Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 22, No. 36, Ed. 1 Friday, January 20, 2006 Page: 34 of 68
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I ife+sty leprofi le
• . •
transition
Andrew Jones makes national TV debut to encourage trarisgerider acceptance.
The UNT senior says gays usually have toughest time with gender identity matters
By Daniel A. Kusner Life+Style Editor
W hen you got to go, you got to go. But
for Andrew Jones, using a public rest-
room can be a nightmare.
Twenty years ago, the Lewisville native was
given the birth name Amanda. Three years ago,
upon entering college, Amanda became Andrew.
But he was still shy about using public restrooms.
"I usually tried not to," Jones says. "I would
just wait and go to my apartment. Occasionally
I'd use the men's room, but back then, I was pret-
ty scared."
Most of his youth was confusing. Jones was a
voracious reader and a "computer geek," he
remembers.
"I wasn't a tomboy or athletic at all," he says.
At 14, he noticed that lesbians often dressed
butch.
"And I thought 'Oh,
well that's what I want to
present. I want people to
think that I'm a guy and
treat me that way," he
says.
So Jones started identi-
fying as a lesbian.
"But those relation-
ships never worked out. I
was still dating guys, but I
didn't know what was
going on," he explains.
Jones also identified as
bisexual, which is how he
came out to his mom.
When Jones was 15,
his mom died.
"I don't think my mom's death is what
impacted my decision. She passed away before I
started my transition," he says.
When Jones was 16, he met a female-to-male
transgender.
"It was like a light bulb went off," he remem-
bers. "I wasn't comfortable with my body and
always felt like I should have been a guy. But I
honestly didn't know the option existed: I had
seen male-to-female transgenders, but never any
female-to-male."
So the voracious reader began scouring the
Internet and researching the legal processes of
transitioning. On the day of his 17th birthday,
Jones started therapy, which didn't require
parental authorization.
"My dad was paying for my treatments. He
paid without really knowing what it was for,"
Jones says.
TUNE IN:
On Tuesday,
Andrew Jones is a
guest on "The Montel
Williams Show." Some
footage for the pro-
gram was taped last
month at Jones' home
near Lake Dallas.
Jones also flew to New
York for his pre-taped
appearance on the talk show. He's featured in
a segment with Gloria Allred, the Los Angeles
attorney who represents the family of Gwen
Araujo, the 17-year-old transgender who was
murdered in October 2002.
Jan. 24 at 2 p.m. on Channel 4.
Since the teenager was still adjusting to his
mom's death Dad was under the impression
that Andrew was undergoing grief therapy. A
year later, Jones started hormone treatments.
Although it's been a big transition, Dad has
apparently gotten used to the change.
"He paid for my chest surgery," Jones says.
And that's probably as far as the physical
alterations will go.
"For female-to-males, bottom surgery is still
really crude and risky. It just doesn't look good to
me at all. Right now I'm happy with my body,"
he says.
A senior majoring in anthropology at the
University ofNorth Texas, Jones is a recipient of
the university's GLBT Ally Scholarship. As a
member of the support group Transcending
Gender Denton and a
diversity volunteer for
the university's Division
of Equity and Diversity
program, Jones is a fre-
quent public speaker who
explains others on trans-
gender issues and edu-
cates what it's like to be
transgender.
That's how he landed
a guest spot on "The
Montel Williams Show:"
On Tuesday, Montel
explores the case of
Gwen Araujo, the 17-
year-old transgender
Californian who was
murdered in October 2002. Articulate and polite,
Jones represents an image of transgenders that
Middle America can easily tolerate.
''I've never worried about the threat of vio-
lence," Jones says, *'1 mean, from an early age,
I've always been teased, but that was mostly
because I was nerdy. It just doesn't seem to be a
big deal for women to dress or look like men, as
opposed to guys who are effeminate — that's a
much bigger deal."
A seemingly big deal that Montel Williams'
producers didn't unearth was Jones' sexual orien-
tation.
"My gender identity is male, which is sepa-
rate from my biological sex, which was female,
which is separate from my sexual orientation,
which is gay," Jones explains.
"I first dated men as Amanda. But whenever
I identified as a lesbian, I had kept dating men.
And then
when the
[lesbian] rela-
tionships were over I
was like, 'I swear I'm a
lesbian again.' But it
never worked out," he con-
tinues.
Jones says he used to date bisex-
ual men, "which made sense to me,
but that turned out to be wrong."
Apparently, a former beau's
Christianity sent him back into the
closet.
So now Jones prefers to date
"gay guys who don't care what
my body is like."
And Jones is the first one to
tell you that's a tall order.
"When it comes to accept-
ance, I've faced more discrim-
ination within the gay com-
munity than the straight com-
munity," he says. "My gay
friends were the ones who
turned away from me after I
transitioned. And that was because I was going
too far for them or something. And I really don't
understand why that is."
When asked about threats of violence and the
anxiety about being recognized as transgender, it
all comes back to those public restrooms.
"When you're at a gay club, the bathrooms
usually have urinals," Jones says. "I was out at a
gay bar not too long ago, and as soon as I went
in, these guys were being real loud, talking about
how much they hate girls coming in to use the
EVERYTHING YOU WANTED TO
KNOW ABOUT TRANSGENDERS:
On Friday, Jones participates
in "Transgender 101," a panel
discussion at the University of
North Texas.
guys' bathroom."
On Jan 20 at noon, Jones speaks at the
University ofNorth Texas Ally training program.
At 1:30p.m., he conducts "Transgender 101, " to
discusses terminology, his experiences as a
transgender peison, what to ask and what not to
ask a transgender person and the differences
between sexual orientation and gender identity.
University Union, Golden Eagle Suite on the uni-
versity campus, one block west of Welch and West
Prairie Streets in Denton, www.unt.edu/edo.
34 I dallasvoice.com I 01.20.06
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Vercher, Dennis. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 22, No. 36, Ed. 1 Friday, January 20, 2006, newspaper, January 20, 2006; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth238892/m1/34/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.