WU alumna journeys into transitioning gender

By Connor de Bruler
debrulerc@mytjnow.com

Jo GarnettJo Garnett lives a normal, productive life. She records and tours with the band “Senseless Beatings” where she plays the flute and provides backup vocals. She can be found sitting in a comfortable place reading a book before the shows. A 24-year-old Winthrop graduate with a degree in philosophy, Garnett now carries on a happy existence in Charlotte, N.C. 

Garnett, like more than 93,000 Americans today, identifies as transgender. She was born Joseph Garnett, a biological male. 

Four years ago, she finally decided to make the transition from male to female. She saw it as a pragmatic decision. “The standard line is: For me, I’m just not comfortable as a guy,” she says. 

Garnett admits she is lucky that her family’s response has been “overwhelmingly positive” despite her strict religious upbringing. 

She still receives mixed reactions from people who may not understand or approve of her transgender identity. “People ask you more intrusive questions only seconds after meeting you, like ‘Have you gotten the surgery?’” The surgery they are referring to is, of course, sexual reassignment surgery or SRS. 

Seeing the world from the prospective of a woman has markedly changed her thoughts on feminism. She feels more objectified as a woman, encountering anti-female sentiments firsthand. “Being on the edge of gender certainly makes you a feminist,” she says. 

She currently has an account on a dating website where she openly lists herself as transgendered. Needless to say, she has had some weird advances. “People easily fetishize me,” she says. She also admits to being pressed to speak on behalf of all transgender people as if she were a spokesperson. 

She doesn’t always get such negative attention. Some people are just curious and have never met a transgender person before. Honest curiosity doesn’t bother her, she said. 

She’s stuck with the same job during the initial stages of her transition. 

“As for employment, I have been lucky to be able to transition on the job, and my coworkers have been almost universally nice, though often pretty clueless,” she said. 

Her need to live as a woman, outlandish to some and essential to others, has not sent her on an arduous path. Unfortunately, this is not the reality many people in the transgender community face. 

There is a fairly low understanding and acceptance of transgender people. Many institutions that stress homosexual understanding are still not making sufficient accommodations for individuals who are transitioning or have transitioned to another gender identity, according to a recent article by psychologists M. E. Brewster, B. Velez, C. DeBlaere and B. Moradi published in the Journal of Counseling Psychology on Aug. 29, 2011. 

The article says there is a great lack of education in the workplace concerning transgender people where there might be existing resources concerning gay and lesbian employees. 

Half of the participants in a 2010 study on transgender people in the workplace reported that coworkers treated them differently after coming out and that they received threats and pleas to conform to a normative gender representation, according to the same article. 

As a result of this cultural pressure, many people who have changed their gender decide to go “stealth.” 

Stealth is the term used to describe a transgender woman or man hiding their trans status and living as a biological man or woman. Going “deep stealth” means the individual has cut off all ties with the transgender community in order to fit into culture as a “normal person.” 

Garnett does not have strong feelings toward people who may be stealth or less open about being transgendered. 

“Stealth is a perfectly valid option, and it can even be a matter of life and death for some trans people,” she says. “I’m lucky enough to have a lot of supportive and understanding people in my life such that being out is an option that doesn’t come with too many bad consequences.” 

It is not unheard of for a trans person who attends support groups and may be involved in activism to disappear after their transition, according to Lori B. Girshick in her 2008 book Transgender Voices. 

“They begin new lives, sometimes in new cities with new jobs, but they leave behind their trans friends, male crossdressers, and queergenders,” she says. 

Assuming an alternate identity isn’t so simple, nor is changing one’s gender while maintaining their existing identity. Gershick explains that the issue of transitioning can conflict with career aspirations and the basic necessity of keeping a roof over one’s head. 

There are many preconceptions concerning trans people.

 About 53 percent of Americans think 25 percent of the United States population identifies as being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender when in actuality only 3.8 percent of the population is LGBT, according to a 2011 Psychology Today article published by Brian Mustanski 

Only 0.3 percent of that figure consists of people who identify as transgender, according to Mustanski. That category still includes more than 93,000 people. 

There are also discrepancies as to the cause of gender atypical behavior and presentation. Most psychoanalysts in the past accepted the notion that different gender presentations are a result of poor parenting, trauma or attachment disruptions, according to Diane Ehrensaft in her article “Boys Will Be Girls, Girls Will Be Boys,” published in Psychoanalytic Psychology three years ago. 

She says that nowadays psychologists see gender nonconformity as healthy and such children simply appear in families rather than being shaped by the family. 

Tracy Griggs, a psychology professor at Winthrop University, admits that transgender issues are still fairly under the radar for everyday psychologists.

 “I don’t know a lot about the issue,” she said. “From what I do know, gender is socially constructed. Gender lies on a continuum in which some identify on different ends, regardless of their genitalia.” 

Despite the debate, Garnett is more focused on being herself. “I’m an extremely open person, and I love, as everyone does, to talk about myself,” she said.

 She’s fine with her life at the moment and says that being able to transition is a privilege. 

“I’ve taken a bit of a different path, but I’m lucky it’s working out,” she said.