Casey O'Dea, '17 Undergraduate Student Pronons: He, Him, His
Casey O’Dea identifies as a queer, transgender man and is currently majoring in Women’s Studies and minoring in Queer Studies. He has had many formative experiences that have been a part of his transgender journey and awakening. In first grade, he remembers the soccer team splitting into boys vs. girls and saying that he wanted to be on the boy’s team. He remembers how most of his early friends were boys, and that’s who he fit in with best, despite the cultural expectation that they should all be girls. Around 4th grade, he remembers not having the words to say what was wrong. In middle school, Casey began to be hit hard with the cultural expectations of femininity, and knowing internally that this did not resonate with his inner core, but he felt he had to conform to it. It was in the high school Gay, Straight Alliance [GSA] that Casey first heard the word “transgender” spoken. While it was uttered in a negative way, it acknowledged Casey’s existence and he started researching what it meant. By his junior year, he starting actively questioning gender and soon came out as transgender to himself. Casey has struggled with depression based around his experiences as a trans person. In September of 2015, he made the vital decision that he needed to start Hormone Replacement Therapy [HRT]. Taking Testosterone [or T] has been a lifeline for Casey and has had an incredibly positive impact on his life.
One important thing you need to know about Casey is that he loves animals and is an equestrian. He started riding competitively at age seven. It quickly became one of the most important passions of his life. “Riding is true freedom. Nothing else matters except you and the horse. You escape from everything in life. Riding saved my life.” Casey has a beautiful horse tattoo emblazoned with the word “Freedom” on his arm to testify to the importance of riding in his life. However, riding has not been without its own challenges. There are few “out” gay or lesbian people in the sport, and even fewer “out” transgender people. And in a mostly female-dominated sport, Casey will stand out as a transgender man riding at competitive and eventually professional levels. Given this reality, Casey considered remaining closeted in order to stay in the sport he so desperately loved and be successful professionally. Though he has faced bullying within the sport due to assumptions made about his gender and sexual orientation in the past, his current coach and team have been huge allies and his teammates are now supportive. Some went through a Safe Zones program shortly after Casey was outed to them to help them better understand the issues that LGBTQ people face. Casey is currently one of the captains of the UNH Equestrian Team. In addition to riding, Casey loves small animals and has a particular love for lizards. Animals have been very therapeutic in Casey’s life, helping him get through the harder parts of his life and acting as a way of providing self-care. “Animals don’t see gender”, he says. His future plans include helping others through equine therapy, as well as riding competitively and professionally, giving lessons, and training horses. He wants to start an organization for LGBTQ Equestrians to provide a community for them, and work to make the sport more diverse and accepting. He wants animals to impact others in the powerful way it has transformed his own life and to help LGBTQ people involved in the sport to feel more comfortable, included, valued, and visible.
Another important thing you need to know about Casey is that he is a passionate transgender activist and social justice educator. Like so many other transgender people, Casey has faced a lot of discrimination, microaggressions and constant misgendering. Casey feels most people don’t realize how important it is to use the correct name, gender, and pronoun for trans and gender-variant people. Undoubtedly, the discrimination Casey has faced is one of the things that has fueled his passionate advocacy. Casey is the Founder and President of Trans UNH and is the UNH Safe Zones Student Coordinator. He helps organize educational events and workshops, as well as facilitate discussions around gender identity and sexuality on the UNH campus. He has helped to organize Gender Identities Awareness [GIA] Week, served on the Transgender Policy and Climate Committee [TPACC], served on the Alliance Exec Board, and much more. In April 2016, Casey won the Kidder Award for fostering understanding and advancing opportunities for LGBTQ+ people as well as accepted the Pink Triangle Award on behalf of Trans UNH.
For Casey, the best thing about being trans is the perspective it has given him. He wouldn’t think about the world in the same way if he was cisgender and it has made him aware of so many different issues in our society. It also means he is a part of a community and a part of a movement that is slowly but surely changing the world. It has forced him to better understand other people’s identities and work to become an ally to oppressed groups he does not belong to. While there have been several attempts in years past at recognized and informal trans groups, Trans UNH has been the most successful effort to date. The Facebook group has nearly 50 members and between 15-20 people regularly attend the weekly meetings. Given that he only knew one trans person in high school, this critical mass is significant, even as there are many more trans and gender nonconforming UNH students to still reach. Casey is also a spoken word poet and now performs his work, much of it about his trans experience, at on-campus and community poetry, spoken word and open mic events. One of Casey’s favorite quotes is: “Be brave. You never know who you are inspiring.” Through his riding, activism and spoken word, Casey is inspiring others to live their truths and stand up and be counted. “I want to be visible as a trans person. I want to help educate people and help people understand. Other people helped me to realize I am trans and it would be awesome to be that person for someone else.”