UNPACKING TRANSPHOBIA Pedro DiPietro teaches Syracuse students to restructure the way they think about gender, sexuality, and other social societal norms.
words by Jonathan Chau illustration by Lucinda Strol
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n a small classroom at Syracuse University, Piedro DiPietro writes on a whiteboard with a black permanent marker since they forgot an erasable one. Their fingertips are perfectly students who attend SU. Today, the Trans Gender manicured into lilac almonds. DiPietro, an and Sexualities class focus on names, following assistant professor who identifies as Latinx, trans, the narrative of a trans man named Kenji. “How and uses the singular “they” pronoun, has distinct does one self-realize, foster, and cultivate their facial features: rounded hollow eyes, a hightransing capacity and capabilities without failing bridged nose, and sharp eyebrows. Their long their cultural identity and with the pressure of black wavy hair laced with grey roots gently lays being intelligible as a trans man or woman?” on their right shoulder of a gray linen cardigan. DiPietro asks the group. The class students sit in Underneath lays a vibrant pink tunic wrinkled brief silence. Many of the students’ eyebrows knit towards the bottom, which matches their necklace together and some lean closer towards their desks. and bracelet. Their wide-legged black trousers hit “That is the temptation of whiteness.” their faux leather flats perfectly past their ankles. DiPietro strives to dissect and recognize Across from DiPietro are 16 students; seven transphobia as it intersects with misogyny and white women, five women of color, two gender racism. Gender nonconformity has always non-conforming people, and a singular white polarized America. Legal, medical, and cultural male. They sit in a semi-circle—the class is a rather practices regulated transgender and non-binary small group for the over 15,000 undergraduate people to endure within a gender binary for
