The life of Marie Villalobos is not that different from any
other UCSD student. She is studying biology and psychology, likes to cook,
enjoys the outdoors and records folk music with a band when she finds the time.
But life hasn’t always been easy. Villalobos’ identification cards, school
records and trips home serve as testaments to her complicated past. Although
she has always identified as Marie, she spent most of her life as Martin.
Villalobos is part of UCSD’s small group of transgendered
students. Although the term transgender refers to a broad spectrum of
individuals whose internal gender identity deviates from the physical sex with
which they were born, efforts to overcome being at odds with one’s biological
sex can range from cross dressing to sexual reassignment surgery. However, in
all cases, transgendered individuals are a little-understood minority whom the
campus has recently taken initiatives to better address and accept.
Beginning her physical transition years ago, Villalobos now
lives her college life as a woman. But when she goes home for the weekend, she
is forced back into men’s clothes, becoming Martin once again, to satisfy her
family’s preferences.
Villalobos said she receives looks on the train and hears
the question, “Is that a boy or a girl?” — comments that sting deeply.
“It just brings your whole world down when somebody [does
not recognize your gender identity],” Villalobos said. “Because you’re thinking
‘I thought I looked good. I thought I was projecting a good image’ but somebody
saw through it. In the end, you just want to be accepted in society.”
The daily experience of a transgendered person is fraught
with anxiety, said
passing as one’s internal gender sometimes attracts stares, harassment or
discrimination.
But, according to Smith, people’s judgments are based on
unusual gender expression.
“That could mean a straight guy dressing up as a girl on
Halloween who faces discrimination for it,” she said. “For being ‘too butch,’
‘too fem’ or for ‘looking gay.’ It’s a kind of oppositional sexism where you
have to fit into one of two camps, masculine or feminine, and any deviation
from either camp will result in discrimination. The reason why [transgendered
people] experience it so much is because we have a very compelling reason to
break these rules.”
Although Smith occasionally encounters problems in public,
especially when presenting a male driver license when trying to enter a bar,
the atmosphere at UCSD, in contrast, is pretty transgender-friendly, she said.
Smith cited the sensitive treatment by campus
administrators, progressive policies and the empowerment of the
as examples of UCSD’s liberal nature. The new resource center is the largest on
any public campus in the nation, she said.
The opening of the center was a major turning point in getting
things done for the LGBT community, said Francesco Carusi, former co-chair of
the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation
Issues. Since a space was first allocated to the LGBT community in 1999, the
campus has come a long way, Carusi said.
One of the center’s most recent initiatives, pioneered by
LGBT Resource Center Director Shaun Travers, has been to change Student Health
Service’s policies to insure transgendered care.
As of Fall 2007, up to $25,000 in any given year is covered
by the Student Health Insurance Plan for hormone replacement therapy or sexual
reassignment surgery — procedures that nearly all other student and employee
insurance policies across the country exclude, according to www.tgender.net, a
transgender information Web site.
UCSD is the only
of
the nation’s only university that offers such health care options, LGBT Resource Center Assistant Director of
Education Jan Estrellado said.
While UCSD does not currently have any affiliated surgeons
at this time, students who meet the standards for care can receive a referral
from Student Health for off-site surgery or treatment from endocrinologists in
the campus network, according to Insurance Coordinator for Student Health
Services Jessica Morris.
Eligibility for sexual reassignment surgery is outlined by
the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care, which strictly defines the effective
treatment for gender identity disorder, including counseling along with medical
and surgical care.
Some, however, question the medical necessity of sexual
reassignment surgery, which has been labeled “experimental” and “cosmetic” by
some insurance providers and media sources .
“I understand that [being transgendered] is not a choice,”
“But I’m not sure [hormone treatment or sexual reassignment surgery] are
medical needs either.”
Villalobos said that while she understands how surgery can
seem superficial, living comfortably as one’s identified gender is dependent
upon the perception and treatment by society.
“People around us are mirrors,” she said. “They call us ‘he’
or ‘she’ and that tells us who we are. You may feel more like a female or male
on the inside, but how you are treated by others is determined almost solely by
your appearance on the outside. This is a cause of discomfort when how you feel
doesn’t match up with how you look.”
Other efforts of the
and the CACGISOI have focused on opening more single-stall gender-neutral
restrooms, providing housing options for members of the LGBT community and
spreading awareness about transgender-related issues.
Unisex restrooms are significant because they provide
harassment-free access for gender nonconformists along with families and people
with disabilities, Estrellado said.
The
and Dining Services, resident deans, resident advisers and house advisers to
provide safe and supportive housing options for the LGBT community, which
Villalobos, who spent her freshman year in boys’ dorms acting like a male, said
are important.
Three years ago, Mesa Housing on
Road
married-student housing to LGBT couples who could not legally marry, Carusi
said.
that are more conducive to the transgendered population.
Additionally, the CACGISOI has recommended innovative
housing options like that of other UC campuses that offer LGBT-themed floors or
buildings aimed to promote understanding of gender-identity and
sexual-orientation issues. The goal is to create LGBT communities in each of
the six colleges, the 2006-07 CACGISOI annual report said.
While UCSD is ahead of other campuses and the general public
in many ways, there is still room for improvement in educating students on
campus who tend to be less sensitive to transgender issues than administration,
staff and faculty, Villalobos said.
The
up of an LGBT panel that reaches out to student organizations, campus
departments, classes, residence halls and high school conferences to raise
awareness.
But much work still needs to be done to fight campus
ignorance and give transgendered people a voice, according to Smith.
“It’s just not an experience that anyone can fathom unless
they’re going through it,” Smith said. “The trans community is very small and
many of us don’t feel as free to be out as other communities do. That in part
reduces our voice and our visibility, so we really need allies as much as any
group to help achieve equality.”
