Outgoing American University Student Body President Comes out as Transgender
7:22 pm - 05/06/2012
Outgoing American University Student Body President Sarah McBride managed to make waves on campus even on her very last day as Student Body President, announcing in her farewell speech that she considers herself transgender and identifies as a female. She made use of the occasion to release an op-ed in The Eagle, an American University student newspaper. She writes:
"As SG President, I realized that as great as it is to work on issues of fairness, it only highlighted my own struggles. It didn’t bring the completeness that I sought. By mid-fall, it had gotten to the point where I was living in my own head. With everything I did, from the mundane to the exciting, the only way I was able to enjoy it was if I re-imagined doing it as a girl. My life was passing me by, and I was done wasting it as someone I wasn’t.
With every birthday candle extinguished, with every penny thrown, my wish was always the same. I am now blessed with the opportunity to live my dream and fulfill a truth I have known since childhood. My gratitude is great to my family, friends and this university for accepting me as the person who they now know me to be, and for letting me show them the possibilities of a life well lived."
In her statement, McBride also highlights the challenges transgender and gender non-conforming individuals face on a regular basis. Find her original op-ed in The Eagle here.
Source is the HRC.
I'm so happy for Sarah and that this happened at my school. Best of luck to her!
Figured we could do with some happy LGBT news around here.
Edited to change the title of the post, since "University President" is misleading.
"As SG President, I realized that as great as it is to work on issues of fairness, it only highlighted my own struggles. It didn’t bring the completeness that I sought. By mid-fall, it had gotten to the point where I was living in my own head. With everything I did, from the mundane to the exciting, the only way I was able to enjoy it was if I re-imagined doing it as a girl. My life was passing me by, and I was done wasting it as someone I wasn’t.
With every birthday candle extinguished, with every penny thrown, my wish was always the same. I am now blessed with the opportunity to live my dream and fulfill a truth I have known since childhood. My gratitude is great to my family, friends and this university for accepting me as the person who they now know me to be, and for letting me show them the possibilities of a life well lived."
In her statement, McBride also highlights the challenges transgender and gender non-conforming individuals face on a regular basis. Find her original op-ed in The Eagle here.
Source is the HRC.
I'm so happy for Sarah and that this happened at my school. Best of luck to her!
Figured we could do with some happy LGBT news around here.
Edited to change the title of the post, since "University President" is misleading.
how fortunate for her to live her dream
which is merely what many take for granted = to live who you are
just as most take for granted that marriage means marry who you love
even if you're gay, and freedom means live as you will
even if
I'm a bad alum since this is the first time I'm hearing of this.
Regardless, though, good for her.
Edited at 2012-05-07 11:30 am (UTC)