Winthrop’s first Transgender Week of Visibility, sponsored by the Sexuality and Gender Equality club, took place from March 28 to April 1. Small flags were placed along Scholars Walk, and a large trans flag was drawn with chalk on Scholars Walk until the rain washed it away on Thursday.
SAGE hosted a table all week with different topics presented each day and a cultural event about cisgender parents of transgender children on March 31, the international Transgender Day of Visibility. The weeklong event was planned and organized almost entirely by trans people.
“Everything that has been happening this week has been by trans people. That is the first time, [at] Winthrop and also at a college campus in general that a week — not even just a week, but an event — [is] for trans people that is centered on their voices,” SAGE co-leader Oliver Bartow said.
Despite some transphobic comments made on social media apps like Yik Yak, both Bartow and other co-leader Terry Millett said the week was a “massive success.”
“I think we’ve had mostly positive experiences. I would say we’ve had some ups and downs. We’ve had some people, you know, glares or the here and there. But for the people who come up to the table and ask questions, it has been respectful,” SAGE social marketing executive B Ray said.
The week happened to take place on the same week as both the 46th Winthrop University Model United Nations Conference, at which high schoolers from across the region travel to compete, and multiple school tours, further increasing the number of people passing by the table.
“We’ve had about 100 to 300 high schoolers go through the table, and anywhere from the teachers who are saying ‘Hey, how can I be a better ally in my classroom?’ ‘What can I have in my room to aid my students?’ [to] professors on this campus, and even RAs, asking, ‘Hey, can you come talk to us about safety training when we’re doing orientation for incoming students?’” Bartow said.
The week has also been positive for those involved, as it helped to foster a feeling of community among LGBTQ students at Winthrop.
“To come out of a situation feeling like almost wanting to go back in the closet, I really was really shameful of my identity,” Bartow said. “Two, three months later, I’ve probably spoken to about a couple hundred people openly about who I am and my identity as a gay trans man and being, like, the face for this and talking to everybody and going home and to my dorm and seeing you know, the trans flag everywhere and being like, ‘This is a place that truly will accept me.’”
On Monday, the table focused on education in “Trans101.” In addition, various pride flags were displayed, each with their associated identity and explanation, and pins with pronouns were handed out.
On Tuesday, trans creators were in the spotlight. The table featured art for sale, which Ray said made the artist “an extraordinary amount of money,” despite the artist thinking no one would buy their art.
On Wednesday, trans relationships were explored. Millett said it was their favorite day.
“I identify as asexual. So for me, that was, you know, a very nice learning experience,” they said.
On Thursday, SAGE held a Q&A and promoted their cultural event, which took place that night.
The cultural event, held on Zoom, was led by Mel Constantine Miseo, a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Missouri whose research focuses on gender, sexuality, transgender studies, culture, identity, youth and families.
The presentation, titled “Gendered Mournings: Cisgender Parents Navigate Cisnormativity and Competing Gender Discourses,” discussed the struggles cisgender parents of transgender children go through after their children come out.
On Friday, SAGE collaborated with the art department for a table on trans joy. In the afternoon, it hosted a social from 3 to 6 p.m. in Owens 102, where SAGE had games, pizza and unwound from the week.
“We had a social event on Friday, and … I had multiple people talk to me about how there are very few times they can even be out publicly. And that SAGE was one of the places that they’re able to feel that way,” Millett said.
The event planning began as far back as January, when SAGE leadership originally just planned to do an event on the international Transgender Day of Visibility. However, the event quickly grew to more than they could fit into one day.
Eventually, more and more people were brought in. The committee to plan the event ended up with 11 people, each with their own responsibilities. Brandon Ranallo-Benavidez, the faculty advisor for SAGE, attributes the success of the week to the committee approach.
However, even with all of the people working together, the process was still slow.
“[It was] about three months of just sitting down working really hard. And even then, we’ve had stuff get kind of jockeyed around once it was already approved,” Ranallo-Benavidez said. “Like we printed all of the flyers at one point with a room approved for the cultural event tonight, and then that room was taken back retroactively, and so we had to move it to a Zoom. And so then we had to reprint all of the flyers.”
With this event over, SAGE is already looking to the future, but is mindful of the possibility of burnout. Coalition building was a topic discussed as a goal for the future of the organization.
“As the faculty advisor, my dream — and I think all of us share this — is making Winthrop as a whole a more engaged activist–oriented university, and seeing those connections and those coalitions be built. And over time, building connections with, like, the anti–racism organizations on campus or the anti–ableism organizations on campus,” Ranallo-Benavidez said.
The model forged by SAGE for this organization could soon be used by others to encourage that activism Ranallo-Benavidez said he hopes to see.
“A lot of our members are members of other organizations, leaders, and others elsewhere,” Bartow said. “A lot of these organizations have asked us, ‘How are you doing this leadership? How did you guys get this committee started?’ They want to implement that in their own groups.”
