Adviser Update Adviser Update Spring 2017 | Page 37
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question worse.
“I don’t know a single person who
wants to stand out in a bathroom,”
Howe said. “There is no factual
need to worry about it, because
there have been transgenders in
bathrooms for a long time.”
Many of her insights–such as those
on gender-neutral bathrooms
and the changing of her name–
drifted from the profound to the
mundane, often in a matter of
seconds.
Why Bethany Grace Howe? It
has the same number of syllables
(rhythm) and initials as Barton
Grover Howe.
Why worry about gender-neutral
bathrooms? According to Howe,
they’ve been around for years.
“They’re called porta potties.”
Although Howe frequently turns
tragedy into comedy with an
acerbic tongue, she wouldn’t
release her JEA session’s audience
on time, telling them she had
something important to say and
asking them to stay in their seats
while she said it.
She said she wanted to make sure
everyone in the audience knew she
didn’t come to the conference to
become some example of how to
come out as a transgender.
Because her audience already knew
she saved two co-pays (her humor)
by having an existential crisis at
a doctor’s appointment over the
summer while she was there for
another issue, Howe’s sincerity
and belief in the seriousness of
transitioning one’s gender identity
was never in doubt.
In closing, she said no one has an
obligation to come out. The only
obligation anyone has is to live
safely and happily. That means
that anyone who is aware of his/
her own transgender status has
many options; one can come out to
everyone, to friends only, to family
only, to friends and family only or
even stay closeted.
For those who might be interested
in helping non-transgender
people with the fear of accepting
others, Howe said, “Get people to
understand their own values and
their own identity expression, and
get them to understand what it
would be like to have that taken
away.”
“That will help people who are
limited about gender issues,” she
said.
MICHELLE HARMON
Michelle Harmon, MJE, is the Journalism
Education Association State Director for
Idaho. She has been a newspaper adviser
for Borah High School in Boise, Idaho
for 14 years. In addition, she is a regular
contributor to JEADigitalMedia.com.
Harmon can be reached at mharmon3@
icloud.com or @mrharmon on Twitter.