Tisch sophomore Andrew Fanelli delicately crossed his legs on a congested subway train. In sleek, form fitting black pants and chic heels, he surveyed the other passengers through darkly lined eyes and a cascade of chestnut-colored curls.
A man boarded and, looking Fanelli up and down, squeezed into the seat next to him. Fanelli said "hello" and, stunned by the deep sound of his voice, the stranger recoiled in realization and fled to the other side of the car. Later, when both had departed and moved to exit the station, the man approached Fanelli. "You're disgusting," he said, seething. "You disgust me."
In a city like New York - with a reputation for liberal values, a well-established gay community and myriad cultures packed into a concentrated space - discrimination still exists in many forms. Now, with changing ideas about gender stereotypes, transgender people and supporters are advocating for the freedom of choice to be who they want to be, without fear of harassment or social exclusion.
"In general, society thinks about most things in a binary way, which is not feasible," said Brooke Donatone, a licensed clinical social worker at the NYU Student Health Center. "Few things fit into neat boxes and gender is one of them."
Donatone has counseled many trans-students - those in the midst of transitioning, others contemplating surgery and even some who have undergone the procedure and completely transformed their lives. She said she disagrees with the diagnosis of transgender people in the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), which labels nonconformance with the biological sex as Gender Identity Disorder.
"I don't see the purpose of pathologizing gender identity," she said.
Fanelli, for example, doesn't identify as a woman but would be labeled a cross-dresser. By current standards he is thus categorized as "transgender" because he refuses to conform to gender roles. He ardently opposes the diagnosis in the DSM-IV that links his lifestyle to a disease.
"I know exactly who I am," he said. "I'm a straight man who wears women's clothing. I refuse to let who I am and how I feel comfortable being become repressed."
While Fanelli waited in the Tisch building lobby, students passed and exclaimed sentiments like, "I love those heels!" and "You look fetching today."
Steinhardt junior Adam Brown said NYU is a perfect place for such diversity.
"NYU seems to be a particularly open place," he said. "Especially being in the Village provides the opportunity to break apart social constructs."
Professor Carolyn Dinshaw, chair of the social and cultural analysis department and former director of the Center for Gender and Sexuality Studies, recognized the increasing strength of the transgender movement over the past few years and said that advocates in the city are "making issues in a variety of social realms much more visible."
"I think that the match between body morphology and gender identification doesn't have to be perfect," she said. "There can be a disjunction."
Take Fanelli, who busts gender stereotypes everyday just by walking down the street. Because he always thought women were beautiful, he used to want to be one.
"When I was 5 years old, I put on my mother's bra and lipstick in the bathroom," he remembered with a smile, eyes aglow. Now, he owns only women's apparel but doesn't want to change his sex. He plans to marry one day and have a family.
"I'm happy being a man," he said.
An acting major, Fanelli performed a scene from playwright David Ives' work "The Red Address" last semester. He completely related to the character - an average businessman, but one who liked to wear a red dress around his wife.
"I loved that opportunity to stand on stage," he gushed, "wearing black panties from Victoria's Secret, heels and a red dress. People came up afterward and said, 'You were such a beautiful man.' It's everything I stand for."
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Hardships in job hunting
When students graduate and have to face the real world, the transition isn't always easy. But for transgender students, that transition is even more difficult, says Kylar Broadus, the first transgender employee of the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights activist group.
Broadus, a black attorney who sits on several boards of gay rights groups, said there are challenges to everyday life that most people don't even consider, from grocery shopping to medical care. Broadus, who also teaches at Lincoln University in Missouri, transitioned from female to male several years ago.
The Advocate, a magazine focusing on the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender communities, reports that about 1.5 percent of the country's population is transgender.
Employers often start to ask questions when conducting background checks of potential employees, Broadus said.
"Once people find that out, it's the turnoff for the employer," he said.
New York City and San Francisco have recently held career fairs aimed at transgender employees, and HRC's website advertises transgender-friendly employers.
NYU welcomes transgender employees in accordance with its nondiscrimination policy, which includes gender identity and expression.
"An applicant's transgender status is not a factor in evaluating the candidate's qualifications," said Geri Kalinsky, the university's director of employment. "We focus on the applicant's skills, knowledge and abilities to do a job."
The hunt for employment may still be difficult, however, and Broadus acknowledges that this sort of discrimination is not a new phenomenon.
"When I first started job hunting, it was huge to be just black," Broadus said. "Now that seems ridiculous, but that's the way it was."
But today, like minority groups before them, transgender members of society are starting to have a louder voice.
"We just went through the 'gay '90s,' " Broadus said. "It's a lot easier for gays to get through the door now. Maybe 10 to 15 years from now, I would hope we'd be at a place where people would be more accepting of letting trans-people in the door."
- Bryan Pirolli, staff writer
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