She's Not There: A Life in Two Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan

Author:Jennifer Finney Boylan [Boylan, Jennifer Finney]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography & Autobiography, Lgbt, Family & Relationships, Parenting, General, Personal Memoirs, Gay & Lesbian
ISBN: 9780385346986
Google: cnTt8PZhQmcC
Amazon: B00A9ET4UE
Publisher: Broadway Books
Published: 2013-04-28T16:00:00+00:00

President William Adams (whom, shockingly, everyone called “Bro,” even though he was neither an African American nor a hippie) was new to Colby when I met with him; he’d been inaugurated only that fall. He had said, in his inaugural address, that the primary issue the college needed to address was diversity and that we had to commit ourselves to making Colby the kind of community where an increasingly wide range of people would feel welcome.

The wish is granted, I thought as I sat down in his office. Long live Jambi.

Bro didn’t raise an eyebrow when I explained my situation. I sketched out the issues as I saw them, assured him I would comport myself with dignity, professionalism, and a sense of humor, and handed him a copy of Brown and Rounsley’s True Selves. (I had purchased a dozen of these “transgender primers” from Amazon and handed them out like pretzels as I spoke with colleagues and administrators over the next several weeks.) I gave Bro a list of resources available in the library and on the Web should he or any other member of the community wish to learn more; I gave him a memo outlining the things that various college officers—particularly the deans of faculty and students, as well as the vice president of personnel—would need to know. And I showed him a photograph of me as Jenny, standing next to Grace and my children and looking more or less like a normal mother of forty-two.

Bro, a good-looking man with a square chin and a mop of black hair, said, “Listen, Jenny, it’s my belief that this will be a nonissue at the college. You’ve clearly given this all a lot of thought, and I’m grateful that you’ve given so much consideration to the implications of all of this for the institution. Ultimately, it’s a private matter. To the extent that it affects the college at all, we can only support you as a professional and a colleague.”

Then he smiled. “I will admit, though, that this is the first time I’ve ever had a conversation like this.”

With the support of the president in hand, I proceeded to move through the chain of command at the college. I met with the dean of admissions and the vice president of finance and the director of communications and the dean of students and the dean of faculty and the dean of the college and the vice president of development. Everyone was generous. The dean of students said she was looking forward to a newer and more intimate relationship with me as her “sister.”

The dean of faculty, a statistician and a neuropsychologist, went one step further. “You understand,” he said, meaning to be generous, “that this is going to have the beneficial effect of increasing the number of female faculty by an n of one.”

I looked at the dean, nervously. “An n of one?” I said. “You’re saying an n of one. That’s beneficial?”

He nodded.

“What’s n?”

“n, Jenny,” he said, “stands for the number of persons being referred to.

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