This is the full text of the letter I sent to The State News, part of which was published in the Monday 28 August 1995 edition.
This is in response to O'Malley's column in the August 18 edition of The State News. I not infrequently have the same kinds of experiences O'Malley writes about. I am, as far as I know, the only 'out' transsexual woman on campus. (Though not, I know, the only transsexual on campus.)
I certainly share O'Malley's opinion that such gender dysphoria is rampant at MSU. And it doesn't stop there. I am technically not allowed to attend the Michigan Women's Music Festival, for example, because in the opinion of the organizers I was not "born a woman." (Oh, yeh? If someone could have convinced me of that when I was a toddler, it would have saved me about 40 years of living hell.)
What O'Malley writes about are a few of the many examples of people just paying lip service to the concepts of tolerance, diversity, and multi-culturalism we tout so highly at MSU (where only people matter). This works only if each one of us, on a daily, person to person basis, accepts rather than judges our fellow humans. Let's not spend so much time trying to exclude each other from our lives.
Remember: you too can become a minority member. All it takes is, say, a slip on the stairs, and you could spend the rest of your life in a wheelchair. Or blind. Or deaf. Then you'll find out who your friends truly are.
Lisa Lees
Senior Systems Administrator
Department of Computer Science