I start my final year of my BA program this fall. I start my second year attending school as a (very out) trans person. I start my first year of being a resident advisor.

I was really excited to get the RA position; I think it will be a lot of fun and kind of a way to give back to, and expand, a community that has really supported me more than I can say over the past two years. Seriously - I have thrown everything at my school administration, from late payments to jumping through hoops for financial aid to coming out as trans last fall, and they have responded with nothing but support and kindness.

Logically I know that it's unlikely I will have residents who have a big problem with who I am - my school tends to attract people who are pretty far left in their political ideologies and generally very accepting of differences in others. But there's always the "what if's" to consider. What if somebody does have a big problem with it? What if my residents don't see past the one thing they'll probably notice first (Female-bodied person introducing theirself as Andrew and most of the rest of the student and faculty using he/him/his to refer to this person) to the other facets of who I am (Total geek! Bookworm! Feminist! Lover of cupcakes!).

But on the other hand I think I really will do pretty well with this. And apart from my other reasons for doing this I think it's important to have the school's community fairly represented in all facets of, well, the community; and LGBT stuff does play a large part in our school's community. The LGBT group hosts quite a few events on campus, and we're really visible - we do coming out day, trans day of remembrance, day of silence, and a lot of other events like movie nights and dances. And, who knows, maybe being out there and visible will give a new student somebody to look up to and say, "oh, this school must be pretty accepting if they picked this guy to be an RA." (or maybe not - that could be my totally narcissistic wishful thinking).

None of this will really matter for a few weeks. But I'm definitely thinking about it - how should I introduce myself to them? Should I come out and say that I'm trans, or just trust people to pick it up? Should I just kind of surreptitiously stick a Trans Rights Now sticker on my door, cross my fingers, and hope for the best? Or should I tell them all at the first house meeting - be open about it and tell them that if they have any questions that I'm more than happy to talk with them? Is there a happy medium that I'm missing here?

I will be running this series of blog posts until it comes to a natural end, or until I'm no longer an RA - whichever comes first. If you have any questions feel free to leave them in comments. Additionally, if you have any ideas for future blog posts I'd also love to hear those.