Trans Action Makes Their Voices Heard For Equality

The meeting began with members introducing themselves one by one, seated in a circle of chairs. Name, year, and preferred pronouns (male, female, gender neutral, etc.): this is how the members of Trans Action, Purchase’s transgender support and advocacy group, addressed themselves.Trans Action conducts itself much like an intimate discussion group as they sit facing one another in the GLBTU (Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Union) room in the basement of Campus Center South, a space they share with the larger and more prominent club; a dominant socializing force for most of Purchase’s LGBT community and organizer of the elaborate and entertaining Fall Ball. The room is festive yet filthy. Vibrant floral décor and cheap plastic tikis have been left up and around since GLBTU’s Lavender Luau. A fine, white cloth is draped over the television and broken DVD player, the walls showcase free-range painting, political placards, and posters. The only bookshelf in the room is over-stacked with LGBT literature. The floor feels gritty when stepped on, and there is a lone, unopened Trojan underneath a couch, abandoned in the shadows and in desperate need of love. The room is testimony to Purchase’s well established tradition of embracing its LGBT community and providing them with a space of their own.Ray Sorock, senior, male pronouns, and Juliana Weissbein, sophomore, male pronouns, are the founders and Co-Presidents of Trans Action, which officially operates under the umbrella of GLBTU and enjoys general encouragement and support as well as funding through the latter’s substantial budget. Trans Action, according to Sorock, was established in fall 2006 and “spawned out of the need for a more visible ‘T’ in the GLBTU and on campus in general.” With regard to exposure at Purchase, both on a social and administrative level, Sorock and Weissbien “wanted to make sure there were more events happening that were ‘trans’ specific” and that policy issues, such as gender neutral housing and bathroom facilities, were considered by a committed and interested body of students.As the meeting progressed and Sorock and Weissbein set forth the evening’s agenda, the members, a soft-spoken but fully engaged group, began brain-storming topics for discussion that they might like to consider during upcoming meetings. They came up with a list of possible subjects such as transgender representation in the media, coming out to family, dating, medication and hormone treatment, and Harry Potter, who, they insist, is “trans in the wizard world.”The focus of the evening’s meeting, however, was to be presented by a guest speaker, Antonio Commisso, PSGA (Purchase Student Government Association) Chair of Senate, who had recently returned from the SUNY Student Assembly Conference in Binghamton, NY with his fellow PSGA Executives over the weekend. At the conference they had presented a resolution for a universal non-discrimination clause for all SUNY student governments. In the original proposed clause, all student governments may not discriminate against, as the PSGA suggested, students based on more than twenty categories, two of which are “sexual orientation” and “gender identity/expression.” Commisso and Emily Farrell, PSGA’s Coordinator of Clubs and Services, who have been researching and developing the proposed resolution, with the help of Trans Action, were ultimately rewarded for their efforts when the resolution passed with only minimal opposition.Commisso recounted the events of the Conference to Trans Action and listed off several schools who had backed the PSGA in securing the passing of the resolution including Oneonta, New Paltz, Binghamton, and to the Executive’s surprise and delight, SUNY Brockport whose expression of solidarity may lead to a strong alliance and a possible conference in Rochester with other student governments and on-campus transgender groups. The “problem schools,” however, consisted of most of the community colleges, Albany, Buffalo, Oswego, and even F.I.T.The resolution itself was, as Commisso said proudly, fiercely defended by the PSGA’s allies, Purchase’s Executives themselves, and PSGA President Jon Stromberg. The degree of excitement from some schools for such a change within SUNY student governments was so high that additional categories to the Non-Discrimination clause were suggested and adopted by the PSGA. One unnamed executive from another school actually stood up and announced to the whole conference, “I’m a slut” and insisted that “sexual history” be included so as to ensure her protection.Regarding the relationship between the PSGA and Trans Action, as well as transgender groups and student governments in general, Sorock is quick to remind us that “no policy change happens unless there’s a push from the constituents.” Through multiple channels within the Purchase community, including the PSGA, GLBTU, Affirmative Action, and other clubs and organizations, Sorock and Trans Action are set to enact change on campus to improve the environment for transgender students and facilitate a better understanding of this often marginalized group. He says that the administration has so far been very positive and supportive of the cause.A more pronounced presence of transgender students at Fall Ball, the second most attended Purchase event, is one way Sorock hopes to expose the campus to the realities of such issues. The fact that a drag show has risen to such heights on a college campus he says is “incredible” but “there’s nothing acknowledging publicly, ‘Isn’t this great that we actually have such a positive school where this can happen?’” Sorock insists that despite this achievement, there are incidences all the time of people being called “fag” at Purchase. Transgender people have their own identities, he says, and while transgender people may perform drag, most who perform drag “are not necessarily trans themselves and it very much confuses these two ideas and then it forms the stereotype of what transgender is: just a man in a dress.” Sorock also hopes to have free condoms and safe sex products readily available at Fall Ball this year in order to create a more sex-positive atmosphere.For now, Trans Action, with PSGA on their side, has won a substantial victory against discrimination within SUNY student governments. The next step is to lobby SUNY itself in Albany for a permanent, universal, and fully inclusive Non-Discrimination policy across all 64 campuses. Still, the real effort to educate and promote understanding on campus will be achieved by dedicated members of the Purchase community and groups like Trans Action, GLBTU, and the PSGA. For Sorock and the members of Tans Action, when they speak of LGBT, the accent is on the T and it’s time Purchase takes notice.