This letter was published in The State News in the Wednesday 19 March 1997 edition.
Editors
The State News
Lynda Twardowski's "Exile in Girlville" column today reminded me to invite everyone on campus to participate in the first annual unofficial Bend Your Gender Day during Pride Week '97.
Friday April 11 features a transgender discussion session at noon in room 441 Union (facilitated by yours truly) and a showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at 10:00 p.m. in the Union Parlors.
I'd like to encourage everyone on campus to mark their calendars and dress and behave to transcend gender norms on that day. Lynda, you can carry a purse, just to see what it feels like. President McPherson, it's okay to wear a dress and practice saying, "sexual orientation."
Our social norms for gender, sex, genitals, and sexuality are all just that: normative social constructs. Human beings are not such simple things that six billion of us can be divided into only two classes of 'men' and 'women' and told how we are to behave. On April 11 do what feels good, let it all hang out, be all you can be, and let the real you shine through!
Lisa Lees
Systems Analyst
Department of Computer Science