In 4th form year, I took a term course called Speech I. One of the more memorable topics of discussion from the course came directly from the headlines, lawsuits, and Congress bills that surrounded us: it was the question of whether or not transgender bathrooms, and by extension, other facilities for transgender students, should be installed at Hill.
Words went flying against the proposal; an oft-cited reason was that there were no transgender people here. That such changes would benefit no-one.
Unfortunately, this assumption is wrong.
There is at least one transgender student* currently studying at Hill, and according to him, the trans community has always persisted. However, the stigma and the resulting invisibility imposed upon trans students, as well as other members of the community that identify with the LGBTQ+ community, need to end.
“I don’t feel safe,” he said. “There is too little awareness, too much toxic masculinity, and not enough understanding and sympathy in our community. Hill is ambivalent to my identity at best and I don’t want to entertain the thought of the worst, not to mention imagine it.”
As of 2009, a transgender person around the world is murdered every three days, and the listing does not include suicides. 2016 replaced 2015 as the deadliest year for transgender people with 27 deaths; the current count for 2017, from August, is 20 deaths. The lack of empathy is not only hurtful, but fatal.
“I see that I have two choices: I can choose to have my identity invalidated every single day, or I can come out and be attacked verbally, mentally, and maybe even physically if I am unlucky enough,” the student said.
Hence, we need to hear from this community, to understand them, and to respect them, not only because it is a community that exists within Hill, but also because we are complicit in their sufferings.
By allowing tragedies to happen and quietly subside, we rob ourselves of a chance to reckon with the harsh realities that others face, and we rob the people afflicted of their lives. With our ignorance comes not bliss, but a pain that no amount of perfume could sweeten.
However, the narrative does not have to continue in this direction.
On Sunday, Oct. 1st, Alex Myers, the first transgender alumnus at Philips Exeter Academy and Harvard University, will come to speak at the McNally Room about gender fluidity and his own experience to kick off Inclusion Week.
If there is one thing I sincerely ask of Hill, it will be that our entire school would honor his speech as if it was a required event, since it dearly concerns the people with whom you study, sleep, eat, and work.
In the past, we have honored speakers on extraordinary topics such as the FBI and NASA, yet to honor a speaker on a seemingly ordinary topic would be the greatest honor we could bestow upon an orator and the community he refers to.
In Mr. Baum’s chapel talk, I was most impressed by his devotion to “[sitting] at the same chairs and tables.” In other words, to truly participate in conversations and exchanges that would open our eyes to different views.
As students living at the intersection of many cultures, beliefs, and identities, we are presented with many opportunities to be enlightened, among them this event.
To share in one another’s experiences, to change a perspective, to save a life – these are all things that we, students of the Hill School, can do, as long as we are willing to come to the third floor at the library.
*The student wishes to remain anonymous