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Transgender individuals react to Laverne Cox

<p>Kathrynne Horine, who identifies as transgender, said public mentors in the transgender community can be hard to find. Horine called Laverne Cox one of the first role models for trans men and women.  <em>PHOTO PROVIDED BY KATHRYNNE HORINE</em></p>

Kathrynne Horine, who identifies as transgender, said public mentors in the transgender community can be hard to find. Horine called Laverne Cox one of the first role models for trans men and women.  PHOTO PROVIDED BY KATHRYNNE HORINE

What: Excellence in Leadership Presents: Laverne Cox

When: Feb. 23, 7:30 - 9 p.m.

Where: Emens Auditorium

At 25, Kathrynne Horine met her first real role model on a screen. They never actually talked. In fact, Horine doesn’t even remember the other person’s name. But whoever it was, this internet stranger, she had made a YouTube video detailing her process transitioning from male to female.

“The story that she told, it just hit home way too well,” said Horine.

Now 29 and living in Indianapolis, Horine is male-to-female transgender woman. Her female gender identity doesn’t match the sex assigned to her at birth.

Growing up in Northern Indiana with a conservative religious background and without internet access until middle school, Horine never had a chance to figure out who she was.

Even when she did come out to herself at 22, Horine had resigned herself to a life stuck in the wrong body.

Horine said a young transgender person growing up today might have a different story than hers, thanks to easily accessible information on the Internet. And in the midst of those transition videos and forums stands transgender actress Laverne Cox.

“She’s helping,” said Horine. “She’s always helping.”

Cox, a male-to-female transgender woman and actress on the Netflix series “Orange is the New Black,” is touring the United States with her speech “Ain’t I A Woman: My Journey to Womanhood.”

On Monday, Cox brings her talk to Emens Auditorium as part of EIL’s Excellence in Leadership Speaker Series. The event begins at 7:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

“I think I hope students can walk away understanding maybe what it’s like to be in someone else’s footsteps even though they haven’t walked in those shoes,” said Assistant Director of Student Life Lauren Berger. Berger books the EIL speakers. 

Horine said she considers Cox to be one of the first role models for transgender men and women, someone who advocates with humor and class and most of all, shows others that a transgender person can be successful.

There are still steps to be made when it comes to the portrayal of transgender people in the media, said Horine. She can only readily name two other transgender celebrities besides Cox. She also dislikes that cisgender men - males who identify with the sex assigned to them at birth - still play the roles of transgender women in movies and television. 

That's why Cox is so important, said Horine. She's a trans woman who actually plays a trans woman. 

Sibley Barlow, a senior drawing major, saw Cox’s speech at a conference a few weekends ago.

Barlow, also a transgender person, falls between the gender binaries of male and female. For that reason, Barlow prefers to be referred to in the third person plural. 

Before college, Barlow hadn’t pursued an answer to why they felt so uncomfortable with themselves. But after Barlow joined Spectrum, Ball State’s organization for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender queer and questioning individuals and their allies, Barlow met other individuals who identified as trans.

That’s when everything clicked, said Barlow.

Barlow began to look for information on the internet, but they didn’t find much information matching how they felt as someone who didn’t want to physically transition to fully male.

“That kind of set me back and I just accepted, ‘Oh, I’m not trans, I just feel odd about it,'” said Barlow.

But Barlow didn’t stop researching or talking to other transgender people.

“I just became more educated and more aware and I learned that it’s much more complicated than that and there are all kinds of trans people,” said Barlow. “You don’t have to be one thing.”

Barlow has re-accepted the word transgender. They know their gender identity can't be condensed into one sentence and they're okay with that.

Barlow is still heavily involved with Spectrum and goes to the Counseling Center at Ball State, things that they said help immensely. 

Barlow hadn't seen “Orange is the New Black" before hearing Cox speak, but during Cox’s talk, Barlow found themselves wishing they had brought a pencil.

“She just has a way of making you feel like a person,” said Barlow. “She’s very much about self love.”

Horine is something of an expert on self love and how to achieve it.

After a year on hormones and successfully managing to legally change her name, Horine can look at an old picture of herself and see the difference. She can look in the mirror at her recently highlighted, shoulder length hair and see the vibrance she once saw in the eyes of the woman in the Youtube video.

It’s then that she can sing one of her favorite songs by Carbon Leaf, “Let your troubles roll by ... You’ve come far and though you’re far from the end, you don’t mind where you are ‘cause you know where you’ve been.”

Horine's getting the lyrics tattooed on her leg next week. 

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