperated, and the legal decisions in each case (most of which, sadly, were to anull the marriages as same-sex marriages on the basis of the trans persons assigned gender. huge sigh).

Anyway, part of my portion of the presentation is to give everyone a basis for language use during this talk. I don't want to make the mistake of going off only my own experiences or preferences, so thought I'd ask here what kinds of information people think should be covered.

I am avoiding Trans-101 type info (basically, avoiding things about how to talk TO a trans person) because that's not in the scope of the article or discussion; but I was going to put a link or two to a good Trans 101-type website on the handout, just in case anyone has any questions about that sort of thing. Anyone have any good websites for that?

The info I'm really looking for and will be mostly covering in my 2-minute intro and on my handout is how to talk ABOUT trans people. I'll put some definitions on the handout, such as ftm, mtf, transgender, transsexual, etc. I'm interested to know what other people think is important in facilitating an open, academic converstation like this? Any links to websites I where I can find more info on respectful converstation, etc?

edited for extra punctuation removal

Transgender Community

Applications

Several questions

TG Documentary

Utterly frustrated

School Trans Awareness Week

Uphill battle for dorm acomidations

It's nearing time

A conversation at work

network filtering at uni

Hiding Again

Student Housing - advice needed

oh the places we go~

looking for a post...

"Suck it up." Is that all I can do?

Names and Standardized Tests

College boy.

Hey-o

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