“Why do we stereotype?”

Wichita State students and faculty have an opportunity to further their knowledge on LGBTQIA issues this week with help of the Office of Diversity and Inclusion (ODI).

Through Friday, the ODI will be hosting events to go along with Transgender Awareness Week, a collection of days dedicated to furthering knowledge in the community on transgender individuals, both on and off campus.

Yesterday, the ODI brought a presentation to the WSU community from Elle Boatman, founder and educator with The Face of Trans,* a website and social movement dedicated to providing education on transgender issues and the community.

Entitled “Beyond the Binary,” Boatman stressed the effects of negative stereotyping among groups and provided potential solutions for problems stemming from negative stereotyping.

“Stereotyping is not something you can’t help,” Boatman said. “It is something your brain does automatically throughout the day. It is what you do with those stereotypes is what matters.”

“If you didn’t stereotype things, you would never leave your front door.”

Using a crowd photo from an event to test the audience on stereotyping, Boatman opened the talk with a basic rule that stereotypes tend to follow — they are based around race, age and sex, mostly because those factors apply to everyone.

Boatman also explained to the audience that stereotyping tends to occur in places that one may be less familiar with, such as an outing to a new place or a meet-up with new people.

“The problem with stereotyping is what we do with it and we generally refer to that as prejudice — you begin to see what you expect to see,” Boatman said.

As Boatman’s discussion went on, she brought in ideas and facts to further refute the point of transgender awareness, such as poverty rates, employment rates, discrimination in the workplace and attempts of suicide — although 1.6 percent of the American population has attempted suicide, that same figure jumps to 41 percent in the transgender community.

As a transgender individual herself, Boatman, originally from Ohio, found a home here in Wichita a few years ago, where she found that it was easier for her to complete her transition here rather than near her home. After searching for other trans individuals in Kansas, Boatman decided to start The Face of Trans*, originally intended to be a transgender awareness project.

“After looking around, I found trans people everywhere,” Boatman said. “I started the face of trans as a way to highlight trans people and their allies for being more than just trans.”

Although the presentation of “Beyond the Binary” was primarily presented to WSU students and faculty, the audience was made up of other visiting individuals as well, who attended both to learn more about the transgender community and learn how to help support transgendered loved ones.

JoAnn, whose last name is withheld for privacy purposes, is a mother of a college student who is transitioning — her son plans to make his transition public in January.

Since her son has come out to her, she has noticed her son has had a changed, much more upbeat demeanor. Even with that, she has some concerns about when he makes his transition public.

“There is always a concern that he will be mistreated,” JoAnn said. “We are hoping for the best and that the transition will go smoothly, but we are also aware of some of the negative things that could happen — and we are preparing for that.”

As the main theme of Transgender Awareness Week on campus, the Office of Diversity and Inclusion originally had the idea for presentation of “Beyond the Binary” to help squash misconceptions on the transgender community.

“A lot of [this event] is awareness,” said Natalie Toney, program coordinator for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion. “There are a lot of people who still have a bunch of questions and want better understanding — like Elle said, we need to stop these stereotypes and the only way we can do this is by increasing awareness.”

In a post-speech interview, Boatman offered a few thoughts on the importance of “Beyond the Binary” — and, ultimately, the reasoning behind the push for transgender awareness.

“Regardless of a person’s background, regardless of whether or not it is the same as yours, better than yours or not as great as yours, that we are all people who are deserving of respect,” Boatman said. “People may have different circumstances as you, but we all have way more in common than we have differences.”

Throughout the rest of the week, the ODI is offering Transgender Training, training that “will cover de-mystifying the transitioning process, challenges posed here at WSU, myths, misconceptions and language,” according to the ODI website. This is happening in RSC 262 today from 3 to 5 p.m today.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion is also hosting the Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) tomorrow from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. in the CAC Theater. A presentation titled “Moms of Transgender Children” will be done by Mary Sier and Susan Gerth. Annually, TDOR remembers individuals who were affected and lost their lives due to anti-transgender violence.

After the presentation, the ODI will be hosting The Face of Trans* photoshoot with Boatman from 2 to 4 p.m. in RSC 233 and free STI testing from 2 to 4 p.m. in Ahlberg Hall 209. For more information on these events, call 978-3034.