By Parisa Akbarpour

Last Wednesday, March 31st, was Transgender Day of Visibility. It was also election day for the Student Association (SA) at GW.

I don’t usually get really into student body elections at school because it’s always seemed like a popularity contest to me. I’d always gathered that the students who vote in student body elections only did so when they wanted to support someone they knew or were friends with, and that the majority of the student body didn’t even participate.

While I had voted in Student Association elections my freshman and sophomore year, I had never had a particularly strong opinion on how the election should result until this year. This was mostly because I never felt like there was a candidate that I related to or that wanted to understand my experience at GW.

This year was different, specifically because of the candidates for Vice President of the Student Association. 

I voted for Sofia Packer, who was running against Kate Carpenter. I voted for Packer because for the first time, it felt like someone actually cared about creating a direct line of communication between students and SA politicians. Packer is honest and transparent, and accountability was one of the biggest goals of her campaign, something that I felt was deeply needed within our community here at GW.

“Right now it’s really hard to hold people accountable once they’re in a position of power,” Packer said in a conversation we had about the election. “There is no easy way for people to point out problems in a way that’s not going to be perceived as aggressive by the people they’re criticizing. [Members of the SA are] the ones with power and it’s our responsibility to make ourselves as accessible as possible to the students who have concerns. I encourage people getting called out, including myself, because it’s the only way we’re going to see any accountability or consequences for people who do [ignorant] things.”

On March 30, the day that the polls opened, Packer posted an infographic on her Instagram in an effort to hold her opponent accountable for a flawed policy point. Earlier in the campaign, Packer was alerted by her campaign manager that Carpenter proposed a policy on putting people’s pronouns on all newly printed GWorld cards after a member of the LGBTQ+ community approached her with the idea.

As a transgender woman, Packer became cautious of this policy. Her main concern was whether there was any conversation between the transgender community (including non-binary identities) at GW and Carpenter’s campaign in creating this policy point. After reaching out to different parts of the transgender community, such as Allied in Pride and Transgender and Non-binary Students of GW, Packer was informed that none of them had heard from Carpenter or her campaign.

Packer emphasized that her post was not meant to change the results of the election or attack Carpenter’s character in any way. Rather, she felt she needed to bring attention to the fact that the policy felt like a “shortcut” for substantial reform.

“Having pronouns on our ID cards isn’t going to make people use them more. Pronoun use is something culturally and socially that we need to work on, but it’s not something we can legislate. We can’t force people to do that. Realistically, people have to take it upon themselves to be better, and I think our leaders have to acknowledge that,” Packer said.

Instead, Packer and many of her supporters believe there should be more priority placed on other efforts to help the transgender community as opposed to putting pronouns “on a piece of plastic that we dont really show to anyone,” as Packer stated.

Alexis, a non-binary student at GW who supported Packer’s campaign, told me that “GW needs gender-inclusive bathrooms in all GW buildings, an easier name-change process for students, better LGBTQ diversity training for students and faculty, and financial support for LGBTQ students who need it.”

“The best way to support the trans community is through concrete material changes,” they said. “I’d rather be asked about my pronouns because… people’s relationships with pronouns and gender are often a lot more complex than just what would be shown on their GWorld cards, and asking out loud gives you the opportunity to explain your gender to whatever degree you’re comfortable with rather than having it reduced to two pronouns.”

I reached out to Carpenter for comment on this article, and in doing so, she recognized her mistakes by failing to reach out to the trans community at school given that the idea was presented to her by someone in the LGBTQ+ community who was cisgender. Since understanding her error, she’s reached out to queer student organizations like Allied in Pride and plans to stay in contact with them to ensure she is being held accountable and learning. Carpenter mentioned that the policy is currently on hold until more important changes are made, and that those changes may be able to create a foundation where the original policy can be carried out in a way that isn’t harmful.

While I wish Packer was able to assume the position of Vice President of the SA, her campaign was an important big step for the GW community in recognizing that there’s a serious problem that lies in the performative nature of our school’s institutions. This includes, but definitely is not limited to, the Student Association.

“We have a lot of people who talk about how much they love [diversity and inclusion] policy and want to support marginalized communities, but they aren’t in contact with the marginalized communities they are fighting for,” Packer said.

I have hope that Carpenter will stay in touch with queer organizations on campus and let them guide her policy points regard the trans communty. I’m thankful that Packer brought attention to the issue as well, because it set into place an accountability that will continue into Carpenter’s term.

It is also my hope that this situation allowed for some inner reflection among cisgender people who immediately came to Carpenter’s defense without trying to understand where Packer was coming from. I hope that this reflection also happens in spaces outside of an election between a trans and cis woman, or outside of days which focus on transgender acceptance. A transgender or non-binary person shouldn’t have to be in the room for you to think about trans issues.

I’ll leave you with a quote Packer said during our interview, because if you learn anything from this article, it should be this:

“I think what we see with a lot of cisgender people in power is that they use Transgender Day of Visibility to state their support for the trans community and then ignore us for the rest of the year, except maybe for Transgender Day of Remembrance. They use this day essentially as a way to cover for themselves until the next [time trans lives are discussed on a national level]. Transgender Day of Visibility should be a reminder that we need to elevate trans voices, it shouldn’t be the only day we care about doing it.”

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