A student organization dedicated to empowering transgender and nonbinary students at GW kicked off a week of programming Tuesday to raise awareness for the communities on campus.
Transgender and Non-Binary Students of GW organized 11 events throughout a two-week programming schedule, slated to end Nov. 20, with activities like trivia competitions and an art show as a way to facilitate transgender and nonbinary students to confide in each other and allow them to feel comfortable in their identities. Laine Schlezinger, the president of TNBS at GW, said the programming is an opportunity for the group to “take up a lot of space” and make their presence known on campus.
“This is really the one time a year where we tell ourselves that, ‘It’s okay to like, do everything and be there all of the time and refuse to go away,’” Schlezinger said.
TNBS hosted “Trans History Jeopardy” in the Multicultural Student Services Center Tuesday, featuring topics ranging from transgender history at GW to pop culture references in hopes of educating attendees on issues and topics related to transgender people. The group also hosted a Queer Art Show and Open Mic with art presentations, poetry readings, original songs and general discussions about body dysmorphia, insecurities and self-acceptance, common struggles of transgender people, in light of the 2024 election results for an audience of about a dozen of their peers.
Schlezinger said the group is a small organization because of the size of the transgender population on campus, but that it is able to provide a safe space for students regardless of their identities. They added that having shared spaces for transgender and nonbinary students may become more difficult due to the re-election of former President Donald Trump.
President-elect Trump said he will sign an executive order banning the promotion by federal agencies of sex and gender transitioning and that any hospital or health care providers that perform gender-affirming surgeries or care to minors will no longer meet federal health and safety standards and will lose federal funding. He also said he will “keep men out of women’s sports,” as one of 20 “promises” in his presidential platform.
“Even though we’re a small subset of GW community, people who come find a lot of meaning in it, and I think now more than ever, to show up and show out is really important, because it feels like that’s only going to get harder with a second Trump presidency,” Schlezinger said.
Schlezinger said the organization is continuing traditions like its “HRT Party” Tuesday, a tea party with a guest speaker from Whitman-Walker, a local health care organization that provides and educates people about HIV treatments and prevention for members of the LGBTQ+ community in the District, presenting on how to access hormone replacement therapy and other gender-affirming care resources, as well as their Trans Day of Relaxation on Nov. 19 and Trans Day of Remembrance Vigil Nov. 20 to honor the death of transgender people.
Schlezinger said the Sesno Series event in February with guest speaker Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT), who called gender-affirming health care “genital-mutilation surgeries,” was a “shock” to members of the transgender community on campus. They added that the Student Government Association reached out to TNBS after the event to support them, but that GW officials did not, which they said was a “missed opportunity” to support the community on campus.
First-year Veronica Larson, an attendee and winner of the Trans History Jeopardy event, said TNBS’ events provide a community of transgender students, which she said is difficult to do on campus because of the small transgender population on campus.
“It was hard to find other trans people, and through events like this that TNBS has hosted, I’ve been able to find and make friends with other trans people on campus, which I really value,” Larson said.
Larson said cisgender students can be better allies to the transgender community by being a friend.
“Showing your support for the trans community is more than just like, saying, ‘Oh, I’m an ally.’ It’s going to events, it’s, if you see a trans person sitting somewhere in there alone, sitting with them.”
