Guest engages council
By Carmen Castro
Staff Reporter

Maddie Dietrich, a graduate student, made her public debut as a transgendered individual in front of an audience of about 30 people at the first monthly Chancellor’s Council on Diversity and Inclusiveness Task Force Thursday.

Cornell Thomas, professor and special assistant to the chancellor for diversity and community, said the monthly luncheons were designed to broaden people’s perspectives.

“We tend to have general ideas but not about particular groups, and Maddie’s speech moves beyond the stereotypes to humanize the issue,” Thomas said. “Everyone in the audience is going to grow.”

Dietrich said TCU has a liberal environment, something she did not expect when she first moved to Fort Worth to work on her master’s in music performance.

Dietrich said she decided to go full-time as a women in late August and said it was perfect because she cannot get fired as a student. Dietrich said it was nice to know that the Miller Speech and Hearing Clinic, the university’s speech-language pathology graduates study program, works with transgendered individuals to help them develop a more feminine voice.

“It’s a chance to practice how to be a woman in this microcosm,” she said.

People fear things they do not understand so that’s why she is trying to educate the public about the issue, Dietrich said. She said she hopes her personal story inspires someone to be open with sexuality, as she has.

Allison Bomgardner, a sophomore secondary education major, said her English professor recommended her sophomore composition class attend the luncheon to learn more about the controversial issue.

“The point she made about what makes a woman a woman, physical or mental aspects, was a good point that made me think,” Bomgardner said.

Veronica Rios, a junior international finance major, said it was commendable of Dietrich to speak about her personal experience.

“She humanized the issue so that in the end we all see she is just another normal human being going about her daily routine,” Rios said.

Dietrich said she always found comfort while growing up by looking up the word “transvestite” in the dictionary, because it reminded her she was not the only person wishing to be the opposite sex.

“Transgender is perceived as gender identity, not to be confused with sexual preference,” she said.

Dietrich said some people do not understand why a white male would want to relinquish the privilege given to him to become a female in order to enjoy the superficial aspects, such as dressing like a woman.

“I don’t know what it’s really like to be a woman,” Dietrich said. “In fact, I do not know what it’s like to be a man, any other man. All I know is how to be me.”

(Carmen Castro is a member of the Chancellor’s Council on Diversity and Inclusiveness.)