Landon Krandall, '17 Undergraduate Student Pronouns: He, Him, His
Landon Identifies as transgender and non-labeling and is an English major with plans to become a high school English teacher. He is also Vice President of Trans UNH. Below are excerpts from an interview he did with Hollie Foster in Fall 2015 as transcribed by Alexa Wheeler.
To me being LGBTQ+ is who I am. Coming out is the one thing in your life that’s allowed to you and it’s the one thing you have to make things about you. So, you need to take it and do it how you want. When I came out it was my senior year of high school and that was an adventure because I am from the suburbs of Detroit so I didn’t really know what to expect, because Michigan is not very progressive and I’m from a very white wealthy town. I actually had next to no problems. A big part of that I think was that I grew up in this town so I knew most people for my entire life. When my senior year started my guidance counselor announced it to all of the teachers and staff for me because I didn’t want to announce it to these 100 or so teachers. I went in to talk to my teachers before classes started and one teacher, I went in to tell her and she let me tell her everything before saying she already knew, she was awesome about it. Another teacher that I had never had before, maybe I said hi to her once, walked up to me and said, “I have a good book for you.” And handed me I am J by Cris Beam. And she told me, “I want to know your feedback and what you think.” And I had another teacher, who is no longer at the school, who said “Landon, right? I had a problem with one student that was it. He walked up to me and told me, “I feel uncomfortable being in the same room as you.” And I said, “Fine then take another class.”
UNH has been 50/50 when it comes to being welcoming. It depends on which realms of UNH you’re in. When I applied to UNH, I came in with a different name and gender marker. It was good in regards to changing those over and not good in regards to changing my email, because the emails have your initials in them. It took a lot of yelling to get that changed over. Housing was really good; they gave me a single and put me next to another trans person. And there was another trans person on our floor. I’ve had some issues with professors. I had to “out” myself in front of a 300-person lecture because a friend of mind was doing a presentation because the professor refused to do it. It was on gender identity. The class was making stupid remarks about the bathroom bill. I’ve also had some really great professors. My education professor was really supportive. I had a really great English professor, who is teaching Women’s Studies now. It really depends on the realm that you’re in. I heard science was really bad, but I’m not in science. I’ve never heard anything good about interactions in the sciences.
There’s a lot of cissexism on campus. A lot of assumptions made about people. I went into the gender-neutral bathrooms in the MUB today, and there were three girls doing make-up in there and I was like, “Really? You have like thirty bathrooms.” A lot of it is ignorance, stupid-ness, and an unwillingness to learn. It’s also different for me because I pass on a daily basis, because I’ve been on T for so long. A lot of people don’t want to get it because it’s not about them. I deal with transphobic people by trying to educate them. By educating them I could help someone in the future. If I can’t educate them or I don’t feel safe doing it, I usually just walk away.
A lot of my high school teachers really inspired me, probably some of the biggest inspirations of my life. I did not have many friends in high school and all of the people I stayed in contact with are my teachers. And it’s been really interesting to see the differences between their teaching career and their life experiences because you would never guess. And this has actually led me to go into education. I want to be able to give that opportunity to others because I hear so many horror stories about coming out in high school.
I’m an ally to others by listening and just by being there. Because I am part of the community it makes it easier for people who are struggling to talk to someone. Being present in the community is my form of being an ally. I’m also the vice president of Trans UNH so we help put on events. Others can be allies by standing up for other people. Say something and if you don’t feel comfortable saying something then report it. It’s also not a 'one and done' type of thing. You don’t get a safe zones sticker and be done with it. You have to be constantly trying.
One of the most exciting parts of my trans journey has been meeting other trans people because there are so few of us. It’s really exciting to meet all of these people and hear all of their stories because everyone has such different experiences. Hearing other people's stories is one of the more painful parts to me. My situation has been good overall so hearing people's painful stories can be really hard. Knowing that I’m never going to be seen as a “real man” in my society makes me very sad because eventually we might get there but right now there will always be people telling me that I am not a “real man.” Being in relationships are really hard. Especially heterosexual relationships are really hard…There is no single story. Everything you hear in the news about Caitlyn Jenner, Lavern Cox, and CeCe McDonald: yes, those are their stories but it’s not everybody’s story.
Profile by Hollie Foster and Alexa Wheeler
We are incredibly glad that Landon has shared his trans story with us and are excited about what the future holds for him in terms of personal, professional and activist possibilities and goals. How exciting that he will soon get to be the role model to students that teachers have previously been to him.