“Not all trans people want a surgery; they just want to be seen as the gender they’re presenting as.”

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Transcript for Valpo Needs to Try Harder

Valpo really tries to be accommodating to people with differences, but I mean, I know someone who—in the Physics department, I think, and she has a lot of disabilities, and the thing that also sucks for her is that there are a lot of invisible disabilities.  So because she’s not in a chair or something, professors don’t really believe her that she’s tired all the time and she feels ill, and that sometimes it’s hard to get out of the bed in the morning.  So they’re not really understanding to her needs even though she’s documented with Disability Support Services.  I was not aware that professors are not forced to follow those accommodations, that at their own discretion they can just go, ‘Nope, I’m not accommodating you.  Sucks to be you!’  Like, you know, you’re trying to do what you love, you’re trying to do the best you can at your schoolwork, you’re pulling yourself out of bed every day.  And your professors are just like, ‘Oh, you’re not in a chair.  You’re not coming to class in your pajamas.  So obviously, you can’t be that sick.’  I feel like that’s one way that Valpo needs to try harder, because I think it’s kind of despicable that professors can just be ableists in that way and say, ‘Sucks to be you.’  And just like, I wish they’d be a little more updated on trans issues as well.  Because, I mean, the fact that they actually have a ruling on trans students is nice, because they are acknowledging our existence.  But I still think it’s kind of crappy that—the ruling is that if you enroll as one gender and you wish to be—it to be changed to the one you identify as, you have to send the school like, paperwork from a doctor documenting your surgery.  A lot of students don’t have the money to get a sexual reassignment surgery, so it’s kind of a ridiculous request, because it’s like, ‘Hey, you need to have a surgery that you can’t afford right now.’  If you actually want that surgery. Because not all trans people want a surgery.  They just want to be seen as the gender they’re presenting as.