ETHAN HUTCHINSON ’06, ’10 MED comes by his Spartan pride honestly. His mother is an alumna and his parents were married in the Alumni House. At Pride Prom in the late 2000s, he wore a blue and gold plaid blazer. “I wanted to look like UNCG.”
Those years were times of serious change for him.
“I could not have picked a better undergraduate institution to be a lesbian-identified person. Then, I also could not have picked a better institution to transition from female to male as a graduate student,” he says.
While making his transition, Hutchinson had support from friends and family, especially his sister. “The second that either of my folks used the wrong pronoun or the wrong name, she would be the first to tell them that was incorrect,” he recalls.
Hutchinson was also involved in student groups like Pride. Hutchinson acknowledges that a lot has changed in society since the 2000s. Today’s conversation is more nuanced, including the exploration of gender as non-binary.
Another relevant term? Equity. “It doesn’t just mean getting married,” he says. “It means all sorts of things: access to equal housing, employment, and medical services.”
Safe Zones at UNCG were so successful because they did invite actual students from Pride group to tell their stories.
–Ethan Hutchinson ’06, ’10 MEd
More than having the confidence to be himself, Hutchinson has helped educate others. He conducted early Safe Zone training sessions on campus over a decade ago. Safe Zone introduces the LGBTQ+ community to faculty, staff, and students who want to become better allies.
The sessions could be emotionally draining.
“I describe it as opening up your chest cavity for scrutiny, right? Then putting that chest cavity back together, stitching everything up, and healing from being so vulnerable in front of a room of people,” he says.
Today, there are many accessible ways to learn about LGBTQ+ communities. “There are plenty of queer and trans people who are documenting their trajectories and experiences in beautiful ways,” he says.
But for Hutchinson, who describes himself as “an educator in my bones,” those face-to-face meetings at UNCG were worth it.
“Maybe I can be part of answering questions in Safe Zone so someone else doesn’t have to,” he says. “Today, people are very thoughtful about what questions are appropriate to ask.”
By Mercer Bufter ’11 MA
Courtesy photo