Abstract
Lester’s (2018) book Trans Like Me. Conversations for All of Us is a must-read for educators, policy makers, and college administrators invested in improving their institutions’ climate and retention rates for students with marginalized identities. A recent August 2018 report on transgender students in higher education published by the Williams Institute indicates that 24% of students who are out as trans or perceived to be trans (i.e., their gender identity or presentation does not fit into the gender binary of stereotypically male or female) suffer physical, sexual, and emotional harassment and that as many as 16% of those end up leaving college before graduation (Goldberg, 2018). Numerous other studies by researchers looking at the climate and retention of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT+) students in higher education all point to the same conclusion: LGBT+ and trans students in particular suffer from barriers to academic success that lead them to leave institutions prior to graduating at higher rates than their peers (Renn, 2017; Windmeyer, Humphrey, & Barker; 2013). Educators and administrators interested in the retention of underrepresented populations have to start somewhere and often that starting point is simply a matter of learning more about the needs of those populations being served.
What makes Lester’s text particularly suited for anyone looking to better understand the gendered identities is that it is written for a general audience without the expectation of in-depth knowledge around gender identities as a starting point. Lester takes the reader on a journey through trans history and culture that is both academic and personal, showing how much of what we know about trans histories and people to be a product of media and pop culture narratives written by cisgendered people (i.e., individuals whose gender identity aligns with the gender assigned to them at birth), thus written from an outsider perspective about an identity group that is not their own. Lester’s text blends the genres of scholarly writing and memoir to produce a resource both informed and deeply personal and, as such, flips the narrative of who is writing about trans people to one where readers are learning directly from someone sharing their own story along with scholarship and research.
Trans Like Me. Conversations for All of Us is organized into 15 chapters that range in topic from “the production of ignorance” (p. 1), to “think of the children” (p. 77), to “beyond binaries” (p. 145), to finally, “trans feminisms” (p. 171). Thematically, the text addresses several topics worth noting: the erasure of trans people from history; the harmful way in which trans stories told by cis writers often misrepresent and even endanger the lives of trans individuals; the shifts in cultural and medical knowedge of bodies, sex, and gender; the experiences of trans people during their formative years, specifically as impacted by schools and educational experiences; and the place that trans people have occupied within the LGBT and feminist communities over time with a look at implications for the future. Lester writes, “learning to talk about trans people is not difficult, and doesn’t require any specialist knowledge. Just as you would in any other situation, you have to reflect back the words a person uses about themselves” (p. 9). In short, talking to and about trans people takes the same humility and awareness needed to respectfully engage with anyone whose story and identity is not our own, as Lester points out.
Lester’s text, moreover, points to a shift in thinking about gender identity based on generational belonging. Lester writes, “a 2013 study conducted at Tel Aviv University demonstrated how increasingly common it is for individuals to identify as ‘both genders,’ ‘neither gender,’ and/or ‘the other gender.’ In fact, one-third of respondents indicated identifying with one of these categories” (p. 155). Lester argues, “millennials are far more likely to see themselves as between, both, neither, or other, than older age groups, and this development shows no sign of stopping” (p. 155). In other words, to support the students entering our universities today, it is not enough to create learning environments based on the needs and requirements placed on institutions by previous generations of students. Today’s students require that we engage in conversations about gender identity in a more nuanced and agile way as we shed some of our long-held beliefs about gender stereotypes that have limited all of us based on the categories we found ourselves placed into.
To return to the topic of retaining underserved populations, Lester’s book offers several possibilities for use in a higher education setting. This text could be used for as part of a book club for staff and administrators in offices tasked with admission, enrollment, and student retention management. It could also generate fruitful discussion in the classroom, especially in disciplines such as Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, Film and Media Studies (as certain chapters address in great depth the media representation of trans individuals), Human Development and Family Studies, and Higher Education Leadership and Administration. While the book is not written as a classroom textbook or higher education manual on student retention, if offers broad applications to these areas nonetheless. For today’s higher education professionals, Lester’s work provides valuable insight into the lived experience of trans students as well as useful research and historical knowledge to serve as a foundation in building a more inclusive future.