By Zijing Fu

“Hi, I'm Rebecca, I'm trans, I study bio, which means I am 90% likely to go into the medical field, and yet, I still can’t figure out myself.”

Rebecca Reidy is a transwoman majoring in Biology at Boston University. She realized she was transgender and came out at the age of 15, but was not accepted by her family so she went back into the closet. When Reidy turned 18, she came out again and started taking hormone medication at 19. Reidy realized she didn’t like feminine appeal despite she considered herself to be a girl. After she came out, she also discovered that she was homosexual.

Reidy’s earliest memory of her gender identity was at kindergarten. She remembers that all her friends were assigning who’s going to marry who, and she felt weird because she did not want to be a groom.

At the age of 11, Reidy had just began to fumble around the idea of gender identity.

“There was a trope of gender switching in anime and manga, and I was like, Woa,” Reidy recalls, “I like that shit!”

The anime triggered her curiosity. She Googled “gender change real life” to look into the topic. At the time, she thought the topic was interesting, but didn’t realize she was transgender herself. “That could never be me.” Reidy recalls, “I’m not trans.”

“I thought about it for three years, and I was like, wait a second, ”Reidy said. “Yes I am!”

Reidy started hormone replacement therapy when she was 19. She described HRT to be “magic for transgender people.”

“Hormones immediately made me feel like present and grounded, like I wasn't dreaming my way through life.” Reidy said.

Reidy is the oldest child of her family. She has two younger sisters, both suffering from health issues from a young age. One of them has Dravet Syndrome, meaning “she is a functionally about a 2 years-old, in a 16 years-old body,” according to Reidy. The other sister suffers from clinical diagnosed depression. Therefore, growing up, Reidy was always expected to be the “normal one” in her family.

According to Reidy, her family has now tried their best to come to peace with her gender identity. Reidy’s mom no longer uses her old name, or refers to her as a son; but she will also not refer to her as a daughter. Instead, Reidy’s mom now calls her “her child.”

There’s really no guide book to being trans,” Reidy said, “There’s no literature, or anything like that.”

According to Reidy, she didn't fully understand transgender people’s experiences before she was trans. Her own experiences has forced her to be more empathetic to other people’s struggles, since she has realized everyone has their own perspectives.

On Oct. 28, one week prior to Election Day, a Transgender Rights Rally was held at Boston City Hall Plaza. The LGBTQ community calls for MA residents to Vote Yes on 3, maintaining protections for transgender people in public.

Ballot question three has led to huge discussions in both parties.

Two days before Election Day, Geoff Diehl, Republican nominee for U.S. Senate who later lost to Elizabeth Warren, held a meet-and-greet at Taunton Green Historic District, Massachusetts to connect with his supporters.     

One Diehl supporter, Beth Sutherland said she will be voting no on question 3 just like Diehl.

“If there’s a transgender person went to bathroom of their choice, it’s no big deal. But what if any jerk or assholes thinks, well, I can just go to the ladies room?” Sutherland said.

Lauren LeBlanc, E-borad member of Boston University’s Queer Activist Collective commented “Those people aren't transgender, those are creeps.”

“They have no affiliation with the LGBTQ community,” LeBlanc said, “I generally can't disagree with any law that's meant to protect anyone’s right to be free.”

Claire Provost, a Diehl supporter who works at a primary care company, said she is concerned that children will be confused with their gender identities when they are too young to decide it.

In response to that perspective, Reidy commented, “If you think they are too young to decide who they are, are they too young to decide to kill themselves?”

According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide attempts among trans men is 46%n and 42% among transwomen, comparing to 4.6% of the general public.

“Also, it’s not a decision,” Reidy adds, “It’s an identity.”