Josephine Tittsworth presents SLICE workshop: Trans 101
Student Leadership Involvement and Community Engagement (SLICE) holds various workshops during the school year to “develop leadership potential and self-efficacy in all students, preparing today’s students to lead and serve in tomorrow’s global communities.” Jan. 31 Executive Director of the Texas Transgender Nondiscrimination Summit (TXTNS), Josephine Tittsworth presented “Trans 101: Understanding Transgender Identities and Experiences.”
Tittsworth, UHCL alumnae, presented the workshop to inform leaders how important it is to have an understanding of the various populations a person may encounter when they become a leader. The purpose of the workshop was to educate the participants so that they do not stereotype in the future.
The presentation started with Tittsworth explaining why she believed in networking.
“If you plan on being a leader, you have to network,” Tittsworth said. “You have to get to know people, and if you’re going to network, network up, not just across. By doing this, you will get to meet and build relationships with people who are decision makers and then you get to influence them; like I was able to do here on campus in 2006.”
In 2003, the dean of students at the time asked Tittsworth to work on getting the nondiscrimination statement on campus to be inclusive of transgender students, faculty and staff. She spent three years on the University Life Committee (ULC) working to convince the committee to vote and approve the inclusion of transgender people in the nondiscrimination policy. When ULC said yes, three years later, her request quickly went through the next levels of the approval process.
At the workshop, she provided a sheet of paper that included all the different words that fall under the “transgender umbrella” and their definitions.
The first word she defined was “intersex.” Tittsworth broke down the word by suggesting to think of it as a spectrum.
“On one end of the spectrum, you have an ambiguous 23rd pair of chromosomes, that’s intersex,” Tittsworth said. “All the way on the other side someone has all the primary and secondary characteristics of both male and female, and anything in between. Any combination in between fits the definition of intersex.”
She went on to say that sex and gender are not the same thing.
“Sex is an anatomical construct,” Tittsworth said. “Sex is physical. Gender is a biopsychosocial construct. It’s a component of those three principles; biology, psychology, sociology, creates gender. Gender is like the software of a computer; you know it’s there, but you can’t touch it.”
Tittsworth also shared her personal story of being a transsexual and told how her family found out.
“No one really knew about me until 2000 when I was the subject of an hour-long documentary on NBC Investigates,” Tittsworth said.
She would hide from her family when she dressed like a girl or did stereotypical girl things. Her family had no idea about her secret. Tittsworth said her sister cried for three days, but they are still able to have a relationship with each other.
Tittsworth also defined other terms that fall under the transgender umbrella and suggested that we read “The Gender Book” to learn more information.
Tittsworth is currently working in politics to help people learn about what is going on in the Texas Legislature. She is writing articles encouraging people to contact Texas State Legislators and take a stand on discriminatory bills.
In her article, “Freedom is a just cause,” Tittsworth states why she wants Texans to speak up.
“Today we fight for ‘Freedom Cause’ against myths, stereotyping, misinformation, unfounded propaganda and any form of injustice that hurts our neighbors and neighborhoods.”
