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Tuesday, 17 October 2006 |
by LINDSAY TIGAR
Intern Lifestyles Reporter
The room is pitch black except for a formal white dress on the stage.
For
some, this dress signifies a ball they have waited for their entire
lives, but for Scott Turner Schofield, it is the embodiment of what he
never wanted to become
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| Katie Ford | The Appalachian
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Schofield, 26, performed “Debutante Balls” Oct. 10 in the Blue Ridge Ballroom of Plemmons Student Union.
The Office of Multicultural Student Development, Bisexuals, Gays,
Lesbians, and Allies Associated for Diversity and the Appalachian State
University Women’s Center presented the event.
Schofield, who was born with the name Katie Kilborn, grew up in Texas and then later in Charlotte.
“I grew up thinking I was a little boy,” Schofield said. “I came out as a lesbian at age 16 and then later as a transgender.”
Around the age of 16, Schofield was supposed to be preparing for the
Debutante Ball in Charlotte, but instead was traveling to the outskirts
of town to be involved in a “visionary queer group” at Time Out Church.
However, being transgender and being a homosexual are very different titles.
Schofield gave a list of definitions on the back of his “Debutante Balls” program to help the audience distinguish.
“Being gay is focusing on what you desire,” Schofield said. “Being
transgender is more about who you are first and then what you desire
second.”
“BGLAAD wanted to bring ‘Debutante Balls’ to Appalachian State because
transgender activism is a growing issue in the GLB community,” junior
graphic design major and president of BGLAAD Jeffrey D. Cain said. “In
a school where the level of diversity is low, it’s great to see Turner
perform.”
Although Schofield worked through the issues of “coming out” and being
accepted by his family, he still “doesn’t want to know what his mom
thinks about her only daughter becoming her only son.”
“Gender identity is making what you feel in the inside become the
outside,” Schofield said. “I wake up in the middle of the night
sometimes, look in the mirror and have that experience where you see
what you’re supposed to be. I didn’t grow up feeling that way.”
Schofield made the decision two years ago to start taking hormones.
He doesn’t plan on getting sex-change surgery and would like to be a parent one day as well as an actor.
Schofield travels around the county performing. He is the youngest
recipient of the Tanne Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement and
Commitment to Art.
Schofield hoped to “show people that coming out for whatever
identity…is important because it tells a story and brings communities
closer together.”
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