Q&A WITH FRESHMAN CHRIS HARVEY Q&A WITH FRESHMAN CHRIS HARVEY

Freshman Chris Harvey was studying in Bear’s Den when the friend he was with turned his computer to show Harvey the application to be the Student Life Sex Issue cover model. “It was really late at night, and I was just slap-happy. I was like, ‘Okay!’” Harvey said. When he was accepted, Harvey was surprised but excited–– he’s working on his confidence and comfortability in his skin. “I'm really leaning into expressing myself and not being ashamed of myself and my body,” Harvey said. Harvey sat down with Student Life to talk about his journey from transitioning as a teenager to ending up unclothed on a newspaper cover.

Student Life: What aspects of your identity are important to you?

Chris Harvey: The things that have impacted my life most have been my gender and sexuality.

SL: Can you tell me more about how they’ve affected your life?

CH: So I’ve known that I’m bisexual for a long time — probably since elementary school. Finding where that fits in with my gender was difficult for me… I’m a trans male and I got top surgery when I was 17. I guess the social transition part was also difficult with my sexuality…to express myself as more of a feminine man. And finding out where I fit into society has been a struggle for me, but I feel like I'm finally finding out who I really am.

SL: Can you walk me through a little bit growing up

— what was it like realizing those both of those identities?

CH: I finally came out as trans male to everybody in between ninth and tenth grade, but before that I came out to close friends and family. It was really difficult because obviously before I started testosterone, it was very hard for me to pass as male. And just the every day struggle of knowing that people saw me as different than I really was.

And then when I actually did start to pass, it was hard to get through my brain that you know, ‘oh, I should feel more comfortable and relaxed because people actually do see me as a man.’

And it was very difficult dealing with, obviously, transphobia and prejudice about my sexuality, especially by teachers in my middle and high school. They would call me by the wrong name or