Art of Transliness

Zak: This sounds like it may be more about your feelings toward your birth name than it is about you being trans*. You can be 100% proud to be trans* and still not want your birth name out there or pictures of you as a child, or any other parts of your past. Calpurnia Addams, actress, activist, and well-known trans* woman has stated several times that she finds it offensive and is uncomfortable when people ask about her birth name or to see pictures of her presenting as male from her past. This isn’t because she isn’t a proud trans* person, but because she knows (as do many of us) how often these details from our past can be used by individuals to try to invalidate our identities or to mock us. This may not be your concern about your application, but it may be one of the reasons disclosing your birth name might make you a little bit uneasy. I don’t know about you, but sending that information off to faceless, nameless application committees makes me uncomfortable because it makes me more vulnerable in an already vulnerable situation.