I am the Events Coordinator for KSC Pride and I am writing this letter in regard to some of the misinterpretations in the article about our recent event, the Pride Parade. This was KSC Pride’s first Pride Parade to spread awareness and support members of the LGBTQ/GSRM community. It was written as “GSRN” in the article, when it is actually GSRM (Gender, Sexual and Romantic Minority). Though it was a minor spelling mistake, it completely changes the meaning of the acronym.

Lucy (Public Relations) was quoted saying “tran [transvestite or transgender] students.” Instead of saying “tran [transvestite or transgender] students,” it should be “trans* [the whole trans* spectrum] students” because that better represents all members of the trans* community instead of specifically saying “transvestite or transgender.” That is what Lucy was trying to say.

Another aspect of the article that was misinterpreted was that it said we were addressing “personal pronouns” when we were actually addressing “gender pronouns” as part of our parade. Personal pronouns are words like “I”, “me”, “we”, “us”, and “them.” Gender pronouns are words that identify someone by a gender like “he/him/his” or “she/her/hers”.

One of the issues we had with the article was that one of our members was mis-gendered in that Aspen (Vice President) identifies as a male rather than a female, but was given female pronouns. The appropriate pronouns for Aspen are he/him/his, not she/her/hers. As a suggestion, it would be best to ask the people being interviewed what their preferred gender pronouns are, especially when handling the topic of gender pronouns.

Aspen’s last name was also incorrectly spelled. It was written as Everhardt in the article, which is incorrect. The proper spelling is Eberhardt.

In the article, the terms “transgender” and “non-transgenders” were used. Instead of saying “non transgender” it should be cisgender. Cisgender is when a person identifies as the gender they were assigned at birth. For example, I was assigned male at birth by the doctors and I identify as a male, therefore I am cisgender. The reason we like to say “cisgender” instead of “non-transgender” is because “non-transgender” is offensive to members of the trans* community. “Non-transgender” implies that trans*-identified students should be placed in an “other” category, separate from the “normal” students.

On behalf of KSC Pride, we do thank you and appreciate your article and taking an interest in our very first Pride Parade. Other than a few misinterpretations, the article was well-written and showed an interest in our event. We just wanted to make sure the readers can focus on how well the event went. If you ever have questions, feel free to ask us at kscpride@gmail.com or our Facebook page.

Sincerely,

Jacob Knehr

KSC Pride Events Coordinator

Jacob.Knehr@ksc.keene.edu