News Story - Idaho State Journal

dbryce@journalnet.com

POCATELLO -- Award-winning writer J. Ely Shipley shared his personal experience as a transgendered individual during a free public lecture Wednesday.

The event, held at the Pond Student Union Building on the Idaho State University campus, was sponsored by the Janet C. Anderson Gender Resource Center and the ISU English and philosophy departments.

Shipley's presentation was in recognition of National Transgender Day of Remembrance and to honor Rita Hester, who was murdered Nov. 28, 1998 in Boston. The crime was linked to anti-transgender hatred.

Transgender is the state of gender identity not matching one's assigned, or biological, sex. Transgender does not imply any specific sexual orientation; transgendered people may identify as heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual.

Currently teaching and studying at the University of Utah, Shipley will receive his doctoral degree in literature and creative writing this spring. He also teaches gender studies and facilitates creative writing workshops. His first book, "Boy with Flowers," won the Barrow Street Press Poetry Prize, judged by Carl Phillips.

During the presentation Wednesday, Shipley read excerpts from the book and a number of original poems. His poetry earned him a Utah Writers Award from the Western Humanities Review and the Virginia Faulkner Award from Prairie Schooner.

Shipley referred to the desire or need for the biological female to become a male. Before the slow process of his physical and medical transformation, Shipley said he manifested his sense of self through language.

He also shared his research for a new project entitled "On Beards."

"I didn't think I would ever wear a beard," said Shipley, who now sports neatly groomed facial hair. "I didn't think I wanted to be that kind of man."

In a press release last week, Assistant Director Hiedi Harold said the Anderson Center serves as the focal point on the ISU campus for gender issues. For more information about the event, or the Janet C. Anderson Gender Resource Center, call 282-2805.

By Debbie Bryce

This document was originally published online on Thursday, November 20, 2008

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