Gowns without Genders

Mary Talbard, Editor in Chief

It’s Tuesday, January 5th, and you’re sitting in the auditorium. You think it’s going to be just another boring senior meeting, filling in minuscule details about fundraisers, yearbooks, prom, etc. However, the teachers then make an announcement. They tell you that all females will have to purchase a graduation gown this year because they, too, will be wearing navy blue, rather than the traditional white.

You immediately know what this means. Instead of being forced to wear white, like everyone expects you to, you get to wear navy blue. To some, it may not seem like a big deal. But they don’t understand what it’s like to be transgender.

For years you’ve been pressured into being feminine. This includes keeping your hair long, wearing clothes from the girls’ section, putting makeup on before school in the morning. You do this because you’re scared. You don’t want to be alienated. You don’t want to be seen as some sort of freak because deep down inside, you know that you’re a boy. Sure, it’s now 2016, and people are becoming much more accepting. But there’s still those that will harass you. They’ll label you as a tranny, a faggot, but worst of all, a girl. And you know that that is not you. You may have the anatomy of a female, but every fiber of your being resonates with the instincts of a male.

And now, for one of the most monumental days of your life, the day that you graduate high school, you don’t have to be a girl. You don’t have to wear the pristine, white gown that screams “I’m a female!” And, the best of all, you don’t have to tell your parents. You don’t have to explain to your aunts, uncles, grandparents, and cousins that you’re not really a girl. Because everyone will be wearing the same color, and you won’t be labeled.

Then, it starts. The Twitter fights, the snide comments in the hallways. All of the girls are complaining about having to buy a new dress, shoes, and accessories. They complain about already taking their senior pictures in white gowns. They tell their parents, and the parents complain to the school. Before you know it, the hashtag #whitegownsmatter is trending, and the administration makes the executive decision to keep the tradition going for the class of 2016.

You understand. You know that it must be frustrating to pay for pictures with the “correct” color gowns. You’d be upset, too. However, just for this one day, you want other people to think about you because no one ever does. Universal bathrooms aren’t common, and you’re constantly isolated by your peers. Of course, it’s not intentional. But it’s still frustrating. And the dysphoria—the lack of comfortability in your own body—is heartbreaking. It’s already bad enough that your diploma will read a name that you don’t go by. Until you thoroughly analyze your life and decide to go through with hormones and surgery if you are financially stable enough, you’ll be constantly separated into a group labeled by your birth gender.

So, you walk across the stage in a white gown. Life has been desensitizing at this point, so you put on a smile and move on. You just hope that future transgender students will have the privileges and recognition that you won’t have this year.