Diversity Event: Charlie the "Trans-man"

I attended a diversity event this past Wednesday that turned out to be quite interesting.  Easten and I were the only two from the Hixson group that went to this event, and turned out to be the only two there as well that only attended for a class.  The other ten or so were from the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender club/community here on campus.  Also there, were Charlie's grandmother and younger sister.  It was more of a communication lecture where everyone could talk and ask questions and share their own stories and journeys.  I was really surprised how open everyone was, and also open to share their stories with everyone else.  Being one of the two there who were heterosexual, I really had to put myself in their shoes with every word they said.  A lot of the feelings they shared I had never really thought about.  

Charlie was a female that went through his journey of transformation in college.  He is now a senior here at Iowa State and is graduating in May.  As a child he described himself as liking boy things and never really being girly.  He identified himself as a lesbian until he was 18 or 19 years old, never really knowing what transgender was.  Charlie shared his whole story openly with us, and his family even got up to talk about his transformation with us.  They discussed how it made them feel and how they learned to cope with losing their little girl and gaining a man, now Charlie.  His sister's speech really stuck in my head.  She spoke of how religious she is, and how her religion tells her that she is not supposed to love Charlie because of the way she is.  She spoke of how she had to overcome that aspect of her religion and realize that Charlie, whether her brother or her sister, is still her sibling and that she will love him no matter what.  To have such supportive family members really makes me happy for Charlie.  I believe that no matter what gender or sex he is attracted to, he deserves to be happy just as we and his family do.  

Overall, I really learned a lot from this diversity event.  I'm glad that I went to this, as it really opened my eyes to how someone who feels so different from the rest of us can be dealing with these issues and we don't even know.  To see Charlie out and about in Ames, I would have never known that he used to be female.  It just goes to show how everyone has their OWN story, and we need to take the time to listen to these individual stories in order to get the most out of life and its lessons.