Transformations: Transgender Man Works to Change Media, Perceptions
By ANDREA POTEET
Originally printed 10/11/2012 (Issue 2041 - Between The Lines News)
http://www.pridesource.com/article.html?article=56143 Lance Hicks used to get mad when schoolyard bullies would argue with him about his race. "I used to carry around family photos to show them because I would get really upset when people would tell me that I wasn't the race that I said I was," he says, sitting on a bench in Clark Park. "Its just that idea that a perfect stranger based on how you look feels entitled to say they know more about you than you do."
Hicks has a white parent and a black parent. He also has fair skin and light eyes. So when people look at him, they often only see a white man. But his race is not the only part of his identity people often misread. Hicks, 22, has been correcting them about his gender since coming out as transgender at 15.
"In a perfect world, everyone could just look at me and know who I was," Hicks says, his sandy-colored hair twisted neatly into dreadlocks. "But we don't live in a perfect world, we live in this world, and it's more important to me to build relationships with people who care about things that I think are important and are working on things that I care about and are invested in trying to do the work that I think is important. If you don't understand my race or you don't understand my gender, that's okay as long as you can be respectful."
