Questions of Gender

After Alex Myers, a transgender alumnus who recently published his first novel, Revolutionary, spoke at assembly, I noticed Exonians were not talking much about the topics he discussed. Is it because everyone is more scared to talk about transgender issues than other gender issues? I know there has been a lot of talk of gender issues in general around campus this year given Fem Club's efforts to spark these necessary conversations—so why have transgender issues not come into the debate? Is it because Exonians are already accepting of the idea of transexuality, homosexuality, et cetera?To note, as I am writing this I realize that "transexuality" is red underlined in Microsoft Word. It is not a word, according to Microsoft Word. Why is this? It should be a word. If "selfie" isn't red underlined, "transexuality" shouldn't be. This suggests that there is even more to discuss—a major word processing company does not even recognize the word.The only comments I heard after his assembly were, "He's kinda hot," or friendly debates of how he was allowed to stay in a girl's dorm, how he can have sex, and of what sexuality his wife is.My health teacher last year, Ms LaPointe, talked to us about Alex during our discussions about gender. In answer to a classmate's similar question about his wife's sexuality, she told a story. She told us how his wife was asked this very same question: does she like girls, or boys? She replied, "I don't know, I just like Alex." It was such a touching and simple response, as simple as Alex said it was to transition from being a girl to a boy.Alex visited my English class after assembly that day. No one in my class remembers that day as the day a transgender person came to visit class. Rather, we remember it as the day a writer came to class and had everyone laughing for the full 50 minutes. It was the funniest class I have ever had, and I know my classmates feel the same. He was a normal guy, and the idea that he used to be a girl seemed very irrelevant.He was funny, made us laugh, and shared great stories: that is all that mattered to us. No one seemed uncomfortable with him, although it is possible that they might have been hiding it. Nonetheless, everyone was laughing, and everyone related to his jokes.But maybe this is what Alex would have wanted. His assembly was all about the transition from female to male was so easy to him because that was what was natural for him, and how no one felt he had changed even though he came back to Exeter as a boy senior year. It was not radical. It was not about gay/transgender rights, or asking people to accept him, or telling people to be normal around him. He was just a guy, talking about being a guy and Exonians treated him as just a guy. They treated him normally, as any other assembly speaker, either barely listening or later lightly debating the issues he discussed.